Naked Science Forum
General Discussion & Feedback => Just Chat! => Topic started by: satrah on 11/12/2011 13:23:27
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Hi everyone
I am posting to get some tips on studying as I am in my second year of my degree as an Occupational Therapist and need some help as my memory is not the best. 5 years ago I quit the consumption of alcohol as I was a 12 year alcoholic and I drank just about every day. I don't know if this has had any long lasting effect on my memory. The strategies that I have formed so far have come about through observing other people that have a high level of intellect. Most of these people are very good spellers that can spell very quickly. Smart people tend to remember players names when watching the football and the same as actors names and what movies they were in. singers in musicals have a good memory to process both singing and movement dance at the same time.
I have come to the conclusion that the brain process speed can be increase by doing certain brain exercises, these are of few of the exercises that I do:
• Spell out work to myself when I am out for a walk, look at the word, spell the word, and then look back to see if I got it right. (This has helped big time for my spelling).
• Try to remember name of the players when watching the football (Go the cowboys)
• Keeping a hand written dairy.
• Puzzle books like crosswords
• Have a study word list to remember, the more study word list the better my processing speed will be and the quicker I can remember list e.g. list the muscles of the arm, or part of the brain
• Always using a dictionary to build up my vocabulary
• Because I am studying anatomy and physiology, learn the suffix and prefix
• Study different areas in general knowledge (politics, music, history)
With spelling I have found that if I spell the word to rhythmic time where I don't make any mistakes, I find that it if easier to remember, this goes as well to list of words to remember, once I can say the list out loud confidently in can remember it easily but this takes some time.
I saw a young child a little while back. I was in a bank and the she counted all of the people in the line up and went back to her mom a said excitedly theirs 22 people in the line. I realised that he young child was learning so I have adopted this style of learning. When I go for a walk to the shops I have lecture notes from uni and study them. I really want to complete my degree if any one has any study tips can they please post them here.
Thanks
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Hello,
It sounds like you are working quite hard, and I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors. I must admit that spelling isn't one of my strong points, but many medical charts are handwritten, so that may be a big deal. In the future, more of the charts will be computerized, so one will have the benefit of spell checkers. Or, perhaps even having one's notes dictated.
Have you studied a foreign language?
Many of the anatomy terms have Latin roots.
For example: extensor pollicis longus. It turns out the Italian name for thumb is pollice, and thus it became easy to remember a seemingly random word. Unfortunately, it may be too late to start now, and this approach may confuse the spelling a bit.
Taking somewhat an obscure mix of liberal arts studies, one thing that I found was that each major field seemed to require different study habits.
So, for a foreign language, I used a lot of flash cards. I prefer hand-made ones.
For mathematics, it just meant doing and understanding all of the practice problems.
& etc.
You will find that each individual also has different skill sets. So, some people might be very good with names, others might be good with calculations. Some are fast readers, some are slow. So, you won't necessarily be able to effectively reproduce what others did.
As you mentioned, it never hurts to look up something interesting, in a dictionary, or online. Google actually has an excellent built-in spell checker, but it can become too much of a crutch.
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try chewing gum & or scribbling notes while studying. Associated actions may help info retention gumchew should stimulate brain bloodflow. I remember stricnine helped memory, wonder what chewing tobacco does.
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I remember stricnine helped memory, wonder what chewing tobacco does.
Strychnine???? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strychnine)
You aren't trying to kill our newest member? It is a potent toxin. Tobacco is associated with oral cancers... And, it is just GROSS!!!
I wouldn't recommend looking for memory in a bottle. You are on the right track... some good hard work, and you should do well.