Part I: The brain-training tools

In part I we will look at strategies that will enable you to learn what you read as you read it and what you hear as you hear it. You will learn to perform like a genius!

The difference between the top students and the bottom students is not so much the quality of their brain, but how they use it. You will learn strategies that will improve your performance out of sight. And the methods are fun to use and will make learning fun. The strategies are not complicated — they are easy to learn, and you can start using them immediately.

So, read the book, use the methods and perform like a genius. I wish you success.

Chapter 1: Making mental pictures

In 1982 a newspaper published an article about special classes I was conducting at the secondary school where I was teaching. They reported that students claimed that, using my methods, they could do the equivalent of more than two hours study in less than 10 minutes.

I was teaching two classes, one for gifted students and another for kids that other teachers considered unteachable. After a couple of months, both groups performed as if they were gifted. A group of students actually approached the school administration and complained that you had to be extra smart or extra dumb to get into my classes. This certainly took away any stigma of being part of the unteachables class.

I taught my system of mathematics, logical thinking, and learning and study techniques. I told the students that it is not the quality of your brain that determines your abilities, but how you use it. High achievers use better methods than the low achievers. I told them I would teach them better methods than the high achievers use so they will get better results.

Using your imagination to improve your learning is a good first step. Your imagination is a powerful tool for creating ideas, understanding ideas and learning ideas. In this chapter we will see how you can harness your imagination to learn more effectively and efficiently. I’ll use the example of showing you how you can use your imagination to learn the names of capital cities around the world.

Imagination and learning

Children are often told, ‘Don’t daydream!’, ‘Pay attention!’, ‘Concentrate!’ This is not good advice, as the children who have a vivid imagination do best in school.

I daydreamed all my way through school and it helped immensely at examination time. As my geography or history teachers described what was happening in some far-off place or time, I would see it all in my mind. I ran it in my mind like a movie. Rather than hindering concentration, it enabled me to concentrate better and to understand better what I was hearing in class. And then, at examination time, I just re-ran the movie in my mind and got the answers I needed.

When I read a novel or a history book I always picture what I am reading. Most people do this. If I can’t see what’s happening, I have difficulty understanding it. That is why many people are disappointed when they see a movie version of a book: it’s not how they pictured it in their minds.

If you can daydream, you can concentrate at a high level. This is great news for most kids.

Active learning is the secret

Most people never get beyond passive learning. They learn by rote: they learn by reading or listening to information over and over again, hoping the information will stick in their mind by itself and they will be able to recall at least some of it when they need it.

Better students look for ways to take control of the learning process. They continually ask themselves, how can I best remember this? What is the easiest way for me to learn it? They might think: that number is the same as the final digits of my friend’s telephone number. Or that number is the same as our old street address, or the same as my sister’s age.

Better students will look for the sense of what they are learning. They will ask themselves, why is it like that? Is there a reason, or what is the reason? If the thing can be reasoned, then they can use the same reasoning later in an exam to recall the information. The benefits go further if you actually use the information you have learned. Each time you use the information you are revising it.

Active learning takes place when you decide how you will remember what you are learning — you take charge of how you learn.

Have you ever had somebody explain something to you, and you told the person you understood what you had been told but, when you tried to explain it back to them, you couldn’t do it? You thought you understood it but found out you didn’t when you were tested. That is why many people say the best way to learn is to explain it or teach it to someone else. That is another example of active learning.

My speed learning method harnesses daydreaming and mental pictures and a system of reminders, which is a ready-made system of active learning. You decide how you will learn the information by making the mental pictures to connect what you want to learn with the reminders. By making sense of the information and by using the reminders (both are active learning strategies) you understand what you are learning and you can recall it under pressure.

Active learning is much more efficient and much more effective. You control the learning process, and you will see immediate results.

Joining new information to a reminder forces you to concentrate on what you are reading or hearing. It means you make the picture in your mind and that makes you concentrate at an even higher level.

Linking new information to old information

When my father recounted his training session on how to learn effectively he said you had to join the new information to information you already know. His advice has stayed with me all of my life. If you can make the connection using your imagination, then the learning process is even easier and better. This process is called linking information.

Let’s see how this works by learning the names of some capital cities.

Learning the names of capital cities

Let’s begin with the capitals of some South American countries.

