You must have heard about the age old advice asking you to eat Almonds every morning to improve memory. Let’s look into the validity of this advice. Almonds have long been known to improve not just memory skills but also overall brain function. About 7-8 Almonds, soaked overnight can do wonders to improving memory. Soaking almonds help the body to absorb its nutrients easily. Almonds possess Vitamin B6, Zinc, Protein and Vitamin E, all of which are crucial for our cognitive processes.
Besides Almonds, Walnuts are also superfoods for the brain. Ever wondered why the Walnut is shaped like the brain? Besides these nuts eating adequate amounts of Fruits and Vegetables, legumes and Whole grains and good proteins like fish and egg can also go a long way in maintaining good concentration and aid memory. Regular exercise, keeping stress at bay and adequate sleep will make sure your brain will function to its optimum capacity.
Now let’s look at some specific Recall techniques that can help you in memorizing those lengthy and confusing answers which all of us dread.
Acronym Method– Memorise the points in your answer through the first letter of the keyword in the point. For Eg- BODMAS – Bracket Open, Division, Multiplication, Addition, Subtraction.
Acrostics Method- Similar to Acronyms, you can take the first letter of the word to form a simple or funny sentence which you are bound to remember. Eg- You can remember the order of the planets by the sentence “My very elegant mom just served us nine parrots” (representing Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto).
Chunking– Chunking is a memory technique of breaking information down into smaller groups or units. It has been found that a human brain can remember 9, plus minus 2, items at one time. A common example of this is the reason we often break down 10 digit mobile numbers into smaller units.
Method of Loci– Also called the mental walk method. In this method, select a path which you travel regularly, like from your home to your school or from your house to your friend’s place or even the different places in your house. Now Visualise point no 1 being placed at the first location (the door), point number 2 at the 2nd location (the sofa) and so on and so forth. Then take a mental walk through the path and you will find that you will remember the points which you have associated with each location easily.
Storytelling is also a great way to help you remember the points in your answer. Create a story where each word or idea you have to remember is associated with the sequence of the story.
Let’s use these memory and recall techniques to continue to make St. Mary’s School the top CBSE school in Mumbai.