How The Mind Works - How To Pass Exams

A Theory of how the Mind Works Consider the short-term memory to be like a water-glass, empty and ready to take water (which is like knowledge). You slowly fill the glass with the water from a fountain (Fountain of knowledge) until it is full. But you continue to fill and the water spills over the edge and is wasted. The short-term memory receives knowledge from the efforts of studying.

After a time it is full, any further studying is wasted.
In most cases you can take in new information for around 40 - 45 minutes. Which means that studying or revising for longer is a waste (Practical and physical learning can and often will allow longer periods before saturation is reached but study at a desk from any media follows this time scale).
Fortunately there is also a storage tank for the water (Long-term memory).
You can put water in here and get it out when you want to drink it in the future.

So just before the glass is full you stop filling it and empty it into the storage tank.

You can then go back for another glass and transfer this to the tank as well.
What this means for studying and revising is that we should plan it in short bursts, but there is another consideration and that is how efficient we are at retrieving information from our long-term memory. The three most important ways to get information into the long-term memory in a way that will strengthen the chances of recovery when you want it are: Recency: The more recent the information is stored then the more likely you are to remember it.
Frequency: The more times you repeat the storage of the information, the more likely you are to remember it.

Intensity: The more intense that the experience of laying down the memory then the more likely you are to remember it. The best way to remember information is to revise at the last moment, study and revise regularly and have short intense study periods.
We put this together later when we discuss how to Study and how to revise.
How this Book is Structured This rest of this book is written in three parts as follows: How to study How to revise for exams How to sit exams Each part is self-contained and may be used alone but together they provide all you need to maximise your chances of getting the result you want from your exams.

There is also a final review section just to remind you of the main point covered.

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