Capital of Ecuador

If you know something about the city you could use a monument or landmark to represent the city, such as the Eiffel Tower for Paris, or Big Ben or the Tower Bridge for London.

Otherwise, I use a word that sounds like the country or city. For instance, Quito (pronounced KEEtoe) is the capital of Ecuador. We learn that the capital of Ecuador is Quito by finding a way of joining (or linking) the two names together. Here is where you use your imagination. Quito and Ecuador can be hard to join, so the next step is to look for words that sound like the names to make them easy to learn.

We ask ourselves, what do the names sound like? This forces us to concentrate on the names we are learning. You are not just passively reading or listening to the information; you are actively using it. I think that Quito sounds like mosquito so I use mosquito as my substitute word for Quito, and I see a mosquito. Ecuador sounds like equator (it actually means equator in Spanish) or ‘aqua door’. When you use your imagination to join the two, you will remember them — even under pressure.

If I use equator as my substitute for Ecuador, I picture in my mind millions and millions of mosquitos swarming around the equator so no one wants to cross for fear of getting hundreds of mosquito bites. If I use aqua door as my substitute, I picture painting my door with aqua coloured paint, and mosquitoes land on the newly painted door and get stuck in the wet paint so I have to clean up the door and paint it again. Adding some action to the image can help make it stick in your mind.

Whichever picture you decide on, see it clearly in your mind and in as much detail as you can. This forces a high level of concentration because your mind can’t drift elsewhere or you lose the picture. So, don’t just agree with the pictures I suggest — actually see the pictures in your mind as clearly as you can. That is what forces high concentration and enables you to recall the information when you need it.

It’s that simple — if you have seen the picture in your mind then you have memorised the name of the capital of Ecuador. It was easy and it was fun. And it required no more concentration than it takes to daydream.

Capital of Venezuela

Let’s try another. Caracas is the capital of Venezuela. Caracas sounds like crackers and Venezuela sounds like . . .

What does Venezuela sound like? What do you do if you can’t think of a word that sounds like the word you want to link? It doesn’t have to be a perfect match. Whale sounds like the third syllable of Venezuela and it is the stressed or dominant syllable. That will work fine for me.

So, we need to link cracker to whale to remind us that Caracas is the capital of Venezuela. I picture a whale that has been beached and can’t get back in the water. It is hungry so I give it some crackers to eat. Or, some naughty children have put firecrackers under the whale to try to shift it. Either picture makes the connection between crackers and the whale. Picture them both if you like and you have learnt the capital of Venezuela and have it memorised, ready for when you need it.

Capital of Peru

Lima is the capital of Peru. I think of lima beans for Lima and, if you imagine they have a bad smell and picture lima beans stink, pee-ew. That links Lima with Peru. Imagine holding your nose as you eat lima beans. See it happening in your mind. You won’t forget it.

Capital of Romania

Let’s take a European capital now: Bucharest is the capital of Romania. Bucharest sounds like book rest, and Romania sounds like remain here. We put bookends (rests) on our shelves so the books won’t fall off — they ‘remain here’.

Let’s check what we have learned

Now, what is the capital of Ecuador?

What is the capital of Venezuela?

What is the capital of Peru?

What is the capital of Romania?

That was easy, wasn’t it? Can you see that you can make learning subjects you find boring, or even hate, interesting and entertaining. If your mental pictures don’t entertain you, whose fault is that? You can make learning any subject as entertaining as you want just by using your imagination and doing a little daydreaming.

Let’s try this the other way around.

Of which country is Caracas the capital?

Which country has Lima as the capital?

Bucharest is the capital of which country?

Where is Quito?

You have learnt the information both ways. The city reminds you of the country and the country reminds you of the city. And we took the hard work out of learning it.

Here are some more to try

How would you remember that Budapest is the capital of Hungary?

Or that Santiago is the capital of Chile?

Or Helsinki is the capital of Finland?

Try to make your own connections before you read my suggestions.

It is easy to think of a word that sounds like Hungary (hungry) but what sounds like Budapest. The pest part of the word is easy, but what can we do with buda?

I imagine I am hungry and sit down to a meal, but a pest keeps interrupting my meal and I can’t enjoy it. If I picture booing the pest each time he appears then I have my connection. I booed a pest because I am hungry and want to eat. So I’ll remember, Budapest is the capital of Hungary.

