How To Retain More Information with Proven Learning Strategies

There’s a lot of information floating around today, and it’s getting harder and harder to memorize it all. Luckily, there are some tools that can help you retain more of what you learn. These tools are useful for students and learners because they can be used to practice, review, and improve long-term memory retention every day.

With the right proven learning strategies and easy-to-use software, you’ll be on your way to mastering new information in no time!

What Are Some Learning Strategies for Retaining Information?

Information retention is a skill that can be mastered over time and with practice. With the right tool and adequate study sessions, you as a student don’t have to worry about being left behind or need to cram the materials and then experience information overload. There are powerful learning strategies for retaining information, from a basic repetition of key points to more advanced methods like flash cards. Other methods include re-reading materials for visual learners and then re-telling them using our own words. Additionally, another great way to memorize a new piece of information is by listening to a podcast which usually works wonders for auditory learners.

The Ultimate Tip for Retaining Information – Using Speechify

You’re in a meeting where you need to participate actively and know the information in the discussion. But you are unsure of how to stay abreast of it all?

Not anymore! Speechify is here to help you recall what has been discussed and keep track of the information being communicated. It’s an app by which you can input the text or voice-based speech on screens, then record and playback later. Perfect for both visual learners and auditory learners.

The words, sentences, acronyms, etc., will be recorded in your device, either laptops or smartphones, automatically when you use Speechify. The recording is also available for playback anytime and anywhere via various apps that support text-to-speech features like Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger, etc.

11 Learning Strategies to Help You Learn Faster

No matter if you are in high school or college, you can always improve the way you are learning-how-to-learn with a few simple techniques below.

Teach Someone Else

There are many benefits to teaching others, beyond the improvement in the ability to learn new concepts. Such benefits include, for example, improved communication skills, strong memorization, and having our own study group.

If you can teach a concept to others easily, it’s an indication that you understand it well enough. Studies show that the average person retains 90% of what they learn when they teach a concept or immediately put it into practice. When teaching or applying a concept, you will quickly identify your areas of weakness. Review the material until you are confident in your ability to explain it to others.

Know When You’re Most Alert and Attentive

Be sure to study your own body and mind to learn the best time when you are most alert and attentive to absorb difficult subjects, such as a new language. Science has indicated that learning is most effective between 10 am to 2 pm and from 4 pm to 10 pm when the brain is in an acquisition mode. On the other hand, the least effective learning time is between 4 am and 7 am.

Don’t waste time studying when you’re tired or distracted, because you’re more likely to waste time studying than actually learning.

Focus on One Topic at a Time

Single-tasking lowers your stress levels. If your attention is elsewhere, simple tasks take longer than they should, throwing off your daily schedule, and stressing you out because you fall behind. When you fully focus on a single task, however, you feel less stress, and can even enjoy your work.

Also, try to avoid interruptions. For example, if someone asks you something while you’re reading or working, ask if the person can wait until you’re done. Don’t answer the phone until you’ve finished what you were doing — let them send you a text instead.

Hone Your Note-Taking Skills

Note-taking forces you to pay attention and helps you focus in class (or while reading a textbook). It helps you learn. Studies on learning have shown that actively engaging with the topic by listening and then summarizing what you hear helps you understand and improve memorization.

When taking notes, do more than simple words. Research shows that, compared to just writing, adding sketches to your notes has a big impact on learning. These images can represent concepts, relationships, or terms that you want to remember better. This is called the Drawing Effect.

Study, Sleep, and Study More

Research suggests that getting enough sleep helps learning and memory in two distinct ways. First, a sleep-deprived person cannot focus attention optimally and therefore cannot learn efficiently. Second, sleep itself has a role in the consolidation of memory, which is essential for learning new information.

Sleep research from the last 20 years shows that sleep doesn’t just give students the energy they need to study and do well on exams. Sleep actually helps students learn, memorize, retain, remember, and use their new knowledge to come up with creative and innovative solutions.

It’s no surprise that the aforementioned MIT study revealed no improvement in scores for those who prioritized only their sleep the night before a big test. In fact, MIT researchers concluded that if students want to see their test scores improve, they should prioritize their sleep throughout the entire learning process. Staying up late to study is useless.

Use a Mnemonic Strategy

A mnemonic strategy is an instructional method designed to help students improve their memory of important information. This technique links new learning with prior knowledge through the use of visual and/or acoustic leads. The basic types of mnemonic devices depend on the use of key points, rhyming words, semantics, or acronyms.

This method improves the memory of complex words or ideas and promotes better retention of the material to be studied. This is especially useful for students with learning disabilities and others who may have difficulty remembering information.

Use Exaggerated Associations

Have you ever watched commercials during the Super Bowl? Why is it that advertisers go through so much effort to make a commercial funny or outrageous? It’s because they know that you’re more likely to remember the commercial if it’s exaggerated to some extent.

