The Complete Idiot's Guide to Improving Your Memory

Rating:
Summary: excellent book for an older medical student like myself
Review: i enjoyed the complete idiot's guide to improving your memory very much. i was very nervous about medical school. i was 39 years old. i didn't know if i could handle the intensity of the medical studies. my physician told me to buy and study this book a few weeks before my first classes. this book has helped me tremondously with my memorization. i couldn't believe i got one of the highest scores in my first test. this has given me a great confindence to succeed for the rest of my studies and trainings.

thank michael kurtland and his co-authors for writing this in such a way that it was so much to read and study it.

john godin, second year medical student

Rating:
Summary: Lacks Focus
Review: I'm finding this type of book--the for-dummies-and-idiots genre--increasingly annoying. Too often, space is wasted on fruitless stabs at wit, or superfluous information. This is precisely the problem with "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Improving Your Memory." The first half of the book is devoted to a thin gruel of scientific background and sometimes-interesting anecdotes, all of which could have been compressed into about a quarter of the space. In this respect, the book's title is somewhat misleading, because slightly less than half the book is actually devoted to memory-improving techniques. The publishers, though, apparently desire the "Complete Idiot's" line of books to share identical dimensions, which means we, the readers, have to dig through much unnecessary padding on our ways to the core content.

When, after many pages, the book does get on track, the memory enhancement techniques are pretty standard stuff--not bad, but not exceptional, either.There's a chapter on memorizing speeches, and techniques for memorizing faces and names, lists, and dates. Not all of this seems terribly useful, either. It seems far more expeditious simply to write a list down than to spend the time implementing hook-and-peg memory techniques. Memorizing dates will be useful to students, and quickly matching faces with names will help politicians (at least those without a vast staff of underlings to keep track of such things for them), but, really, there isn't all that much useful stuff here. If you want to learn material--not just lists, but information--Mind Mapping techniques (see Tony Buzan's Mind Mapping books) are probably more appropriate.

The for-dummies-and-idiots genre can be useful for rank newcomers; they often gather much information from a wide range of sources into one volume, but they do so in a distinctly superficial manner, and, as is the problem with this book, they do so without providing adequate focus.

Rating:
Summary: Lacks Focus
Review: I'm finding this type of book--the for-dummies-and-idiots genre--increasingly annoying. Too often, space is wasted on fruitless stabs at wit, or superfluous information. This is precisely the problem with "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Improving Your Memory." The first half of the book is devoted to a thin gruel of scientific background and sometimes-interesting anecdotes, all of which could have been compressed into about a quarter of the space. In this respect, the book's title is somewhat misleading, because slightly less than half the book is actually devoted to memory-improving techniques. The publishers, though, apparently desire the "Complete Idiot's" line of books to share identical dimensions, which means we, the readers, have to dig through much unnecessary padding on our ways to the core content.

When, after many pages, the book does get on track, the memory enhancement techniques are pretty standard stuff--not bad, but not exceptional, either.There's a chapter on memorizing speeches, and techniques for memorizing faces and names, lists, and dates. Not all of this seems terribly useful, either. It seems far more expeditious simply to write a list down than to spend the time implementing hook-and-peg memory techniques. Memorizing dates will be useful to students, and quickly matching faces with names will help politicians (at least those without a vast staff of underlings to keep track of such things for them), but, really, there isn't all that much useful stuff here. If you want to learn material--not just lists, but information--Mind Mapping techniques (see Tony Buzan's Mind Mapping books) are probably more appropriate.

The for-dummies-and-idiots genre can be useful for rank newcomers; they often gather much information from a wide range of sources into one volume, but they do so in a distinctly superficial manner, and, as is the problem with this book, they do so without providing adequate focus.

Rating:
Summary: Need to improve your memory? Read this book!
Review: Years ago, Richard A. Lupoff developed memory improvement courses for the U. S. Army. The methods he used then were extremely successful, and he has since written more than 40 books. He has teamed up with another prolific author, Michael Kurland, to write The Complete Idiot's Guide To Improving Your Memory. They promise to show "how a person of any age can develop a prodigious memory."

Memory is information storage. Information is "anything that comes to you through your senses--sight, hearing, scent, taste, or touch." Some of the incoming information is not retained at all, some is kept temporarily, and some is stored forever. There are also different types of memory. For example, most of us can remember what we've learned, especially skills like how to walk or talk, but we can't remember how we learned it. We simply retain the ability to walk or talk.

Kurland and Lupoff first discuss what is known about how memories are formed and retained. Most people, however, are more interested in recalling what they know, when they need to know it. The bulk of the book offers tips and techniques for doing just that. The authors focus on associations and mnemonics as the most effective ways to recall information.

Associations involve making a mental connection between something familiar, such as the furniture in a room, and new information. A common mnemonic uses the word HOMES as a way to recall the names of the Great Lakes. Kurland and Lupoff provide many examples of these, and other techniques, making it easy for readers to learn what works best for them.

They debunk the notion that memory loss is inevitable with age, saying that while "a little memory loss as you age is natural, [if] your memory for recent events is getting worse and worse, this isn't natural." Readers with rapidly failing memories are advised to contact their physicians.

The authors also provide tips for students for overcoming test anxiety, so that they can better remember what they've learned.

Kurland and Lupoff say that memory is like any other skill--the more you practice, "the more confident and relaxed you will become, and the better your performance will be." Improving Your Memory gives readers all the tools they need to develop or improve their memory skills.

Sandra I. Smith Reviewer

Rating:
Summary: Need to improve your memory? Read this book!
Review: Years ago, Richard A. Lupoff developed memory improvement courses for the U. S. Army. The methods he used then were extremely successful, and he has since written more than 40 books. He has teamed up with another prolific author, Michael Kurland, to write The Complete Idiot's Guide To Improving Your Memory. They promise to show "how a person of any age can develop a prodigious memory."

Memory is information storage. Information is "anything that comes to you through your senses--sight, hearing, scent, taste, or touch." Some of the incoming information is not retained at all, some is kept temporarily, and some is stored forever. There are also different types of memory. For example, most of us can remember what we've learned, especially skills like how to walk or talk, but we can't remember how we learned it. We simply retain the ability to walk or talk.

Kurland and Lupoff first discuss what is known about how memories are formed and retained. Most people, however, are more interested in recalling what they know, when they need to know it. The bulk of the book offers tips and techniques for doing just that. The authors focus on associations and mnemonics as the most effective ways to recall information.

Associations involve making a mental connection between something familiar, such as the furniture in a room, and new information. A common mnemonic uses the word HOMES as a way to recall the names of the Great Lakes. Kurland and Lupoff provide many examples of these, and other techniques, making it easy for readers to learn what works best for them.

They debunk the notion that memory loss is inevitable with age, saying that while "a little memory loss as you age is natural, [if] your memory for recent events is getting worse and worse, this isn't natural." Readers with rapidly failing memories are advised to contact their physicians.

The authors also provide tips for students for overcoming test anxiety, so that they can better remember what they've learned.

Kurland and Lupoff say that memory is like any other skill--the more you practice, "the more confident and relaxed you will become, and the better your performance will be." Improving Your Memory gives readers all the tools they need to develop or improve their memory skills.

Sandra I. Smith Reviewer