Trick to memorize faster

Today I want to share a little trick that I have always innately used to memorize certain types of information. It is something that I consider so obvious that surely many people also use it. In case there is someone who does not know him yet, I will explain it below.

Identify the quatrains

In poetry, a quatrain is a four-line stanza of minor art with consonant rhyme. You wonder what this has to do with studying. The truth is that very little. However the name quatrain I find it appropriate to identify a type of interrelated information that we frequently find in different subjects.

The example that I am going to give below corresponds to a quatrain of the Psychobiology subject. You don't have to have studied this subject to understand how quatrains work. The important thing is not the content but the structure.

Quatrain example

1. When the light hits the center of the cells On there is a depolarization.

2. When the light hits the periphery of the cells On there is a hyperpolarization.

3. When the light hits the center of the cells Off there is a hyperpolarization.

4. When the light hits the periphery of the cells Off there is a depolarization.

What a racket, right? It almost seems like a tongue twister. Trying to memorize this quickly can be tricky. It is also the typical question that will later cause doubts in the exam. Surely with this example you already understand what I mean when I speak of a quatrain. It will sound like you have found similar information structures in other subjects.

What if I told you that it is not necessary to memorize the 4 points? By memorizing just the first one and applying a couple of rules, the other points will come out on their own..

How do we memorize the quatrains?

A) The first thing you have to analyze is the elements that make them up

In this case we have:

- 2 types of cells (on and off)

- 2 locations (center or periphery)

- 2 actions that occur (hyperpolarization or depolarization)

B) Next you must memorize the first phrase of the quatrain

"1. When light falls on the center of the On cells, depolarization occurs"

C) The second sentence is the opposite of the first. This does not need to be memorized, it comes out automatically knowing the first sentence

"2. When light falls on the periphery of On cells, hyperpolarization occurs"

D) Phrases 3 and 4 start from the inverses of sentences 1 and 2 (but changing cell type):

"3. When the light hits the center of the Off cells, hyperpolarization occurs". "4. When light falls on the periphery of Off cells, depolarization occurs".

Easy right? By memorizing only the first phrase we have managed to obtain the rest of the phrases automatically.

You may already use this method innately but haven't named it. I discovered it almost by chance. Sometimes I was able to quickly identify the quatrains but other times it was hard for me to see that there was a quatrain underneath all that mess of information. With a little practice I have managed to do it automatically. It's like my brain is trained to identify quatrains.

You may think that it would take less time to memorize the entire quatrain than to complete the analysis that I comment here. You're wrong. It is possible that the first time you do it, it will be something expensive. However, I guarantee that the successive times you will master the technique automatically.

Try to identify the quatrains in your subjects. They will save you a lot of study time and doubts in front of the exam. It is clear that the ideal would be I understand well concepts without having to memorize them. However, this is not always possible and we have to resort to tricks of this style..