- The chunking technique
- Using flashcards
- The interleaving technique
Having a good memory is very important for your child’s education, as this will be beneficial for exams, coursework’s and learning in general. So here are 3 techniques, which will help your child to improve their memory.
The chunking technique
Chunking is the process in which you take pieces of information, in chunks, and group them into larger units. This is useful, as this requires the student to break down large amounts of information into smaller bits, indentifying any similarities or patterns and organising the information into manageable units. Studies have shown that students that could only remember seven pieces of information went to over 80 pieces by using the chunking technique.
How can you help your child?
– Support your child to challenge them self to remember lists of things.
– Help your child to separate their revision into relevant sections.
– Encourage your child to use heading and titles for different sections, use tables, bullet points to summarise key points.
Using flashcards
Using flashcards is a repetition strategy; they are a simple question/’cue’ on one side and answer on the other side. Flashcards engage the student in “active recall”, which means they are making connections with their memory by repeating the process, however flashcards are not an effective method for last minute revision. To do this technique effectively you would need to go through a whole stack of cards in one sitting and carry them around to take a glance at them every so often.
How can you help you child?
– Encourage your child to make flashcards as part of their revision strategy.
– Try testing your child using the flashcards and give them time to digest the question before answering.
– Use different colour cards for different topics/subjects.
The interleaving technique
Interleaving is a method to help students revise and remember information for an exam. It is about what a student does with their time when they revise. With this technique learning is spread over time, in smaller chunks rather than dedicating a whole day for one subject/topic. Research shows that ‘Mixing it up boosts learning’ when compared to more traditional methods of reading a whole topic before moving onto the next one. This method will strengthen memory recall because by revisiting material from each topic several times, students can increase the amount they can remember for an exam.
How can you help your child?
– Watch this video with your child to understand more about interleaving strategy – https://youtu.be/WbDpYMp8F6o
– Help your child decide on the key topics they need to learn for each subject.
– Encourage your child to do short bursts of revision rather then long sessions, as this is more effective.
Gratitude to Caterham High School
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