Memory of a sieve

[lionessie]

Can anyone recommend [a] book(s) or does anyone have any advice on how to improve memory? I have recently signed up on a distance learning course. I have bought text books to help me with my studies. Unfortunately nothing I have read seems to be sinking in. My short term memory is at best crap. The course is just over £1000. Feeling desperate :(

I have been studying via distance learning for five years and am nearly at the end of it all. Are there online lectures and lecture notes?

I would recommend reading the relevant chapters of the text book first and making your own consolidated, hand-written notes as you read. It helps to concentrate your mind. Doesn't matter if you never read them again, but writing things down helps them to 'stick'. Then watch or listen to the lecture with the lecture notes printed out in front of you. There's research that shows that for a lot of people, reading things on the printed page helps them remember the content.

Make sure you do any lecture examples or practice questions. Try to recall the material first. If you can't, answer the question 'open book'.

I have also found that under some circumstances I don't take things in. Be kind to yourself and don't stress if you are too tired or can't understand something. Go back to it another time when you are fresher. You need to find the times when your brain and memory are more receptive. For example, I am usually shattered on Saturdays after a week at work so I do the jobs I need to do around the house and have a rest. I can then spend several productive hours on things on a Sunday instead. If I find I feel like studying I crack on and do it - I don't think, oh I'll do X,y and z first then do it because by then the moment has gone.

I would recommend reading the relevant chapters of the text book first and making your own consolidated, hand-written notes as you read. It helps to concentrate your mind. Doesn't matter if you never read them again, but writing things down helps them to 'stick'.

I second this. I used to keep a diary so I can tell you what happened in March 1978 but I'm struggling to think what I did last Saturday.

As far as studying is concerned, I did the above but when it (inevitably) came to cramming for the exams, I found reading the text out loud helped. Obviously no good if you're doing it on the train!