player. Otherwise we are doing something wrong.

After watching the whole film, without interruptions, we will have a

much greater understanding of its general idea, which will be the skeleton or
backbone of all of the information that it transmits. This skeleton or
backbone will be constituted by all of its sequential facts. There is no better
way to memorize these than the use of repetition.
Of course, as we said before, the movie will also have a lot of pure
facts, such as the names of the cities and people, dates, quantities, certain
fortuitous or risky scenes, etc., which will have to be memorized separately
with the technique of using far-fetched associations, which we will be
studying soon.
Memorization Direction

Now, you are going to learn a general rule of great importance when it
comes to studying, which you can use immediately:
We should always memorize from more to less.
This means memorizing from a greater extension to a smaller one, a
greater range to a lesser one, getting the broad idea first and then zeroing in
on the details.
According to the aforementioned rule, if we want to memorize a film,
we should first see it from beginning to end, working with its complete
extension first. It would be the same with a book or subject matter. I must
insist. You must study from more to less, which is just the opposite of what
happens with the depth and the detail of the film or book in question, which
would progressively go from less to more.
This is all very logical, although when we first watch the movie it may
seem that we lose a lot of details, don't understand them, or don't even
notice them. However, we should still watch it from beginning to end
without stopping because it will be more comfortable and efficient in the
long run.
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When we watch it for the second or third time, and we are quite familiar
with it, is when we should take a more indepth look at the details in the
more complicated scenes. However, this is something that we should do
little by little. That way, we will progressively delve into the most complex
and minute details, because we will be more and more prepared to grasp the
increasingly complex information.
We can do the same with any subject matter. If we try to get a deep
understanding of it from the start (instead of working with it first as a whole,
more on the surface and only paying attention to the most simple details) we
will most likely end up seeing it as more complicated than it really is. We
may even end up feeling a little scared, or a bit discouraged. Furthermore, it
would undoubtedly be much more costly to memorize this way. This is why
we shouldn't worry if some facts don't stick in our memories when we read
something for the first time.
Every student has seen how a lot of doubts they have while studying are
resolved further along in the same chapter or in later chapters. They acquire
more and more knowledge, and at the same time solidify and fill in the
blanks of what they already know. The same happens with some film
sequences we find confusing or don't fully understand. Often we end up
understanding them at the end, but for the time being, so as not to lose
neither concentration nor motivation, it is better to just let the things we
don't understand go over our heads, not think about them, and just keep
watching the film, right?
The whole point is to increase motivation and gain valuable time, which
would be wasted if our student stopped too much time on every doubt that
came up while watching a movie, or similarly while studying more
profound or difficult concepts within the subject matter.
Therefore, we can see that if our pretension is to memorize a particular
book or subject matter, we should read it as if it were a film, trying to see
and hear the information that we are reading the same as we would with the
scenes of a movie, without continuously going back over it. It would be
extremely unpleasant to stop a film with the remote control and repeat each
scene over and over again. So, the most important thing to do at first is to
gain a frill understanding of the general idea or framework of the
information (sequential facts).
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I must insist for the last time: It is better to see each topic or subject
matter for the first time in its entirety and without going too deep into it.
Then, each time you review, you will go deeper into it, as you start to get a
grasp on the general structure of the topic.
When we watch the film two or three times, it is evident that we will
have memorized its skeleton well. Nevertheless, we will not have been able
to memorize its pure facts yet, which we will have to do through the use of
farfetched or outlandish associations.
You can see how everything I am explaining to you is innate in us and is
directly related to our way of being and our behavior. In other words, I am
not telling you anything that you don't already know deep down.
Memorization Systems

Depending on the type of facts contained within any information that

falls into our laps, we can memorize them in the following three different
ways.
Reasoning
This should preferably be used over any other type of memorization
system. This method is employed whenever we are studying information that
we are able to reason and understand. This information will be more
solidified in our memory, and in this case we will also talk about learning.
Notice how learning has such a great importance on how we understand
and answer questions that we see on a test. We have previously had to
memorize and reason the information, given that our need for reasoning
becomes Much clearer in resolving and preparing for tests.
Reasoning is successfully used to memorize subjects such as physics or
mathematics, for example, with their abundance of formulas, laws, etc. It is
also useful in different types of subject matter that include facts that can be
associated through a certain logic-that is, when learning facts whose
sequences can be deduced perfectly by means of reasoning.
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On the other hand, and also using reasoning as a learning and

memorizing system, we can deduce new knowledge based on that which we
have already learned and, at the same time, consolidate what we already
know.
Logically, however, not all facts that we want to memorize can be
reasoned. That's why we will often have to turn to the other two possible
memorization systems.
Repetition
In the example I gave you of short-term memory, it is clear that what we
are doing is repeating the phone number we were given over and over again
and, if possible, aloud (in order to use our auditory memory) until we can
jot it down on a piece of paper.
Repetition is the memorization system most commonly used by students.
However, it is not usually used in the most effective way. We have said
before that memorizing a subject or topic should be similar to watching a
film at home on DVD, without interruptions. This refers to watching it in its
entirety, placing the initial focus on the film as a whole. After seeing it a
few times over a period of days, we will have correctly used the repetition
system and have most effectively memorized its sequential facts.
Further along, in the chapter on subject matter preparation, we will take
a deeper look at this type of memorization.
7ar7etched Actions or Associations
When we see something very interesting, some action that powerfully
attracts our attention, something that is completely not normal and that seems
incredible to us, what happens?
What happens is that these extraordinary facts that we see powerfully
attract the attention of our subconscious and will remain firmly engrained in
our long-term memory.
For example, if we suddenly saw our dog start to juggle three oranges,
wouldn't we remember that moment forever? Of course we would! And we
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would probably also remember everything that happened that day. We could
answer any of the following questions without any problem:
What were we doing before witnessing such an incredible scene?
How did our pet catch the oranges in its paws?
What did we do when the spectacle was over?
We would remember all of it perfectly, and for many years to come.
Memory based on far-fetched actions is considered the most powerful
of all, due to the enormous part our subconscious (where our memory
resides) plays in it, in order to store and not lose such special, unique, and
"valuable" information. Hence, we shall call it supermemory.

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