Coder and writer Nicky Case explains further in their interactive comicHow to Remember Anything Forever-ish.
Here are the four most important lessons.
In their comic, Case gives a great example usingmitochondria, the powerhouse of the cell.
(To find it, search the page for sucks.)
Say you oughta learn all of this:
This organelle is called mitochondria.
Mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell.
Theyre found in almost all eukaryotic (nucleus-having) organisms.
Thats at least eight different facts.
you oughta break them up and study each one.
Put a word on one side of the card, its definition on the other.
Or put half a sentence on one side, the other half on the other.
Or put a sentence with a blank on one side, and the missing key word on the other.
Or put a picture on one side, and identify it on the other.
I like to memorize quotations, which are a little harder to break down into flash cards.
Study all of them, on the right schedule, and eventually youll memorize the entire quotation.
To learn words in another language, match them to pictures.
Make those pictures personal.
Its teaching the word, the gender of that word, and the pronunciation.
But because this information is presented as one package, and belongs together, it still works.
If you do that repeatedly, youll remember the fact longer each time.
Youre probably going to remember that fact forever.
Eventually youll get it right all seven times, and youre done with the card.
If youre studying a lot of cards at once, this study schedule gets complex.
Case has a diagram of the schedule, which you could print out if youre using physical flash cards.
How to choose a study app
There aretonsof flash card apps.
Some are free, some cost a lump sum, and some sell subscriptions.
Both have built-in spaced repetition.
Tinycards offers additional study methods like multiple choice, typing in your answer, or taking a quiz.
Or find your own favorite app.
Lifehacker has reviewed many of them:
You should probably make your own cards.
A lot of apps let users share card sets, but most sets are poorly made.
The exception is the official sets from Tinycards, which include cute stylized illustrations.
If youve ever used Duolingo, theyll look familiarboth apps are from the same company.
How to use what you learn
Between studying flash cards, put those facts to work.
This helps you memorize facts better, but more importantly, it turns them into skills.
Knowledge is like IKEA furniture.
To move it off the page and into your brain, you have to break it down into facts.
To use it in real life, you have to put it back together.
Real-life usage is also a good test of whether youre studying the right information.
If you cant find a way to apply it, why are you learning it?
(If you ask this question to your teacher or professor, do it sincerely.
Give them the chance to show you what your knowledge can do in the real world.
Even the most theoretical concepts have found surprising uses.)
To learn more about memorization,read Cases comic.
It even tests you on the materialwith flash cards.
