Even the most educated minds must continue to study to develop or it will stagnate. Learning is not something we do from nursery schools until university postgraduate graduation. Neither is it what most people would consider fun but something that is done for life. Learning books doesn’t only provide us with knowledge but they teach us how to learn to learn.
Sometimes people read more and remember less and often resolved to cram, especially for students of undergraduate degrees. So how do we do it? What have we been doing that we are not doing right? And when properly done, what do we do with all the information we get from reading? Below are some thoughts/recommendations.
HOW FAST DO YOU READ?
Reading faster is not always the right solution to the goal of reading more. It may lead to forgotten details or poor retention. There’s reading fast and then reading lots. A combination of the two may be a way to supercharge your reading routine, but each is valuable on its own. For many people, it’s not about the time trial of going beginning-to-end with a book or a story, but rather, more about the story itself.
HOW DO YOU KNOW YOU REMEMBER WHAT YOU’VE READ?
From findings, the best way to know you remember what you’ve read is by understanding some key ways the brain stores information, which is impression, association and repetition.
Impression – Impression is where you paused reading and picture a scene in your mind. Or possible reading an important passage out loud. For some of us, our sensitivity to information can be greater with sounds rather than visions.
Association – It is linking or associating the passage or text to something you already know. Prior knowledge is a great way to build association. If there is a particular knowledge you want to retain, think back on a time when you were part of that example.
Repetition – This can occur by just reading a passage and writing it down or returning to it again. In other words, take notes while you read. For most people, the more you repeat, the more you remember.
HOW YOU INTRODUCE THE INFORMATION TO OTHERS
If you want to remember what you’ve learned, the best way is to teach others. Once information has been received, if not introduced to others, it can be lost. Joining your university tutorial team, might be really helpful because there, opportunities are given to students to share information. If you can’t explain or talk about what you’ve read, you might want to go back and reread.
Finally, although it’s true that most people admit forgetting most of what they read no matter how much they enjoyed the text. Because forgetting is a part of human shortcomings, doesn’t mean we can accept it.