5 Tips to Remember and Learn Theoretical Subjects

Are you, like lakhs of students across the world, struggling with remembering theoretical subjects? Do you, out of sheer desperation, turn to rote learning as a short term strategy? Worry no more. Scroll down to read Exambazaar's guide to remembering theoretical subjects and find out if our tips work for you.

1. Concepts, not words

• Understand the concepts and the narrative: The key to acing theoretical subjects is internalizing its core concepts. You could go through your texts as many times as you like, but if you cannot understand and visualize its key concepts, your hard work will go futile. Take your time to understand the "Why" and "How" and never fall into the rote learning trap, however enticing it might seem. Go beyond what the book in front of you says and make up your own examples and link dots between the bits and pieces of the theory in your mind so that even if you forget what your text says, you remember what you have understood. Our brain loves stories and narratives, especially ones that it conjures itself. Keep this fact in mind and arrange the information you learnt in the form of a narrative you can find your way about. Narrativizing texts will work wonders especially if you're preparing subjects like History or Polity for competitive exams like the IAS.

• Take it up with your teacher: Your teacher or instructor is always there if you encounter problems in your learning and remembering. They might be able to reiterate your text in a way that helps you remember it better and clear any doubts you might be facing. Having a good teacher does half the work of making a concept lucid and easy to learn and discussing your weaker areas with your teacher will help you polish them up. This applies not only to theoretical subjects but also to practical subjects.
• Look for resources beyond your text: Your learning should not be limited to your textbook alone. This might seem counterintuitive when you're already stuck with remembering a theoretical subject, but hear us out. When you look for resources beyond your text - YouTube videos, interactive charts, academic papers, graphs, photographs - you broaden the spectrum of learning skills you're putting to use. The internet can be a vastly useful place outside the distractions of Facebook and Instagram and can come in very handy when your textbook or your teacher can't explain a concept to your satisfaction. The internet also offers a vast resource of learning sites, online tests, test preparation material, and innovative learning guides - you'll be all the better off if you keep the World Wide Web and all it has to offer as a weapon in your preparation arsenal.

2. Active Engagement in your Study Plan

• Visualizing Helps in Preparation: Visualizing, as a tool of learning, is a very important preparation strategy that often goes ignored. The theory might be boring, and we are inclined to agree with you, but who says you can't infuse life into it? Making flowcharts, graphs, diagrams, bulleted lists, highlights and even doodling and scribbling about the concepts takes the boredom of endless pages of text out and gives you a more efficient way to remember. Visualizing analogies around a theoretical concept or a process helps in memory retention. Your brain will probably thank you for the easier time it has to process visual information instead of miles of text.

• The "write" way to remember—Writing is a good way to remember what you have learnt. Jot down notes and important points in your own words so that you can have a quick look at them during your last minute preparation. Writing helps in improving your brain and hand synchronization and your time management skills if you write with a set time constraint.

• Revise, Recapitulate and be consistent in your Study Schedule— We cannot stress enough on the importance of this point. Your brain is likely to forget what you have learnt or retain only bits and snatches if you do not revise your lessons at regular intervals. After you finish studying, practice recalling it after one or two hours to test your memory retention - if you find you cannot remember some parts well, go back and revise. Set aside some time in your schedule for revising old concepts, especially in areas where you are weak. Also, to avoid cramming in the last week before your exam, maintain a consistent study plan throughout the year. For inspiration and tips, go ahead and read our topper interviews on Exambazaar.

3. Use the Feynman method

Do you know that Richard P Feynman, the famous physicist, was called The Great Explainer for his ability to explain complicated concepts of theoretical physics to laymen? The method named after him involves explaining as a way to bolster your grasp of concepts. This method suggests that you try to explain a concept you learnt in simple terms to yourself as if you were teaching someone who has little knowledge about the subject. You are free to come up with innovative analogies and examples for your explanation - all building towards the ultimate goal of firmly planting the concept or narrative into your mind. You can identify problem areas when you catch yourself resorting to jargon, complicated language and shaky explanations, for, as Einstein reportedly said, if you can't explain something simply enough, you haven't learnt it well enough.

4. Group Study is helpful in Theoretical Subjects

Learning styles come in different sizes. If you are an auditory learner, discussing theoretical concepts with peers helps. To this end, you can schedule a certain amount of time for group study and discussion with peers after you have studied your lessons individually. Studying in a group might also help fill in gaps in your understanding with the help of a friend who might have understood it more clearly, lets you come up with new questions and different perspectives on the same lesson and most importantly, it gives you the chance to practice the Feynman Method as described above.

5. Bonus tip: Get Sherlocked

We might be going over to the bizarre side of things with this, but then, genius comes out of weirdness. Seen the BBC's Sherlock? Remember how Sherlock built up a superb memory with his famous retention technique "The Mind Palace? " Turns out, this idea, also called the Method of Loci has been around since Greek and Roman times. The items to be remembered in this mnemonic system are mentally associated with specific physical locations. The method relies on memorized spatial relationships to establish order and recollect memorial content. Say, you picture a very familiar location, say, your house or the route to your college and associate specific physical locations like a window sill or a red postbox with an item of memory.

We hope our article on learning theoretical subjects helped you in shaping your study strategies. Do let us know in the comments if you know of any other fantastic methods of learning and remembering theoretical subjects.