When a technique doesn’t work as well as you expect, you have the opportunity to look at why. You can also discover alternative ways of learning. Some of my most effective learning occurred after having to use an alternative technique because the first technique didn’t work as well as I wanted.
Some questions to ask yourself when a technique does not work as well as you expect include:
· Have you fully understood the intent, process and use of the technique? Re-read the descriptions, or try to find further information on particular techniques using the references ý.
· Have you set the foundations? For example, peg words need an investment of effort to memorize at least the first ten words. Recalling the first ten peg words has to be as easy as counting to ten. Some of the techniques that extend on these basic ten words don’t work effectively if you cannot immediately recall the correct peg words.
· Have you associated or visualized effectively? Sometimes I came up with a creative association that linked two pieces of content I was trying to memorize. However, I didn’t take a moment to visualize it. I discuss this problem in more detail below.
· Perhaps the technique you are trying doesn’t work well for your learning style. See the Memletic Styles chapter for more information on the various learning styles.
· Perhaps the technique doesn’t work well for the content you are learning. Some techniques do not work so well when you are under pressure. Other techniques work well for checklists but not learning about weather, for example. In the Memletic Process (the Arrange step) I outline which techniques are good for the various knowledge types, however you may need to vary your choices for your own use.
If you find you still can’t get a technique to work for you, whether in general or when applying to a specific learning objective, try another approach. If you find that one technique works for you, use it more often. If you have difficulty with another, try different techniques. The important point is that you should try to find what works for you.