How to memorize

The power to remember what you have learned is a skill which many people never acquire. Don’t you admire a classmate who can recite without hesitation what he has read in a chapter or entire book? A public speaker must remember not only important ideas in his speech, but also the exact words of important quotations or passages. Actors must learn by heart parts of an entire play. These persons have learned well the skill of memorizing.
You, too, have to commit important rules to memory. However, your memory is called on more often to fix the important ideas of a lesson so as to express them in your words whether you must remember some passage by heart, or study it for the important ideas it contains, you would do well to observe this few rules to improve your ability to memorize.
1. Read the material carefully. Understand its meaning before you memorize it. Underline important ideas or facts.
2. Study the whole paragraph or lesson, not individual parts. Form a question for each paragraph and see how you would answer it.
3. Recite aloud the paragraph, the rule, the stanza as you go. Tie it in with what went before.
4. When you are memorizing something, especially a word for word subject, such as poem, study no longer than 15 minutes at a time. Several 15 minute period over a few days, or even during one day, is better than studying a lesson at one time.
5. An excellent way of remembering is to write the important ideas on cards. Feel in essential details. Then memorize the order in the cards, the principal statements, and be able to develop each statement in your own words.