Have you ever heard of chunking? No, not chunky, chunking! Chunking is the process of putting the information you need to know into categories, clusters or hierarchies. By doing this it (in theory) will make it much easier for you to recall all the information you need to remember. This memory technique is quite simple to use and it will quickly transform your ability to remember lots of data and information if used correctly.
Chunking describes the method of grouping together a series of items in order to make remembering each item individually much easier. Make sense? Clear as mud? Chunking usually comes in the form of categories or hierarchies and it can be applied to just about anything - objects, formulas, names, dates, numbers, places, events, symbols, and so on.
For example, you may like to group items together based on starting with a certain letter (such as the letter B, G, K or Z - or any letter obviously), or based on what type of item it is (like what it's used for or what it's made from) or how this item is applied (like equations).
The most vital thing to remember is not how to chunk them together, but instead just making sure that you understand the groups or categories you are going to use. Don't use grouping you don't understand because you will find it much harder to remember the groups themselves (which means you won't remember the items either!)
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.
As you can see by using chunking the items are being grouped together in order to create more memorable memory traces. Building memory traces helps you to remember the items. Don't believe me? Quick - tell me what items we just learnt that start with B. I bet you got at least a couple without even trying to commit them to memory. The point is, once you have chunked the items you only need to remember the group in order to recall the items instead of trying to remember each item on its own.
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 up we have three, one, one and two. That's a good way to chunk it. This is the date of New Year's Eve isn't it? The 31st of December. The 31st day of the 12th month. 3112. Next comes 1969 which is the same year that man first trudged around on the moon. Is that easy enough to remember? The next two numbers are one and one which could be two or eleven. Eleven is the number of fingers you would have if you had one too many (I know thumbs are fingers but just play along!) After 11 comes 22. Well that's just 11 times by 2. Easy to remember! Finally we have 2006 to finish it off and that's the year that Brazil won the Soccer World Cup. And there you have it! It couldn't be much easier could it?
So, now that we've "chunked" it up properly what we're really remembering are events - not numbers. And by chunking it in this way we're much more likely to remember it. New Year's Eve, man walks on moon, one too many fingers, double one too many fingers and Brazil wins the soccer world cup. 3112 - 1969 -11-22-2206. 3112196911222006. Bingo!
I'm not going to pretend that the examples that have been shown to you are complex- because they're not. They're actually quite basic. But you have to start at simple and work your way to complex. The point is, chunking really works and it will improve your memory recall dramatically if you give it a go. So learn how to study by learning how to get chunky. Apply it the next time you have to remember something and see what happens. Good luck!
Chunking describes the method of grouping together a series of items in order to make remembering each item individually much easier. Make sense? Clear as mud? Chunking usually comes in the form of categories or hierarchies and it can be applied to just about anything - objects, formulas, names, dates, numbers, places, events, symbols, and so on.
For example, you may like to group items together based on starting with a certain letter (such as the letter B, G, K or Z - or any letter obviously), or based on what type of item it is (like what it's used for or what it's made from) or how this item is applied (like equations).
The most vital thing to remember is not how to chunk them together, but instead just making sure that you understand the groups or categories you are going to use. Don't use grouping you don't understand because you will find it much harder to remember the groups themselves (which means you won't remember the items either!)
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.
As you can see by using chunking the items are being grouped together in order to create more memorable memory traces. Building memory traces helps you to remember the items. Don't believe me? Quick - tell me what items we just learnt that start with B. I bet you got at least a couple without even trying to commit them to memory. The point is, once you have chunked the items you only need to remember the group in order to recall the items instead of trying to remember each item on its own.
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 up we have three, one, one and two. That's a good way to chunk it. This is the date of New Year's Eve isn't it? The 31st of December. The 31st day of the 12th month. 3112. Next comes 1969 which is the same year that man first trudged around on the moon. Is that easy enough to remember? The next two numbers are one and one which could be two or eleven. Eleven is the number of fingers you would have if you had one too many (I know thumbs are fingers but just play along!) After 11 comes 22. Well that's just 11 times by 2. Easy to remember! Finally we have 2006 to finish it off and that's the year that Brazil won the Soccer World Cup. And there you have it! It couldn't be much easier could it?
So, now that we've "chunked" it up properly what we're really remembering are events - not numbers. And by chunking it in this way we're much more likely to remember it. New Year's Eve, man walks on moon, one too many fingers, double one too many fingers and Brazil wins the soccer world cup. 3112 - 1969 -11-22-2206. 3112196911222006. Bingo!
I'm not going to pretend that the examples that have been shown to you are complex- because they're not. They're actually quite basic. But you have to start at simple and work your way to complex. The point is, chunking really works and it will improve your memory recall dramatically if you give it a go. So learn how to study by learning how to get chunky. Apply it the next time you have to remember something and see what happens. Good luck!
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