Allyn Erickson, Director from the Freshman Year Experience at a major northwestern university, reports, “The majority of freshmen struggle in their general education classes, because they cannot study and understand their books. They particularly can’t remember textbook information, and they struggle to connect with information they garner from professors’ lectures.” Consequently, Erickson teaches college students to develop not their reading abilities but their memory skills, empowering them to connect, retain, and recall essential information from their classes. According to Erickson, college students who aggressively cultivate their so-called photographic memory outperform their less aggressive classmates by two full grades—“B-plus averages versus D-plus averages,” Erickson says.
Always taking pictures—“Your brain isn’t really wired for retaining abstractions,” Erickson explains; “it does far much better with concrete things—people, objects, texts.” Consequently, Erickson recommends that college students take mental pictures of professors’ notes about the chalkboard or recreate the info in their notes. “If the instructor enables it, take cell phone or digital images of the chalkboards at the end of class, utilizing them as organizers for your reviews,” she says.
Erickson also emphasizes college students always ought to review and elaborate lecture material instantly after class, pointing out, “Students lose approximately 95% of new learning within an hour following they hear it.” Erickson insists that college students must review correct away, suggesting that they ask and answer, “What did you understand these days? What else did you learn today? And what else did you understand?” In her own classes, Erickson requires college students to fill within the important details around the primary ideas she writes on the chalkboard or presents in PowerPoint. “Always take images of classroom experiences,” Erickson repeats with emphasis.
Active engagement with your learning—“When you study text material, especially should you read articles and books instead of traditional textbooks, you have to get actively involved with your reading, because your brain naturally will blur it all together or dismiss it.” Erickson particularly emphasizes, “You must instruct your brain about what matters, and you have to give it props or tools for retaining the most essential info. Naturally, the best resources and techniques combine both sight and sound—synaesthesia,” she says.
Treating extremely essential texts, Erickson suggests that college students create primary concept maps, tracking and plotting the main concept in each paragraph. She discourages the use of highlighters and underlining, saying, “Students tend to underline too much, and also the colors obscure the text. If you have to underline,” she stipulates, “underline 1 sentence per paragraph using a red ball-point pen.”
Using memory tools and techniques—“To support effective memorization, ‘graphic organizers’ make all the difference, simply because they help you visualize facts, details, data, vocabulary, and concepts,” Erickson stresses. She says that, “always taking pictures” includes creating pictures to organize information for recall on tests. Working with students on academic probation, Erickson pioneered use of “mnemonics cards”—illustrated index cards that have images on 1 side, terminology and concepts about the other. Using old tests, college students identify material which professors inevitably will test, conceiving images to capture test items, and then creating catchy words and phrases for recalling the info. Professor Erickson’s information indicates that students who work with their mnemonics cards consistently score A’s; other students’ grades “decline in direct correlation with the time period they’ve got invested in their cards.”
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