Page 160 - A Mind For Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science

become experts shows that such memory tools speed up the acquisition of both
chunks and big-picture templates, helping transform novices to semiexperts
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much more quickly—even in a matter of weeks. Memory tricks allow people to
expand their working memory with easy access to long term memory.
What’s more, the memorization process itself becomes an exercise in
creativity. The more you memorize using these innovative techniques, the more
creative you become. This is because you are building wild, unexpected

possibilities for future connections early on, even as you are first internalizing
the ideas. The more you practice using this type of “memory muscle,” the more
easily you will be able to remember. Where at first it may take fifteen minutes to
build an evocative image for an equation and embed it in, say, the kitchen sink of
your memory palace, it can later take only minutes or seconds to perform a
similar task.

You will also realize that as you begin to internalize key aspects of the
material, taking a little time to commit the most important points to memory, you
come to understand it much more deeply. The formulas will mean far more to
you than they would if you simply looked them up in a book. And you’ll be able
to sling those formulas around more proficiently on tests and in real-world
applications.
One study of how actors memorize their scripts showed that they avoid

verbatim memorization. Instead, they depend on an understanding of the
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characters’ needs and motivations in order to remember their lines. Similarly,
the most important part of your memorization practices is to understand what the
formulas and solution steps really mean. Understanding also helps a lot with the
memorization process.

You may object and say that you’re not creative—that an equation or theory
could hardly have its own grandiose motivations or persnickety emotional needs
to help you understand and remember it. But remember that inner two-year-old.
Your childlike creativity is still there—you just need to reach out to it.

MEMORY TRICKS WORK

“On top of working toward my engineering degree, I am in the process of getting my
paramedic license (only two months left!) and have to memorize a large selection of drugs
and dosages for both adult and pediatric patients. At first, this seemed overwhelming,
especially since there will be lives at stake. But I quickly found little tricks that made
learning easy. Take, for example, the drug furosemide, also called Lasix, which draws fluid
out of the body. The dose I needed to remember was 40 milligrams. This to me was a