Retention Techniques

1. Underline, circle, make margin notes. Not
highlighting the whole page like some students do! Usually you will not
mark more than two or three items per page, and many pages will have no
markings. Marking pages increases recall — do you have a marked-up
Bible? If you do, you can almost “see” the page in your head when
recalling it. Marking helps. (Highlighting may help — your own
markings, however, are probably superior).

2. Dog-ear important pages. In a 250 page book there
will probably be 25 pages worth dog-earing. Turn down the page to
return later. The bigger the dog-ear the more important the page. Most
books have only four or five half-page-dog ears. 

3. Transfer key notes to front of book. Got a great
point here? The central message? The quote which essentially represents
the whole book? Write it down in the front of the book. Why? Generally
speaking when it comes to new information you either “Use it or lose it
in 20 minutes.” When you discover it, flip the book open to the front
and scribble it down; it will cement the notion into your mind. Better
yet, link it to something you already know and write that down too.
Linked information can be recalled far better than isolated information.

4. When finished, re-read dog-eared pages. Just run back through and re-read the gold. Here is the essence of the book (if you made judgements right going through).

5. Now write an “abstract” in the back or front. You are
finished! Go for a pizza… but not just yet. Take a few more minutes and
write an “abstract” up front in your own words. When the writer
submitted the proposal for this book, he or she probably actually had a
single paragraph or page, outlining what this book was all about. To
summarize the book, simply “reverse engineer” the book back to the
author’s abstract or thesis.

6. Consider drawing a “MindMap” of the contents. If
you are going to be tested on this book, get someone to teach you how
to use Tony Buzan’s “Mind Map” to remember the entire book on a single
page. Remember, the mind mostly recalls ideas and pictures, not words.
A Mind Map will enable you to “picture” the whole book and you’ll look
like you posses a “photographic” (which you really don’t need, if you
simply follow the advice in this article).

7. But if you borrowed the book, and can’t mark it,
dog-ear it, or otherwise “use” this took — then use 3M stickers
instead of dog-ears, and write your comments on half-sheets of paper as
you go.