3 min read
“How To Memorize Information And 10x Your Results”
Introduction
In this brief post, I have one ultimate goal: teach you a new tactic that I’ve discovered for memorizing information that you’ve probably never tried before.
The result? That you will be able to 10x your grades and results by the end of it.
What This Won’t Be
Typically, to memorize a piece of information, you’re probably told to:
- Read the textbook
- Perform research on your own
- Ask others (another teacher, classmates)
- Figure it out (by any means that doesn’t involve “cheating”)
I want you to pay attention to the last element out of the four given. Of course, there are plenty more tactics for memorizing information, like active recall; which is actually one of the better ones – but the one I’m going to present to you is even better.
At the end of the day, you and I want a tactic that’s reliable, efficient, and generates consistent results. If I can do better and simultaneously sacrifice less, why not try it?
What is considered “cheating”?
Cheating, as considered in terms of definition, is known as:
“acting dishonestly or unfairly in order to gain an advantage, especially in a game or examination.”
But, here’s something that you need to know about “cheating” that a majority of people won’t tell you. The method I will present might seem like it falls under this definition, when it doesn’t. I would probably say at the end of this sentence that “it doesn’t matter what you end up thinking”, but, I’m not going to say that. I actually do care about your opinion, and trust is necessary in this situation; where cheating might be the deciding factor between whether you pass or fail an exam entirely.
So, what can we call the method instead? I’ll talk about this in just a moment.
How To Memorize Anything, And 10X Your Results
This is going to be an absolute monster of a section, so, if you’re up for it, be willing to take notes and absorb everything at your own pace (which you should be doing regardless haha).
Ok, back to the point.
My Tactic
Here me out, Artificial Intelligence.
I know. I know.
You’re saying one of two things:
- “I already use that.”
- “No way. That’s cheating.”
In which case, I have responses to both.
#1: “I Already Use It”
If you’re this type of person, you either (a): are lazy or (b): have too many things to do and need a fast and reliable way to get work done while still learning something. And, if you feel like adding a third option, it would just be someone efficient; but, that tends to be confused with someone lazy – though they’re completely different.
So, what can I tell you here that’s so valuable?
You need to use AI in the same fashion as someone who has never used it before, and only has a limited use of it. By that I mean: use it like your learning and grades depend on it.
If you gave this technology to someone 10 years ago, and they only had 10 minutes to use it every day, you can only guess how heavily they would leverage it to learn, get tasks done, and multi-task.
What I’m saying is that you aren’t taking full advantage of the technology. And even if you think you are, you probably aren’t. I’ll explain this in a moment.
#2: “That’s Cheating”
I get the statement; but I don’t really think YOU get it. What we’re describing here is leverage. I mentioned it previously, and I’ll mention it here.
In our context, leverage is defined as:
use (something) to maximum advantage
If you used AI on a test to answer all the questions, and you just blatantly copy them down, then that’s cheating.
BUT, if you use AI for the purpose of summarizing large pieces of information, simplifying even the hardest of concepts, and performing research (alongside a multitude of other use-cases), then it’s not cheating. Not at all.
Our use-case of AI in this post is to use it to get ahead, and search for that maximum advantage. We’re not using it as a way to replace our human effort. We’re using it to enhance our human input, and maximize our output.
My Tactic, Revisited
Now that we have that out of the way, here is my step-by-step method for using AI, performing research, and memorizing even the most lengthy and heavy of information:
Humanities
- The model we’re using. Specifically, we’ll be using a well-known model named ‘Perplexity‘. It’s completely free and one of the best tools for research. After using it, you’ll never want to go back to traditional Google Search.
- Target a difficult concept, and use AI. Say that you have a really lengthy US history unit, and you weren’t really paying attention all unit. Now the test is in 2 days, and that’s all the time you have to prepare. You barely know anything, and have no preparation behind your name. So, what can you do? Easy. Use perplexity to simplify EVERY single concept, and get a simplified explanation of it, even if it makes no sense on the surface. Just ask “explain X, simply”, and it will do exactly that.
- I’ve used this tactic (not a trick really), and it’s saved my grades so many times. Many creators will tell you that studying 1 hour a day is virtually nothing. I disagree. 1 hour a day is still valuable time that I can dedicate to something else – especially if I’m looking to get extraordinary sleep every night (especially in my case back in Junior year). That’s what this method saves you of. Last-minute studying won’t be as scary.
- Don’t get too confident. Schedule regular study sessions. Of course, if you end up getting too confident, you’ll learn really quick that AI can’t make everything easy. You still have to stuff this information into your brain, and store it there until test day. So, after a lesson, if there was anything that didn’t exactly click, then spend some extra time (no more than 15-30 minutes) trying to make sense of it.
STEM (a little different)
- You might prefer using ChatGPT, or Gemini instead.
- Same applies.
- DO NOT study last minute. Unlike a humanities class, it naturally takes longer for some formulas, algorithms, and mathematical implementations to make sense. So, unlike a humanities class, you can’t just read a couple of words, have it be explained with analogies and have it click in your head. That doesn’t work.
- Instead, you need to, similar to the step from previously, schedule regular study time every time you go over a concept in class that doesn’t make sense at first. If you leave this all for last minute, you’ll end up spending way too many hours studying, and not enough of that time getting sleep. This is a mistake that costed me during my Algebra 2 days, where I really couldn’t be bothered to study consistently, rather than leaving it all for last-minute.
- Ask for examples, real-world implementations, and charts. You might not be able to do this on Perplexity, but if you have access to ChatGPT (which also is free; aside the paid plan), you can ask for tables of sample real-world data that can help with learning the math of whatever you’re learning even easier. I’ve never actually used Perplexity for learning math, and I probably won’t for the meantime. Gemini is also really good, but choose whichever one is more useful; and stick with it.
- NOTE: There are times when neither model will be able to successfully explain an algorithm well enough for you to understand; so, never forget, you have YouTube. It’s a great resource that came before these three, and still continues to prove its usefulness.
Conclusion
Memorizing is traditionally made out to be this really scary, and challenging obstacle that’s just hard to get by. But, with this post, I hope it no longer is. Of course, math isn’t easy for all of us – just like how learning a language and its grammar rules might not be either. All of this gets better with practice. The AI Revolution only makes it easier.
