What if I told you that one of the simplest tricks to improve your memory is to test yourself? It might sound silly but testing yourself can be a great way to learn faster and retain more information. Additionally, science says that testing yourself can provide ten extra benefits, which you’ll want to take advantage of.
A simple trick to improve your memory offers up to 10 science-back benefits
Normally, tests can cause a lot of stress. When you test yourself, you’re creating all the context required by the questions. And, when you look up the answer for something, you’re more likely to remember it. As such, testing yourself can be a great trick to improve your memory over the long term. Aside from that, though, it also offers other benefits.
Learning new information can be easy, but retaining that information over time can be difficult. That’s another benefit of testing yourself. Not only can you teach your mind to retain the things you teach it, but you’ll be able to retrieve information easier the next time you need it. And, because your retention increases, you can also identify gaps in your knowledge, another way this trick improves your memory.
Another benefit that testing yourself can offer, aside from improving your memory, is to organize your knowledge. Think of your brain as an office. For some, the office may be perfectly organized, with information and memories locked away in specific drawers and cabinets. For others, though, it might be an outright mess. Better organizing your mind is another trick you can use to improve your memory.
Testing yourself encourages more learning
Another great benefit that testing yourself brings is it encourages more learning. If you test yourself often, you’ll naturally study more often. Because you’re studying more, science says that you’ll also learn more because your mind is retaining the knowledge you need to pass your tests. Not only does trick improve your memory, but it also makes you want to learn more.
These are all great reasons why testing yourself is an easy trick to improve your memory. Alone, each of the benefits is great, but together, they could help make your potential for learning unstoppable. Not only that, but you’ll also want to learn, which means you’ll be willing to put more time into it, too. You can read up on all the benefits testing yourself brings in Inc.com’s report.
