Making things stick.

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QuizBro
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Making things stick.

Post by QuizBro »

Does anyone have any advice for helping things stick? Short question but need some advice.
Brodie Henry
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Good Goblin Housekeeping
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Re: Making things stick.

Post by Good Goblin Housekeeping »

QuizBro wrote: Mon May 13, 2019 11:02 pm Does anyone have any advice for helping things stick? Short question but need some advice.
Repetition is key to remembering things. Whether that's done by regularly studying topics you miss questions on, practicing a lot, or with flashcards
Andrew Wang
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QuizBro
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Re: Making things stick.

Post by QuizBro »

Thank you!
Brodie Henry
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“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood. I didn’t take either of them. There might be squirrels.”
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Gae Bulg
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Re: Making things stick.

Post by Gae Bulg »

Digital flashcard softwares like Anki, Mnemosyne, or Quizlet can be helpful. Also, it’s difficult to remember clues you merely hear in a question; I’ve found that reading deeper into the clues in a question (reading a wikipedia article about the clue, reading a plot summary of a novel that was clued in a question about an author, etc.) really helps.
Danny Kim
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quizbowllee
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Re: Making things stick.

Post by quizbowllee »

QuizBro wrote: Mon May 13, 2019 11:02 pm Does anyone have any advice for helping things stick? Short question but need some advice.
If only your DAD was a quizbowl coach.... :lol:

Thanks to those who have replied with the exact advice that I gave him. Sometimes, a kid just needs to hear things from someone other than ol' Dad.
Lee Henry
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West Point High School
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Teddymons123
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Re: Making things stick.

Post by Teddymons123 »

It depends what subject area you are looking into.

For lit history, current events, and RMP reading rereading, and creating flashcards on programs such as Quizlet as mentioned before is probably the best way.

For Fine Arts, listening to a piece of music or looking at artwork in and of its self will merit you both true knowledge and points.

For geography, looking at maps and generally familiarizing yourself with the terrain and layout of nations will be greatly helpful.

For current events, keep up with major world figures and events by watching your nightly news or by reading one of many news publication services.

Science requires and understanding of why things are like they are. Try reading science textbooks and looking at bold terms.

Rinse and repeat all steps. The human brain learns through repetition and this is no different.
Andrew Kelley
Middlesboro High School '20
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DavidB256
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Re: Making things stick.

Post by DavidB256 »

Take organized, neat, bulleted, pencil-and-paper notes! Whenever I'm studying on the internet or from a nonfiction book, I take notes similarly to those that I would take in a history class. The act of writing things down manually is a great method for memorization, and full pages are great for skimming over before tournaments to boost your recall. Also, you can leave your notes lying around your room and glance at them every once in a while to enforce the knowledge you recently read!

Good luck!
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Skepticism and Animal Feed
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Re: Making things stick.

Post by Skepticism and Animal Feed »

I often made mnemonics for things that, for whatever reason, I was unable to make stick.

For example, for the life of me I could not recall the order of the major battles of Alexander the Great. I could read about them all I could, but in the end I still messed up the order of Granicus River, Gaugamela, and Issus.

So I ended up making a mnemonic: Great is God in Heaven. Granicus, Issus, Gaugamela, Hydaspes River. I later modified it to Great is God the Son in Heaven, to include Sogdian Rock.

Subsequently, everytime I buzzed in on an Alexander the Great battle tossup, I quickly repeated "Great is God in Heaven" in my head to make sure I had the order right. Sometimes I even wrote it down.

I won't share my mnemonic for early church councils and the heresies they condemned because it is vulgar and this is the high school session, but I had a bunch of these.
Bruce
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vinteuil
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Re: Making things stick.

Post by vinteuil »

Skepticism and Animal Feed wrote: Wed May 15, 2019 3:12 pm I often made mnemonics for things that, for whatever reason, I was unable to make stick.

For example, for the life of me I could not recall the order of the major battles of Alexander the Great. I could read about them all I could, but in the end I still messed up the order of Granicus River, Gaugamela, and Issus.

So I ended up making a mnemonic: Great is God in Heaven. Granicus, Issus, Gaugamela, Hydaspes River. I later modified it to Great is God the Son in Heaven, to include Sogdian Rock.

Subsequently, everytime I buzzed in on an Alexander the Great battle tossup, I quickly repeated "Great is God in Heaven" in my head to make sure I had the order right. Sometimes I even wrote it down.

I won't share my mnemonic for early church councils and the heresies they condemned because it is vulgar and this is the high school session, but I had a bunch of these.
Another kind of memory trick, which works much better for people like me, is to simply learn where each of those places actually was, and then just use your knowledge that Alexander went east. This of course has the added bonus of giving you some added context to buzz with.

In general: I find that kind of "fixed context" that's already set in my head (a map, a timeline) crucial for helping me to "place" things—and I find it almost impossible to remember things that I can't place.

On the other hand: many sets of things don't have this kind of built-in or memorable context, so mnemonics like the one Bruce mentioned can be crucial (viz. the ways med students study!).
Jacob R., ex-Chicago
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