Page 161 - A Mind For Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science

godsend, as the numbers 4–0 appeared to me in the word (4–0 semide = furosemide). It is
things like this that truly can cement ideas and knowledge in our heads. I now don’t ever
have to even think twice about it. Truly remarkable.”

—William Koehler, sophomore, mechanical engineering

NOW YOU TRY!

Songs to Help You Learn
Make up a song to remember an identity, integral, or scientific formula that you need for
class. Having some of these important concepts memorized, through whatever trick you
need, will make more complicated problems easier and faster to solve.

SUMMING IT UP

Metaphors can help you learn difficult ideas more quickly.

Repetition is critical in allowing you to firm up what you want to
remember before the ideas fade away.
Meaningful groups and abbreviations can allow you to simplify and
chunk what you are trying to learn so you can store it more easily in
memory.
Stories—even if they are just used as silly memory tricks—can allow
you to more easily retain what you are trying to learn.

Writing and saying what you are trying to learn seems to enhance
retention.
Exercise is powerfully important in helping your neurons to grow and
make new connections.

PAUSE AND RECALL

Remember how important it can be to sometimes think of what you are
learning in a place different from where you learned it. Try that
technique again as you recall the key ideas of this chapter. People