How to Memorize for Exams: Make Questions, Recall, Review

When you study for an exam or a certification, understanding the material is only half the job. Just as important is carrying what you memorized all the way into the exam room. If you've read the textbook several times and still go blank when you see a question, it's time to change how you study, not how much.

Rereading works less than you think

Rereading makes the material look familiar, which gives you a feeling that you know it. But recognizing something is not the same as recalling it. On an exam you have to come up with the answer without any hints, or pick the exact right option out of several similar ones.

That's why memorization should center on practicing recall on your own (retrieval practice). Cover the answer, try to bring it to mind first, then check. That's the whole reason to study by answering questions.

1. Turn what you need to memorize into questions

Whenever you find something worth memorizing in a textbook or lecture, turn it into a question right away. Two formats are all you need.

• Cards (front and back): for short, clear-cut answers such as definitions, terms, formulas, numbers and sequences. Example: “What is the definition of molarity (M)?”
• Multiple choice: for telling confusing concepts apart, or for subjects where the real exam is multiple choice. Using commonly confused ideas as wrong options makes these especially effective.

2. Tips for writing good questions

1. Ask one thing per question. Five separate questions beat one “list five characteristics” question.
2. Be specific. Instead of “Cell membrane?”, write “What are the two main components of the cell membrane?” so there's only one right answer.
3. Use your own words. Writing it the way you understand it, rather than copying the textbook, helps it stick longer.
4. Capture diagrams and tables. Don't retype charts or figures; pasting them in as images is faster and more accurate.

3. Organize by subject and chapter

As your questions pile up, you'll need some structure. Create one set per subject and split units or chapters into folders inside the set. That way you can study just the chapters you covered this week, or only the folders that are on the exam.

4. Review with spacing

Anything you memorize fades quickly if you never look at it again. But you can't review everything every day either. Spaced repetition shows the questions you know well less and less often and the ones you don't know more often, saving you review time.

• Be honest when you mark “Know” or “Don't know” while studying. If you guessed and got it right, that's a “Don't know.”
• Each day, work only through the questions due for review that day. Falling behind a day or two is fine, but cramming them all at once makes reviews less effective.
• Don't skip reviews on days you start a new chapter. The key is to keep new material and review moving forward together.

Sample plan leading up to exam day

1. 8 to 3 weeks before the exam: As you work through the material, make new questions every day and also answer the questions due for review that day.
2. 2 weeks before: Make fewer new questions, work through past exams, and add the questions you get wrong.
3. 1 week before: Go through every folder in the exam scope once in random order, and focus on the questions you marked “Don't know.”
4. The day before: Don't look at anything new. Just lightly go over the questions you've often gotten wrong.

Doing it with LQuiz

In LQuiz you can create card questions and multiple-choice questions (with one or more correct answers), organize them into sets and folders, and study them in random order. Questions you mark “Know” come back after 1, 3, 7 days and so on, and questions you mark “Don't know” come back the next day. Just answer the questions due for review each day, and the repetition takes care of itself all the way to exam day.