Anything that’s out of the ordinary is always more memorable. Keep this in mind when you’re trying to visualize the information you need to remember. The crazier the image, the easier it will be to remember.

Learn in Multiple Ways

By learning in more than one way, you’re further cementing the knowledge in your mind. For example, if you are learning a new language, try varying techniques such as listening to language examples, reading written language, practicing with a friend, and writing down your own notes.

Utilize Previous Learning to Promote New Learning

Prior knowledge has long been considered the most important factor influencing learning and student achievement. The amount and quality of prior knowledge positively influence both knowledge acquisition and the capacity to apply higher-order cognitive problem-solving skills.

Use Visual Aids

Visual Aids make communication simpler and quicker. It also helps increase students’ interest and acts as notes or reminders for the speaker.

Visuals cause faster and more powerful reactions than words. They help users engage with content, and such emotional reactions affect information retention. This is because visual memory is encoded in the medial temporal lobe of the brain, the same place where emotions are processed.

Put It Into Practice

Practice greatly increases the likelihood that students will permanently remember new information (Anderson, 2008). Practice increases student facility or automaticity (learning to apply elements of knowledge automatically, without reflection).

Each time you apply a new skill or test some new information in a practical way, the pathway is strengthened and you’re less likely to forget what you’ve learned.

For example, if you are learning a new language, you can practice by finding native speakers to speak to, reading children’s books, or watching foreign language films. If you are studying photography, you can make an effort to go out every day with your camera and practice the techniques you have read about.

Why Can’t I Retain Information? The Surprising Truth

We’re all going to forget important information if we don’t take action and this is known as transience, one of seven types of memory dysfunction described in The Seven Sins of Memory by Daniel Schacter. That’s why we need to search for and apply the best techniques to sharpen our memory.

Want to learn simple everyday things without forgetting?

You can learn best when you repeat it again and again. So, if you want to determine how to study well for exams without forgetting then you must try to study for short periods. Try to take a break in between and then again come back and study.

What is the most effective way to retain information?

If you want to start good habits to retain information, you would want to use an app to help you, and the best one out there is Speechify. This can help you with note-taking which is the key to creating solid mind maps. Get the app here now.

FAQS

• Why do I struggle to retain information?

  It may be due to lack of adequate sleep and rest, distractions while reading, poor nutrition, failure to choose the right book or memory issues such as decay or shallow processing.

• How can I get my brain to absorb more information?

  1. Get enough sleep. Various research supports the fact that sleep is a critical time when memories consolidate and get stored.

  2. Work out regularly.

  3. Repeat or re-learn the information later with the help of note-taking and text-to-speech apps like Speechify.

  4. Evaluate yourself.

• What is the fastest way to retain large amounts of information?

  Focus on one topic at a time.

• What are some techniques for retaining information?

  There are three ways you can retrieve information out of your long-term memory storage system: recall, recognition, and relearning.

• What can I do to improve my ability to retain information?

  1. Stop Multitasking

  2. Teach what you’ve learned to others

  3. Use assisting apps such as Speechify

• Is there a way to retain information without understanding it?

  Yes, there is. You can learn by visualizing. One way to solidify a new idea or concept in your mind is to put it in a visual format, such as graphs.

  Why graphs? Because it’s easier to remember pictures than details from books or lectures. Visualization is a strategy that can be used to remember a piece of information that has been read in textbooks or spoken during lectures.

  This strategy is especially useful for study sessions when the subjects are abstract or confusing. To implement this strategy, create an image in your mind that relates to, or has something in common with, an abstract concept. Visualizing the information that is read or presented to you will stick in your mind, increasing the chances that you will remember it.

• What is the best way to retain info?

  Teach someone else. If you keep sharing and teaching the information you have with others, it’s the same as practicing stronger memorization and understanding.

• What are some of the best ways to retain information?

  1. Create a memory. Our brain sends signals in a particular pattern associated with the event we’re experiencing and creates connections between our neurons, called synapses.

  2. Consolidate the memory. Do nothing else and that memory could soon fade away. Consolidation is the process of committing something to long-term memory so we can recall it later. Much of this process happens while we’re sleeping as our brains recreate that same pattern of brain activity and strengthen the synapses created earlier.

  3. Recall the memory. A recall is what most of us think of when we talk about memory or memory loss. Recalling a memory is easier if it has been strengthened over time, and each time we do we cycle through that same pattern of brain activity and make the connection a little stronger.

• What are the major factors that affect how much information can be retained?

  1. The level of attention and focus.

  2. Interest and motivation.

  3. Emotional state and value related to the information.

These are the tips you could use to help retain information, including the perfect app to improve your memorization. So, make good use of your screen time and boost your overall brain function with Speechify.