IQ Adult is about enlarging your mind.

Welcome.

Last weeks' post stated we'd look at study techniques.

Beside the usual conditions of no distractions, a set time each day, access to reference material and space to do the job, you should always start a "discovery session" with a question. What am I trying to do? Set a purpose and aim for it. Is it to understand how something works, write a precis, sort through facts to a conclusion, remember figures? The idea is to establish relevance.

* We learn by linking to what we already know. If you want to teach or be understood, link (associate) with what your audience knows. Pluto? God of the underworld? Plutocracy? The Disney dopey dog? The planetoid? How many moons does the planetoid have? If you thought of the dog, imagine three balls going around the dogs' head like in cartoons. Tell someone Pluto has three balls. You've associated and learnt.

* Get an overview. Briefly read the beginning and end of your reference works and any headings in between. A student I know who consistantly does well, reads childrens' encyclopedia articles for the simple overview. Cleaver. There's a vast amount of info in precis form on the net. Fill in the details as your understanding demands.

* Ask how, when, where, why, what and who. Why did it happen? What drove them to do this?

* Study to tell somebody. Whether it's another student, family or examiner, it forces you to organise thoughts. Find an interesting part and build your knowledge around it. If you live with a student, ask them what they learnt today. It helps them organise and review the information.

* Review within 24 hours. Go over the subject and reinforce what you know. There'll be vague bits that you can clarify. Longer than a day lets the info fade. To be really sure, skim over the lot again within 7 days.

* Look for faults. In one week I read that the population of Sydney was 3.2, 3.8 and 5 million. I also read a maths textbook that had a glaring error in a simple probability lesson. Even teachers make mistakes.

* Visualise. Make "mind maps" or family trees of relationships between facts, events,characters.

* The more senses you use, the more will be remembered. "The Nile is the longest river but the Amazon has the greatest volume." If you say it and then look in an atlas, you'll know it. Use touch, sound, taste or smell wherever you can.

Next Friday you can increase your memory. There is no such thing as a bad memory; only an unused one. This is easy and fun and you can teach others to do it.

How many moons has Pluto? Now a link - One of them is almost half as big as Pluto!