Everyone knows how important having a brilliant memory recall is to anyone who wants to learn how to study or who has to remember lots of data and information. Being able to memorize what you need to know for that next test or even just remembering people's names all comes back to your memory recall. That's why chunking could be the answer you have been looking for.
When chunking, you combine several small items - names, dates, numbers, objects, places (you name it and you can chunk it) - into larger groups that are categorized together. You can group items together using whatever method you want to use - but make sure it makes perfect sense to you.
You may like to group items together based on the first letter of the word or sentence (so you would group all words or sentences starting with the letter S or the letter C for example). Or you could group them together based on what type of item it is or what you do with it, or what it's made from, or even on how you use or apply the item. There are literally 100's of ways that items can be chunked together.
It is important to keep in mind that whatever way you seek to "chunk" the information should be easily remembered by you. You must not use methods that sound good but for whatever reason you are not very familiar with them or find they can be complex to understand or recall. That would completely defeat the purpose of chunking. So how does this work?
Let's start with a simple list of eight items: bread, sausages, strawberries, bananas, basketball, television, soccer, and bean bag. We could chunk them by the letter B - bread, bananas, basketball and bean bag. We could chunk them by sports - basketball and soccer. We could chunk them by food - bread, sausages, strawberries, and bananas and also by non-food - basketball, television, soccer and bean bag. There are also many other ways this list of items could be chunked.
Now, it's clear these chunking lists have been simplified but the point to take away is that by creating a group, category or hierarchy you are effectively building more memory traces to help you remember the information you need. For example, if you remember the letter B you will also remember bread, bananas, basketball, and bean bag. If you remember the letter S you will also remember sausages, strawberries and soccer. So by just remembering the letters B and S you have remembered most items. This is much more effective than trying to remember individual items. It makes sense doesn't it?
You might think what you've been shown is way too simple and not complex enough and that's understandable. So let's take a look at numbers. Please memorize the following number in 20 seconds - 3112196911222006. And go! Did you get it all? If you did you probably already applied chunking. Let's look at how chunking can help us remember this number without any troubles at all.
First, 3112. Well, this is the date of New Year's Eve each year isn't it? The 31st of December. The 31st of the 12th. 3112. Next - one, nine, six, nine - obviously this is the year man first walked on the moon - 1969. Next comes one and one, or eleven - the first number that cannot be counted on your fingers. Followed by two and two - or 22 - which is double 11! Next comes two, zero, zero, and six. That's 2006. In 2006 Brazil won the soccer world cup. Easy enough to remember?
Chunking has taken what seemed to be a complex number and made it into an easy to recall number. What becomes obvious is that you are actually building memory traces by creating events around the numbers. So you don't have to remember all the numbers individually, you group them together and then just remember the date of New Year's Eve, the year man trudged around on the moon, one too many fingers, double that number, and Brazil wins the Soccer World Cup. 3112 - 1969 -11-22-2206. 3112196911222006. I know, it was much easier than you thought!
Let's not kid ourselves. The technique that we've shown you has been simplified to make it easy for you to understand. But the fact remains that it really works. Chunking works incredibly well and will really assist you by making how to study much easier through memory recall. Try it with your own work or any list you need to remember and watch your recall improve dramatically. Good luck!
When chunking, you combine several small items - names, dates, numbers, objects, places (you name it and you can chunk it) - into larger groups that are categorized together. You can group items together using whatever method you want to use - but make sure it makes perfect sense to you.
You may like to group items together based on the first letter of the word or sentence (so you would group all words or sentences starting with the letter S or the letter C for example). Or you could group them together based on what type of item it is or what you do with it, or what it's made from, or even on how you use or apply the item. There are literally 100's of ways that items can be chunked together.
It is important to keep in mind that whatever way you seek to "chunk" the information should be easily remembered by you. You must not use methods that sound good but for whatever reason you are not very familiar with them or find they can be complex to understand or recall. That would completely defeat the purpose of chunking. So how does this work?
Let's start with a simple list of eight items: bread, sausages, strawberries, bananas, basketball, television, soccer, and bean bag. We could chunk them by the letter B - bread, bananas, basketball and bean bag. We could chunk them by sports - basketball and soccer. We could chunk them by food - bread, sausages, strawberries, and bananas and also by non-food - basketball, television, soccer and bean bag. There are also many other ways this list of items could be chunked.
Now, it's clear these chunking lists have been simplified but the point to take away is that by creating a group, category or hierarchy you are effectively building more memory traces to help you remember the information you need. For example, if you remember the letter B you will also remember bread, bananas, basketball, and bean bag. If you remember the letter S you will also remember sausages, strawberries and soccer. So by just remembering the letters B and S you have remembered most items. This is much more effective than trying to remember individual items. It makes sense doesn't it?
You might think what you've been shown is way too simple and not complex enough and that's understandable. So let's take a look at numbers. Please memorize the following number in 20 seconds - 3112196911222006. And go! Did you get it all? If you did you probably already applied chunking. Let's look at how chunking can help us remember this number without any troubles at all.
First, 3112. Well, this is the date of New Year's Eve each year isn't it? The 31st of December. The 31st of the 12th. 3112. Next - one, nine, six, nine - obviously this is the year man first walked on the moon - 1969. Next comes one and one, or eleven - the first number that cannot be counted on your fingers. Followed by two and two - or 22 - which is double 11! Next comes two, zero, zero, and six. That's 2006. In 2006 Brazil won the soccer world cup. Easy enough to remember?
Chunking has taken what seemed to be a complex number and made it into an easy to recall number. What becomes obvious is that you are actually building memory traces by creating events around the numbers. So you don't have to remember all the numbers individually, you group them together and then just remember the date of New Year's Eve, the year man trudged around on the moon, one too many fingers, double that number, and Brazil wins the Soccer World Cup. 3112 - 1969 -11-22-2206. 3112196911222006. I know, it was much easier than you thought!
Let's not kid ourselves. The technique that we've shown you has been simplified to make it easy for you to understand. But the fact remains that it really works. Chunking works incredibly well and will really assist you by making how to study much easier through memory recall. Try it with your own work or any list you need to remember and watch your recall improve dramatically. Good luck!
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HelpMeToStudy.org is the premier online resource for learning new study skills, changing your studying habits and finding the best study tips available. We will help change the way you think about study - and even better - we will show you how to study effectively: How To Study Effectively | Memory Training
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