Prepare Flash Cards

• All courses may require you to do some memorization for items such as formulas, chemical equations, artwork, dates, authors, definitions or chronologies
• Try using flash cards to help with memorization. Buy a stack of index cards and put the prompt on one side and the answer on the other. Create them early on in the semester, and study with the cards
• Carry your flash cards with you to study in short, spare moments, such as when you are waiting in line or riding the bus

Create Diagrams to Help Summarize Information

• Draw a diagram to provide a pictorial representation of the subject
• Try a concept map with the most important idea in the centre, and then various branches showing the relationships between other ideas and their subcategories

Use Strategies to Help Reduce Forgetting

• Test yourself as you study
• Over-learn the material so that you can’t forget it
• Use:
  • Mnemonics (i before e except after c)
  • Acronyms (HOMES is an acronym for Great Lakes – Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior)
  • Acrostics (Kings Play Chess On Fairly Good Soft Velvet is an acrostic for Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species, Variety)
  • Analogies (lungs = trees, pump = heart)
  • Keywords linked to other information

Source: http://www.learningcommons.uoguelph.ca/