Active Study - How to Learn

Rarely does anything informative or helpful come out of my sorority's chapter meeting. It's usually, "dress up, walk in, get paper, sing/recite, listen as people read directly from said paper, recite/sing a bit more, leave." Repeat every Sunday.

But at our last chapter, we actually got this really neat hand-out telling you how the human brain retains information. Fascinating.

For example:

1. The human brain learns best and fastest when there is kinetic energy involved-- the in-putting of information must be active. "The 'recording disk' of the brain accepts new material much faster if it "hears," "sees," "feels," "tastes," and detects motion (kinetic energy) during input or recording time." 

2. Learning requires the expenditure of energy. With notecards, "the student must be actively engaged in producing the sounds, using muscles and burning energy to make the sound." 

3. Some experts believe that information is better mastered if you group it all in groups of seven items or less at a time.

4. Association is a key to memory:

   a. You remember approximately 10 percent of what you read.

   b. You remember approximately 20 percent of what you hear.

   c. You remember approximately 30 percent of what you see.

   d. You remember approximately 50 percent of what you hear and see together.

   e. You remember approximately 70 percent of what you say (if you think as you are saying it).

   f. You remember approximately 90 percent of what you do.

Makes me wonder if I should reinstate jumping jacks into my study routine. Kinetic energy + burning calories = smart and thin. Ka-ching!