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Very interesting! In college, I strongly experienced the phenomena of taking a test and not being able to remember the exact content, but could accurately reme

Very interesting! In college, I strongly experienced the phenomena of taking a test and not being able to remember the exact content, but could accurately remember the layout of the page that the data was on. I also got into the habit of creating 1 or 2 page cheat sheets for tests, whether I could use them in the test or not, and the spatial organization of the data seemed to correlate very directly with my ability to process and absorb the data.

samuell 6y ago
Thanks! Interesting observation about the layout! Indeed, I also feel my most effective notes are the ones where I get a little creative with the layout, placing things out thoughtfully. (Also, going back and filling in with a lot of balloons with thoughts afterwards etc, to make each page a little customized).
CodeIsTheEnd 6y ago
I had a similar experience in high school with Spanish vocabulary tests. I could remember where the word was on the page, but not the translation. At the time I perceived using the location as a crutch, so I made photocopies of the pages, cut them into the separate columns, then taped them together to make one very long and skinny list of words. I would then roll it up into a small scroll, little bigger than a tube of chapstick. Maybe the spatial location was a learning aid, and this actually made it harder to learn words, but it did make it much easier to discreetly study during other classes, so it was probably a net win overall.
bradstewart 6y ago
Really interesting to hear others had this experience as well. During tests, I would routinely see an image of sorts of the page in my head, with the words or equations I needed blurred out. Now that I think about, no clue why I assumed that was unique to me.
michaelrpeskin 6y ago
Yes! Same thing for me. I’m a bit dyslexic so reading things never goes well. But I could always remember where on the page the equations were in the textbooks. So during a test, I’d picture the equations and where they were and the write them down so that I could use them.
Pokepokalypse 6y ago
Yeah - I do this too, and I also find that for learning new programming tasks, if I make my own cheat-sheet, I remember the content well enough that I don't actually need to use it that much. But when it comes to using someone else's cheat-sheet, I have a hard time remembering and I have to constantly refer back.

samuell 6y ago

Thanks! Interesting observation about the layout! Indeed, I also feel my most effective notes are the ones where I get a little creative with the layout, placing things out thoughtfully. (Also, going back and filling in with a lot of balloons with thoughts afterwards etc, to make each page a little customized).

CodeIsTheEnd 6y ago

I had a similar experience in high school with Spanish vocabulary tests. I could remember where the word was on the page, but not the translation. At the time I perceived using the location as a crutch, so I made photocopies of the pages, cut them into the separate columns, then taped them together to make one very long and skinny list of words. I would then roll it up into a small scroll, little bigger than a tube of chapstick. Maybe the spatial location was a learning aid, and this actually made it harder to learn words, but it did make it much easier to discreetly study during other classes, so it was probably a net win overall.

bradstewart 6y ago

Really interesting to hear others had this experience as well. During tests, I would routinely see an image of sorts of the page in my head, with the words or equations I needed blurred out. Now that I think about, no clue why I assumed that was unique to me.

michaelrpeskin 6y ago

Yes! Same thing for me. I’m a bit dyslexic so reading things never goes well. But I could always remember where on the page the equations were in the textbooks. So during a test, I’d picture the equations and where they were and the write them down so that I could use them.

Pokepokalypse 6y ago

Yeah - I do this too, and I also find that for learning new programming tasks, if I make my own cheat-sheet, I remember the content well enough that I don't actually need to use it that much. But when it comes to using someone else's cheat-sheet, I have a hard time remembering and I have to constantly refer back.