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Ass-Kicking Email – When Should You Memorize

Hey,

A big part of the material in this course is about *avoiding*
memorization. Memorization is inefficient, and in many cases, it
completely misses the point of what’s being instructed.

That said, there are no absolutes, and there are times when
memorization is beneficial, or even necessary.

I want to discuss some possibilities for where memorization can
help, and then suggesting how to memorize effectively.

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When Should You Memorize?

As I outline in the guide, the place holistic techniques are
weakest is with arbitrary information or skills.

With arbitrary information, there isn’t a larger structure to the
idea that makes it easy to remember. Or, if there is a larger
structure, it is too complex to adequately understand in the
constraints of the course.

Some examples of arbitrary information are:

-Legal documents (there isn’t a lot of logic behind how certain
principles relate to specific article numbers or cases)
-Anatomy terminology (even if there are logical roots for the terms
there are too many that need to be remembered)

With skills, much of success is unconscious learning, which we
describe with words like experience, mastery or intuition. If there
are rules or deeper concepts, they may be too complicated to learn.

Most subjects involve some level of skill, although it varies. Even
within a topic there can be a wide range of skill needed.
Computation in math is relatively conceptual, once understood it can
be executed. Devising new proofs is mostly skill-based, relying on
creativity and intuition, aided by understanding.

—

Memorization is most useful with arbitrary information. However
there are a few important rules of thumb for making it more useful.

Rule #1: Concepts first, memorization later.

The first rule, which I’ve discussed previously is that concepts
should always come first. The point where memorization should come
in should always be when you feel you “get” a subject, but can’t
remember the details.

Going backwards (knowing facts, but not “getting” the subject) is
a waste of time since memorization is both more difficult at this
stage, and also sloppy (you might memorize facts incorrectly).

Rule #2: Try to make it a skill first, memorize later.

The more you can “memorize” something in the context of a skill, the
better.

For example–if you need to remember formulas for a test. In this
case, it is better that you “memorize” the formulas through practice
questions rather than flashcards which are removed from the context.

Many elements which appear to need memorization become internalized
with practice. For example, in a computer programming language there
may be specifics with the syntax that are arbitrary. These rarely
need memorizing, however, since they are quickly internalized when
actually using the language in practice.

Rule #3: Memorization aids first, drills later.

If the facts can’t be internalized through practice, the next step
is to work on memorization aids first, and only after that to focus
on drills.

Memorization aids include:

-Chaining
-Pegging
-Mnemonics
-Diagrams
-Image association
…

These are not perfect. But with practice they can considerably cut
down on your needed flashcard-style review.

—