Chile sounds like chilly. I picture Santa is trying to go down the chimney, but he gets stuck and gets cold because the weather is chilly. I join Santa with chilly for my connection.

I can find the words hell and sink from Helsinki and fin land from Finland. I picture being in the ocean and I see a shark fin circling me. That is enough to remind me of Finland. The shark from hell wants to sink me so it can eat me. That reminds me of Helsinki.

You will get better at making these connections with practice.

Making better mental pictures

If you make your mental pictures stronger and more memorable, you can force greater concentration on the information you want to remember and make it easier to recall when you need it. Here are some suggestions:

• Make the item bigger — make it huge.

• See millions of the object you are thinking of. Don’t see just one mosquito — see millions stuck on your door.

• Make the items do something so you can see plenty of action: the mosquitoes are marching, hitting, biting, running and flying.

• Think of something being done to the objects you are seeing: they are being hit, squashed or eaten.

• Make the picture ridiculous — we forget the ordinary things in life but we remember the unusual. Making weird pictures in your mind forces you to think harder about what you are learning as you try to make them ridiculous. You are then less likely to forget the information. This will also help develop your ability to think creatively.

• See the picture as clearly and with as much detail as you can. And don’t just see your picture — hear and feel it, if you can, rather than just see it.

• Try to involve your other senses in your mental picture to make it more real. Hear and feel your association, if you can, rather than just see it.

All of these rules will force you to concentrate, not only on the pictures but also on the information you are learning. You can use this method to learn anything: you are now in control of how you learn and the learning process is fun.

Practise making mental pictures to learn and remember information and you will not only learn more effectively and efficiently, but be able to recall information under pressure. You will also improve your concentration and develop other mental skills, and you will have fun while you do it.

Now let’s see how well this has worked

Can you still remember, what is the capital of Finland?

The capital of Ecuador?

What is the capital of Hungary?

Venezuela?

Chile?

Peru?

Romania?

Do you see how well the method is working? You have just learnt and mastered a very useful learning tool.

Tips for remembering

• Revise what you learn within five minutes of learning it.

• You only need to keep your first connections for five minutes.

• Do your second revision within an hour.

• Revise when you go to bed.

• Revise when you wake up.

After your first revision, just recite them once or twice a day for a week and afterwards, whenever you think of it. It is a painless and pleasant way to learn.

How long will I remember what I have learned?

People often ask me this question, but there is no easy answer.

If I am learning a list of things to buy from the supermarket this afternoon, then the information will stay until I have bought them. I don’t need the information any longer so I only keep it in my memory for a couple of hours.

But what about studying for an exam? Tests and exams can be weeks or even months after we have learned the new information. The simple answer is that you need to put the information into your permanent memory so you can recall the information when you need it.

How to remember new information for a long time

After you have heard or read the new information you want to remember and joined each key point to one of your reminders, quickly review what you have learnt using the reminders. That is your first revision. You should do your first revision as soon as possible after you have memorised the list.

You should do your second revision no more than an hour later. Revise what you have learned while you walk to the bus stop, wait at the bus stop, travel home, wait in line at the supermarket checkout or while you walk your dog. If you have jobs to do after school, revise your schoolwork then.

When you put on your pyjamas to go to bed, run through the list again. They say you remember what you have learned better if you sleep immediately afterwards, so revise just before you go to sleep. And when you wake up in the morning, go through them again while you are thinking about getting up. Then go over the list once a week for a month and then from time to time when you think of it, and you will find the information will go into your permanent memory.

Revising what you have learnt while you are cleaning your room, mowing the lawn, or doing some other job that doesn’t need your full attention means you aren’t taking time from other activities to study. I call this using lost time to study. That means you aren’t taking time from other activities to do your schoolwork. You would be doing those things anyway. In fact, it would appear to anyone else that you aren’t doing any study but you are getting more accomplished than your friends who might be sitting up half the night.

Key points

• You can control how you learn.

• If you can daydream you can concentrate.

• Use your imagination to force high concentration.

• We remember the unusual more easily than the ordinary.

• We join new information to information we already know.

Activities to try

• Try memorising the capital cities of other countries around the world, or the state or provincial capitals in the United States or Canada.

• Try memorising the captains and coaches of football or cricket teams. Have fun with the method.