Memorising techniques by subject

Why one method is not enough for every subject

Three differences that decide which approach to pick.

The material is built differently — History is a sequence of events in time, geography is an arrangement in space, maths is a set of relationships. Each of those has a different natural handle.
The questioning is different — Biology asks for a definition, maths for a solution, literature for a quotation. The form the knowledge has to come out in decides how it should go in.
The technique costs differently — Building images for twenty dates pays off before a history test. With three physics formulas it is usually cheaper simply to derive them.

Six subjects and an approach for each

Each comes with one example you can repeat this evening.

History — dates and sequences of events
Every digit gets a fixed image, a date becomes a scene made of several objects, and the events of one period happen in one place. The question “which came first” is then answered by walking through that scene.
Biology — terms
A difficult word is broken into familiar pieces and joined with what the term means, in one moving scene. The process described in the textbook is worth drawing out with arrows as well.
Geography — maps and names
Instead of a list, a route across the map: the finger always travels the same way, and the names sit in the order they are passed. For rivers and mountain ranges this beats any list.
Literature — poems and rules
Here the exact wording counts, so rhythm does the work: the passage is said aloud, at a steady pace, broken into short parts. Spelling rules go through a rhyme, exceptions separately.
Maths — formulas
A formula learnt without its derivation works only in a problem identical to the one from the lesson. Derive it once, then repeat it on three different problems — that is cheaper than cramming.
Foreign language — vocabulary
The sound of the word resembles something familiar, and that something meets the meaning in one scene. Seven words per session, then checked the other way round, from your own language into the foreign one.

Important

Techniques do not cover skills: solving problems, writing an essay, reading for meaning. Those cannot be memorised — they have to be done.

Three subjects and the technique assigned to each: dates as images, terms as scenes, formulas through problems — The same method will not handle dates in history and formulas in maths. The material is built differently.

One history evening, two approaches

Six dates for a history test. The same material, the same hour.

Without a technique

The child copies six dates into the exercise book and repeats them in order, looking at the list.
Twenty minutes later they recite them without error — in that one learnt order.
On the test the question is put differently: “what happened in 1989?”. The order does not help, because the question fell out of the middle of the list.

With number images

Each date gets an image: 1969 — a candle, a swan, a bucket and a hook, that is 1, 9, 6 and 9, with a boot pressing into grey dust.
The image joins to the event, not to the neighbouring date — so a question from the middle of the list works just as well as one from the start.
Once six images are built: questioning at random, not in order. You give the year, the child gives the event, then the other way round.
A five-minute return in the evening and once more three days later.

Building six images takes longer than copying out six dates, and that is the whole price of this method. It pays back when the question is put differently from the exercise book — which usually means on the test itself.

Take one subject from tomorrow's timetable — five minutes

Not the whole week and not every subject. One, the nearest.

Check how the teacher checks
A written quiz, an oral answer or multiple choice. That one question changes the choice of technique more than the subject does.
Write out what has to be known word for word
Only the things reproduced exactly: dates, formulas, definitions, names. There are usually fewer of them than it seems.
Build an image for one of them
For one, not for all of them. Two minutes, together, out loud.
Check in the evening
One question about that one thing, with the book closed.

What counts as a result

If that one thing comes back effortlessly in the morning, you have your answer: the technique works for your child and you can build the rest. If it does not come back, the image was usually too calm or tied to the neighbouring item instead of the event — and that is fixed in a minute, before you build the next fifteen.

Do not start with the subject that is going worst. The first run is meant to show that the method works — you come back to the hardest subject once there is something to believe in.

What the research says

Three papers behind three decisions in this text.

Dunlosky et al., 2013 — a review of ten learning techniques

Self-testing and spacing came out highest regardless of subject; the keyword mnemonic, by contrast, was rated low — the authors see a narrow use for it, where material has to be reproduced word for word. Hence the split between “to be understood” and “to be memorised” in every subject here.

Atkinson, 1975 — the keyword method

The basis of what we do with foreign languages: a foreign word gets a similar-sounding familiar one and a scene carrying the meaning.

Cepeda et al., 2006 — a review of 184 papers on spacing

The same minutes spread over several days give better recall. That is why every subject here talks about three short sessions rather than the evening before a test.

What this does not prove

These studies looked at learning techniques, not at our course. The split by subject, which is what this page is, does not come from them — it comes from practice in class; what comes from the research is the principle that word-for-word recall and understanding need different work.

What to do with material technique does not cover

Four kinds of work where images give you nothing.

Problems have to be solved

A solution that has been read looks understood. Only one done unaided shows whether it is.

Set texts — your own summary

Half a page written in your own words, with three quotations. A ready-made analysis from the internet stays in the head for one evening.

Essays — the skeleton, not the content

What gets memorised is the structure of the piece and the linking phrases, not the examples. Examples are chosen for a topic nobody knows in advance.

Experiments and processes

The order of the stages can be taken as a chain, but the sense of the process has to be understood first. Otherwise the chain reproduces words without content.

The most common mistakes when taking techniques into school

Four things that make a technique work in practice exercises and fail in a lesson.

Building images for everything

Twenty scenes for one chapter take longer than ordinary studying. Images are made for what has to come back word for word — the rest goes through retelling.

A technique chosen without checking the form of questioning

The teacher asks orally while the child prepares for multiple choice. How it is checked decides what is needed: recognition or recall.

Carrying the technique over to problems that must be solved

Maths and physics cannot be memorised — they have to be practised on problems. Technique serves the formulas, not the skill of using them.

One evening for a whole subject

Images built the evening before a test have no time to settle. Three days of twenty minutes give a different result from one sitting.

Where to start in which year

The order in which the techniques go in most easily.

Year	Where to start
Years 5–7	Scenes and chains: science, geography, vocabulary
Years 8–9	Number images for dates and a route across the map
Sixth form	Choosing the technique to fit the material and the form of the question

See where the child stands today

The free test is three short game-like tasks: memory, attention and reasoning. The result suggests whether to start with images or to sort out attention first.

Open the free test

short test, about 7 minutes · no sign-up · instant result

Where this split comes from

Author: Natalia Lubenets — co-founder and head of methodology at Space Memory

From the exercise books students bring to Space Memory classes. A coach does not teach techniques detached from school: they take the nearest test and fit the approach to whatever is in the material — which is why this text is arranged by subject rather than by technique.

Questions from students and parents

Which subject should we start with?

The one with the nearest test. A technique mastered on real material stays; one practised on examples from an article does so less often.

Do teachers mind these methods?

We have not run into that. The knowledge stays in the student's head, and the road it took to get there is not what gets marked.

How long does it take to build images for twenty dates?

With practice, about fifteen minutes; at the start, around forty. It pays back at the first review, because returning to a scene is faster than returning to a list.

Does this help with maths?

With formulas, constants and the order of operations, yes. In solving problems what decides is the number of problems worked through, not a memory technique.

What about subjects where speaking counts?

There you work on the skeleton of the answer: three cue words in order and a first sentence prepared for certain.

Is it worth doing this together with a sibling?

On the same subjects, yes — building scenes together goes faster. In different years each needs their own material.

Would you like the student to work through this on their own books?

In online classes the techniques are practised on current school material: 90 minutes once a week, in a group of 5–10, plus short sessions in between. Leave a request and we will tell you about the next group.

Request a call

This article is free. In class the student works through it on their own exercise books, not on examples from the text.

Memorising techniques by subject — history to maths