How to learn vocabulary fast and well

I want to share with you how I memorise vocabulary. (It’m not paid for writing it – it really works ).

Firstly, there’s great computer programme which organises your repetitions to maximally save your time. Its name’s SuperMemo and its old version is now freeware so you can try it for free: http://supermemo.com/english/down.htm

You probably now think ‘oh, next easy-learning application which really gives you nothing’, but you’re wrong! The reason of it’s effectiveness is simpler than you think!

It organises your repetitions so you can repeat only words which are really close to being forgotten. This way you don’t waste time for repeating words one-by-one as written on the list. Normally you spend equal amount of time for repeating difficult words as the easy ones.

‘OK’ you think ‘how does it know that particular word is close to being forgotten and demands more time to memorize it?’ – it’s also very simple: after repeating the word you choose one of 6 grades – each one represents one level of difficulty (1 – ‘it wasn’t problem’ 2 – ‘I needed some time’ 3- ‘I had some minor doubts’ and so on). Programme simply collects that information and creates, let’s call it,  factor of difficulty.

The more difficult the word is to remind – the more frequently it’ll appear in the repetition list. The clue to efficient learning is regularity – you can order SM to teach you a very big amount of vocabulary (e.g. 1000 words) and it’ll generate only 10minutes/day of repetition (depending on the condition of your memory )!

And that’s all! I really don’t know why such easy and efficient way of learning isn’t yet worldwide known!

Of course you don’t have to learn only vocabulary – you can create any set of question-answer pairs (it’s called ‘knowledge database’) – biology, economy, or Call of Duty keyboard shortcuts it’s up to you!

‘OK’ more critical part of you says ‘What if I have 100 words to memorize and only 1 day?’

The answer is: SuperMemo won’t work here (because it’s designed for long-term learning)..

…BUT I’ve created SM-inspired system for zzz-learning (in polish “zakuj, zdaj, zapomnij” – ‘learn by heart, pass (the exam), forget’). It’s also very simple (you just have to be focused at the beginning)
though my friends think I’m batty seeing my sheet full of numbers (another important note – if you’re an enemy of ANY numbers – you won’t like).

Let’s say I have 0,5h to memorize a A4 sheet of numbered vocabulary (in table). I have to prepare also another sheet with long rows.

1. Cover answer part with another sheet and  read all questions one-by-one
2. If  it was easy to answer the question -  place it (by place I mean write its number) in  5th
   row, if less – 4th or 3rd, If it was hard but you managed to answer correctly – 2nd row. If you couldn’t answer it – 1st one.
3. Now answer the questions from 1st row and again write their numbers in correct row (depending on difficulty level) – if you couldn’t answer them – write them on the end of current row and repeat immediately.
4. Now do the same with rest of the rows when you feel that one word isn’t worth repeating – don’t write it in next rows – you’ll have more time for the harder ones.

Of course you can memorize knowledge like this for a test, but you’re not forced to forget it – you can insert the list into supermemo and  be sure you won’t forget it any more!

I won’t write about inserting knowledge to the programme, because this post is already too long  – if you want me to do do it.. leave your comment or e-mail me

PS. I’ve created some knowledge databases (polish=>english vocabulary (800 words from my lessons) and polish=>italian (1200 words also from my lessons) – I’ll publish them in GPL in the future, but if someone is interested now – I can send them via e-mail.

~ by papaja1992 on 11 April 2008.