Calson A Ambomatei

Memory is the cognitive process which entails the recollection of past experiences. It is an invaluable asset which everyone possesses, and which we can ameliorate. In a field of study like ours, our academic performances reflect the extent to which our memories are developed or aided We cannot avoid memorizing information. We must therefore strive to make it better and better.

Generally speaking, the more important it is for you to remember something, the more actively you need to engage with it and the more frequently you need to revisit it. We need not only be capable of memorizing, but we should also be capable of retaining and recollecting information. To be able to effectively memorize information, we first need to answer certain questions.

We first need to tell ourselves why we need to memorize that particular piece of information. To be candid its difficult for you to retain a piece of information you memorize for no reason at all How to memorize: Know yourself and the best form in which information penetrates your brain; either as images, as sounds, as writings, as jokes. What are you memorizing? This entails associating the piece of information to be memorized to something you already know. When? How often do we make efforts to remember?

First you need to be focused. Choose a favourable time and setting for this exercise. Choose the form in which the information is most accessible to your brain. Generally, the two major forms in which we assimilate information are pictures (either visualization or writing, drawing diagrams and flow charts) or and sounds (Reading aloud, explaining processes to yourself or to a friend).

NOTE!!! Most a times it is easier to retrieve information in the same way we stored it. I. e we remember images if we memorized information as images, and sounds if we memorized information verbally. Next we consolidate the information to be memorized. Associate the piece of newly acquired information to something you already know. E. g I once had to memorize the names of drugs which inhibit murein monomer synthesis in bacterial cell walls. These drugs were Fosfomycin, cycloserine and Bacitracin. As a football fan I just told myself FC Barcelona Monopolizes the ball.

Use of Mnemonics: The best Mnemonics are the ones you develop yourself. This is where creativity comes in. Generally, mnemonics are silly words or phrases which encode valuable information. For instance, To remember the nine essential amino acids for humans, i. e isoleucine, leucine, lysine, threonine, valine, tryptophan, histidine, methionine, phenylalanine, some students remember the sentence: "I love lysine though Val thinks his meth's preferable."

The more we need to memorize information the more frequently we need to read over it. And finally we need to evaluate ourselves regularly, correcting our own selves when we go wrong.

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