Tips from the Science of Memory-for Studying and for Life For many college students, including myself, remembering your course material and retaining the information you need for exams does not come easily. There are several ways for students to improve their memorization skills in order to better retain the information they are learning. According to the text, the first important step is organization. After you read your material, and listen to the lecture it is important to take time to reflect on what you just learned before moving on to the next topic. Organizing the information in a way that makes sense to you is the most effective way to retain important points. For some people, making an outline and highlighting important words is a good way to etch the information into your memory. It is very important to make sure that the information in your notes is accurate so that when you need to reflect on it, it is correct. Taking notes with misinformation would defeat the purpose when it came to preparing for your exam. The next step in memorization is encoding. When you encode something, it is like you are making a permanent place in your brain for the memory. Some of the best ways to remember things are using imagery, such as photographs, to relate the information to. By doing this, when you see the image again, you will remember the concept or idea that is tied to it. Also, while reading your material, take the time to tie your personal life experiences to what you are reading about. I did this in this class when we were learning about reinforcement and punishment. While I was reading that section of the chapter, I thought about how it applied to the things I do with my children. Now when I see the term positive reinforcement, I remember the examples I thought of and know what the definition is. The third step in memorization is to rehearse. This simply means to go over the information and practice it until you know you have a good understanding of the material. Again, relating this information to my children I think of their spelling words. Every evening they have to write their words at least two times each in order to help them memorize them. Then on the night before the test, I give them a mock test and see how well the know them. By making them write them multiple times a week they are rehearsing each word. When I give them the test, they then have an idea of how well they will do on the real test, and which words they need to spend more time practicing. By rehearsing their words, it helps with their memorization of how to spell them correctly which brings us to our final step of memorization, retrieval. In this step you are able to recall all of the information you encoded into your memory in the final steps. Autobiographical memory is how we are able to tell our life story. By remembering all of our important life events such as birthdays, weddings, graduations, holidays, and the like are what make each person unique and able to tell about themself. When someone asks about an important life even we are able to recall the memory and tell the person a story about it. Without autobiographical memory, everyone would seem to be the same. It is important to do brain exercises in order to stay sharp and decrease our risk of certain diseases such as Alzheimer’s. I often see commercials for apps for smartphones that are designed to keep our brain working. Research shows that people who stop challenging themselves are often at risk for brain deteriorating diseases. This information is very important to me since my grandmother currently suffers from stage 7 Alzheimer disease. According to the text, modern conveniences such as GPS may contribute to these diseases as well. (King, (Steven T. Peverly, 2007) 238)
What Predicts Skill in Lecture Note Taking http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/edu/99/1/167/ Perhaps note taking is one of the most important study skills one uses. Since the most common way for professors to relay important information is through lecture, being able to take accurate notes is very important when it comes time to study. Many students struggle with this for various reasons. It is important to have a good working memory so that you are able to retain the information long enough to write it down in your notes. This depends on the circumstances on which you are taking your notes and the environment that you are in. One study shows that students that are able to take notes in an environment that wasn’t stressful and didn’t feel much pressure were able to take better and more organized notes than students who thought that the notes would directly affect their grade. (Perverly, 20071) Punctuation goes after citation in APA. Students that have a lower level of writing skills or a learning disability were less likely to be able to take notes that were beneficial to them. The inabilities to spell, read, and comprehend at a normal college level proved to be a great hindrance when they tried to take notes and organize them in a useful way. Research has shown that these students were also unable to relate to the main idea and their working memory was not as accurate as someone with higher level skills or without disability. By having good note taking skills it allows the student to focus on the important points in the course. When it comes time to study for an exam, it is much easier to look over notes from the lecture or from the readings than it is to go over the entire chapter risk focusing on things that are less important and less likely to be on the exam. Also, by taking notes during a lecture you are able to accurately recall what the professor spoke about rather than trying to recall the information strictly from memory.
My Study Plan In order to maximize my study efforts, the first thing I need to do is limit my distractions. I often find myself distracted while trying to do homework. Having 5 children makes it tough to find time when it is quiet and there aren’t any distractions. Ideally I would also deactivate my Facebook account, as I also find this to be a huge distraction. When I should be devoting all of my concentration to my school work I will find myself checking Facebook in the middle of it. I am also horrible about taking notes. I start out the semester doing really well, but as time goes on and it gets closer to midterms or finals, I find that my notes are either really brief or I have not taken them at all. After reading the section of the book and the article on how much more successful students are that take notes, I realize that this is something that is very important and shouldn’t be over looked. I need to get caught up on my chapter notes, make sure I have a good understanding of all of the highlighted terms in the textbook, and take the practice exam in order to be well prepared for the up-coming midterm exam.

Bibliography This is called “References” in APA
King, L. A. (2013). Experinece Psychology. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Steven T. Peverly, e. a. (2007). What Predicts Skill in Lecture Note Taking. Journal of Educational Psychology, 1-2. http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/edu/99/1/167/ Last name first here, no first name-0-only first initial. Double Space.

References
Ivy Tech Community College Library. (2011) Evaluating Web Sites. Retrieved from http://wwwcc.ivytech.edu/library/lafayette/
King, L. (2013) Experience Psychology. University of Missouri, Columbia
MAX. SCORE: YOUR SCORE
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Total: 75/75 YOUR TOTAL SCORE: 69/75 You did a good job on your paper. I thought it read rather well. Let me share a few things that might improve future papers.
* Caution: Authoritative—You needed to discuss this issue—your site was authoritative, but the assignment requires that you state that and explain why it is. See Assignment
** Formatting: Auto format adds a 10pt space between paragraphs. APA is totally double spaced. Your reference page is not APA. You could have printed and used the sample paper in Resources to improve your grade.