Study methods
The memory palace: remember facts by placing them
The memory palace, or method of loci, is one of the oldest memory techniques. You imagine a place you know, and put each fact you want to remember at a spot along a route through it. To recall the facts, you walk the route again. It works because we remember places far better than lists.
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Why it works
- Spatial memory is strong and lasting
- A route gives the facts a fixed order, which suits lists and sequences
- Vivid, odd images are easier to recall than plain words
- Memory champions use it, and it works for ordinary students too
How to do it
Choose a route
Use a place you know well: your home, your way to school. Pick stops along it in a fixed order.
Place one fact at each stop
Turn each fact into a vivid image and put it at the next stop. The stranger the image, the better it sticks.
Walk it again
Walk the route in your head and collect the facts. Do it again the next day.
Or walk Memo's palace
Memo's memory palace puts a note's flashcards and questions at stops around a small town you walk through, so you get the method without building the palace yourself.
The study modes that fit best
Flashcards
The facts the palace places along the route.
Quiz
To check the whole list after a walk.
Notes
To understand each fact before placing it.
Questions
What is the memory palace good for?
Lists and sequences: steps of a process, a list of causes, the branches of a nerve, the order of events. It is less useful for understanding an idea.
Try it on your own material.
Upload a lecture, a PDF or your slides and get notes, flashcards and a quiz in a few minutes.
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