Remembering past lectures

[setgoblen]

Dear friends,

I can not say I read a lot, I read about 20 books per year. But I noticed a problem that disturbed me, after a couple of months, not to mention years I could hardly remember the content of the book I've read, revisiting it is a solution, but it is a time consuming solution. 

First I started saving quotes from every book a read, and revisited them from time to time, that helped a little but it was not enough. Then I started creating summaries of the books I've read, also revisiting them from time to time, that was a little better, but still not enough, 

Only after I've read a book about educating children (I have a 3 year old boy), I've stumbled upon a great idea, TESTING. 

Now, when I read a book, I create questions for the interesting topics, eventually creating a test with 20-30 questions for every book. I confess, it's harder than reading quotes or a summary, but it tends to stick in my memory for longer periods of time, so it's less time consuming. (by the way the books name is Make it Stick by Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger III, Mark A. McDaniel)

Do any of you use this technique? Or what techniques do you use for remembering past lectures? 

 

 

[bobblybear]

I don't tend to have time to create questions, and I can relate to what you say about forgetting the content of a book. My problem is that I jump straight from one book to another, and when finished I rarely spend time thinking about what I have just read (unless it's exceptional). I think if I did that, then I would be more likely to remember what the book was about.

[MrCat]

Funny, I was just thinking of the subject these days. I was browsing part of my old book collection that I moved over at my grandparent's place and I recognized many familiar names and titles but I could not name every book's action properly. Of course nobody can be expected to remember something he or she read 20 years ago but in that case does it even count as a read book? I mean I read most of Jules Verne's novels when I was a kid but I can only remember parts of the books. Or Gulliver's Travels and books by Alexandre Dumas. 

 

Most of the books that I remember very well have either been read a few times on had something very special that made them stand out.