Our brain is a physical object, and its reactions are physical. We may attribute our memories and experiences to some spiritual and intellectual domain, which is perfectly fine. Sometimes, however, it is best to attribute our experiences to misinterpreted physical experiences. For example, if you have a bad gut feeling, it is probably a heartburn …
Journal of markers for complex subjects
Sometimes coming up with visualizations is easy, and sometimes it is very hard. When we deal with abstract and professional terms, names and languages the visualization process suddenly become complex. There is only so much time we can allocate to visualize and remember everything while reading. How do we deal with such situations? The easiest …
How to remember a dense book 1000 pages long?
How do we remember a dense book 1000 pages long? This is not a trivial question and it is asked quite often. Obviously, we need a good strategy. As always, everyone can make his own strategy. Quite often I change my strategy based on the content. Let us discuss one possible strategy, and you can …
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Mental math
We have powerful computers, why do we still do mental math? Part of it has to do with building intuition and checking for errors, part of it has to do with the speed of decision making, some of it is a great brain practice and yet a bit of it is a magic. Whatever the …
Do mental math
Read about Trachtenberg system for mental math. Now choose a random number. Start with 5 digits, with time try to upgrade to longer numbers. Do mental computations. Expected effects: faster and better working memory access, improvement of mathematical tasks. No program or tools required: everything can be done in your head. Beginner level Multiply by …
Six types of socratic questions
We ask similar questions after each time we preread or read the text. The questions can be divided into questions building our curiosity so we can focus on the text and questions we asked in order to ensure we understood the text properly. This post mainly deals with questions of the second kind. If we …
Marker dictionary
Occasionally you will need to make a marker dictionary. This method is typically required for medical and legal students, because the terms they use may be so abstract and complex that no reasonable markers can be created spontaneously. To some extent, a large quantity of number memorization (via major system/PAO) or memorization of foreign words …
Compound markers
If you learnt how to generate visual markers and how to increase and control your visual eye span, your reading speed could easily be around 800 wpm. If you want to read vaster and understand more, perhaps you need some other sort of training. This training is advanced and it is not a part of …
Dreaming and memory
Long term memory is closely related to sleep. When we sleep our short term memory is basically copied into our long term memory. If somebody is not sleeping enough trying to prepare for exam, this a huge mistake. After several days everything will be forgotten and days of practice lost. There are ways of improving …
Physiology of memory
There is a reason we do not talk much about physiology of memory. We simply do not have enough information that does not spark controversy. Below are some examples. Is there a limit on chunking and working memory? Working memory is the basis of our memorization. It is studied via various cognitive tasks performed by …