RobJim
Senior Member
Joined: 13 Feb 2005
Posts: 320
Location: Los Angeles, CA
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 Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 6:02 am Post subject: |
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I'm not great at memorizing things, but here's a strategy that works for me when I do it consistently.
Make flash cards. On one side, put the name of the base, nucleoside, or nucleotide. On the other, draw out the structure. It's important you make them yourself and that you copy directly from a textbook.
Carry them around with you in a little card box that has dividers. Label the sections "unused", "correct" and "incorrect". Place all cards in "unused".
Whenever it crosses your mind, take a random "unused" card and look at the side with the name on it. Try to draw the structure from memory. If you don't know, try to guess. Don't worry about getting it wrong.
When you're done, check to see if you did it right. If you made any mistakes at all, pay attention to what they were. Copy the structure a couple times paying attention to the areas you couldn't remember if you have the time. Then place the card in the "incorrect" section.
If you got it 100% right, put it in the "correct" section. Congratulations!
Once the "unused" section is empty, shuffle the "incorrect" section and put them back into the "unused" section. Keep going with these cards.
Once all the cards get into the "correct" section, shuffle them all and put them back in "unused". Try to remember how many times you had to recycle the "incorrect" section. This is your score; you want to get that score down to 0. The lower the score the better.
You don't have to do many of them at a time; you can only do one if you want. Once you've tried one, don't do the same one again without waiting a while. This means whenever you shuffle back into the "unused section" you need to let the box sit for a while; maybe a day. You want to get the structure out of your very short term memory before you test yourself on that card again.
This is a great method for memorizing anything. I wish I had had the discipline to use it more often when I was in school 
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