Memorizing text

There are lots of varied memory tricks that will help you to fix information in your mind. Different methods tend to be good in some circumstances and less good in others. One of the hardest things to do is to memorize a block of text word for word. This can crop up for all sorts of reasons: a speech that requires precise terminology, scripture, a masonic ritual, lines in a play, etc etc. Your memory can play particularly hard to get when it comes to structured material like that.

There are techniques that you can use however that will make it far, far easier to recall a block of text verbatim.

The Declaration of Independence by sallycinnaminn

The simplest is to cascade the memory through your mind. This gets more unweildy as the piece of text gets longer, but it can provide impressive results even on pages and pages, if necessary. First of all, copy the piece of text out longhand, paying attention to the words you’re writing, and their meanings, as you write. Start each new sentence on a new line. It’ll look a bit strange, but you’ll get into the swing of it. To demonstrate, here’s this paragraph line by line…

The simplest is to cascade the memory through your mind.
This gets more unweildy as the piece of text gets longer, but it can provide impressive results even on pages and pages, if necessary.
First of all, copy the piece of text out longhand.
Start each new sentence on a new line.
It’ll look a bit strange, but you’ll get into the swing of it.
To demonstrate, here’s this paragraph line by line…

Once it’s all copied out, read the first line aloud, close your eyes, and repeat it. Then read the first two lines, close your eyes, and repeat them both. Then the first three, and so on, and so on. You’ll find that because you’re hanging extra info off the previous bit of memorization each time, the brain will go to special effort to make sure the previous stuff is burned in.

If you do choke on one line, no problem, just go back and read up to and including that line again, then proceed from there.

Once you’ve got the whole thing — it shouldn’t take many back-tracking repeats, if any — then you need to sleep on the new memories. Ideally, go and have a nap right away. Even forty-five minutes is a start. Anyway, the next day, go through the entire process of reading and repeating again. You don’t need to copy everything out again, though. That will fix it in place.

If it’s a while before you’ll need the memory, or you want it in place for good, be sure to repeat the memorised block of text (just once through) every day or two for a couple of weeks, and then every week or two thereafter.

Kensington 2009 Installation (freemasonry) by melvisflickr

The other technique seems slightly odd at first, but is every bit as powerful.

As before, copy the text out longhand. This lets your mind know you mean business. Then go through it again, only this time, only write the first letter of each word. Keep the same sentence, paragraph structure and punctuation as the original text. The end result looks slightly odd, but don’t fear. Here’s an example:

T o t s s o a f, b i e b a p.
A b, c t t o l. T l y m k y m b. T g t i a, o t t, o w t f l o e w. K t s s, p s a p a t o t. T e r l s o, b d’t f. H’s a e:

Now cover the original text, and read the truncated version out, replacing the initials with their original words. If you falter, go back and read the entire original piece aloud, and then start the abbreviated version again. It won’t take long before you can remember the whole thing from the initials — and then, shortly afterwards, without even them. The challenge of recalling what each letter stands for fixes the text in your mind. As for the previous method, sleep on the new memories, and repeat the next day.

Neither of these methods is completely effort-free. But they are much, much faster than trying to learn a block of text by simple repetition, whether it’s an intricate speech or the tracing board.