How To Remember What You Read

I am surprised how many patients who have just turned 18 come and tell me at our first meeting: “School isn’t for me.” I try to ask why they have made the devastating decision to limit schooling. When they are willing to explore with me, the answer almost always comes down to the same thing.

“I can’t remember what I read.”

This ability is not a magic gift. It can be learned.

Although it came to me easily early on, when I went to France for medical school, I was confronted with an educational system that relied more on rote memory than anything I had ever seen. It also relied on a competitive examination which I had to nail if I was going to be a doctor.

I did. I had the class notes for the year memorized verbatim.

Here is how I did it:

1. I copied them over, several times, until I didn’t have to look at the originals.
2. While doing this, I recited them out loud. Later, I managed to give them a tune and to sing them out loud.
3. I would take a few days before an exam to travel where I would have meals provided, in a little country hotel. I would walk up and down. This somehow helped me remember better.

Obviously this took time and effort. I passed — placing 38th out of 650 people, thus securing my future in medicine.

These are not new ideas. Gregorian chants were invented so monks could learn sacred texts by singing them.

The alphabet song was invented to help little children learn their ABC’s.

Through the magic of the internet, I have found such systems exist in English as well.  Here is what I consider to be the oldest and the best.

If you know that you will have to know a book well enough to answer questions on it, this is a way

(Incidentally; don’t go through and highlight everything. This does nothing but sell magic markers.)

s=Survey the book. I often used this stage for a written outline — chapter titles, subheadings at least. Know before you in-depth read.

q=Come up with some questions. If you were the teacher, what would you ask if you wanted to see if someone actually knew this stuff?

r=Read the book. If you concentrate best in absolute silence, just lock yourself in your room. If you concentrate best with nature sounds, find some or a recording of them. Music can be helpful, but no more top 40 popular. (the brain you save will be your own.) Bach and Mozart slow movements of concerti at low volumes have been much studied.

r-Recite the material. Like poetry from an outline. Sing it. Yell it! While running around. Make it memorable and give your brain every single kind of message it can get. Copy words. Draw pictures. Make up memory summaries — mnemonic devices. Like making the first letter of everything spell out a word.

r= Review the material. This will take less and less time the more you repeat.

Remember — a good memory can be built. Although some people seem to think it is something you are born with. I think I grew mine in France when I started learning how. It has been proven time and time again that motivation means a lot more in success than IQ. A good way to remember things for academics is still a Royal Road to a better profession and a better salary and I believe, a better life.

Share this article with a person who is wondering whether or not to continue their education and improve their life.

It is worth it.