Memory loss, it happens to Everyone!

Why pay for memory programs full of hype and excessive babble when all you need to know are a few simple tactics? Hmmmm????
      To avoid the average day dreamer’s most often asked question, “What’s Going On?”  The first thing you need to remember is FOCUS!
Focus your attention. It’s almost impossible to study when you’re sitting on the couch, while your family member’s video game is dinging and blimlinking every two seconds. Find a quiet place to study. Before you decide to put all of that time and effort into studying with noise and distraction (with the intentions of ‘blocking it out’), just imagine, if you will, test day; and instead of remembering the answer, you remember a sound effect. Your teacher will understand, right? Well, unless she or he is keen to deciphering the dings and blablinks into human terminology, they are probably going to count it wrong, leaving you mad at your family member with a bad grade, all because you didn’t find a quiet place to study.  On the other hand, if noises and a rushing mind haunt you regardless of your environment, try reading out loud. Hearing and seeing information will progress your recall. 
Allot yourself the necessary time to review your work. The more time you spend on what it is you are trying to remember the more familiar you will be with it. If you read faster than you comprehend, you will be wasting your time reading your assignments in a quickened hurry. It is better to take your time and thoroughly review your notes, rather than rush through and not remember anything.
Give yourself breathing room to study it all.  Some people study for hours and hours and become burnt out on what it is they are studying. Often times, they forget things they KNOW they went over, but cannot recall it. There is a term called Distributed Practice. According to http://dictionary.reverso.net/english-definitions/distributed%20practice Distributed Practice is learning with reasonably long intervals between separate occasions of learning. This is quite the opposite of a last minute cramming session. To simply put it, instead of waiting until the last minute to study, space your study sessions and block yourself time for specific subjects you need to study. Learners who practice this method of studying are more prone to remembering the material than those who cram. A few ways to study ‘in-between’ could involve, recording the material on an I-Pod or MP3 Player and listening to it on a jog or while making a snack; REMEMBER TO PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT IT IS YOU ARE DOING SO THAT YOU DON’T GET HURT!! Don’t leave the stove on or miss a stop sign because you were busy studying. (There’s my disclaimer.) 
Manage the information. Be sure to organize your material before trying to review. Everyone is different. Some people prefer a list of notes, while others want power points with written out details. Decide or find out which organizational method works best for you and put together your notes accordingly.
Put yourself in the notes in which you are studying, or someone else. Try to imagine yourself in the shoes of the object in which you are studying, try to apply it to your life, think on it. If you can apply something to your life it will be easily remembered. It’s kind of like music. Songs that apply to us are more remembered when we listen to them, we can think of people and even places where the music takes us back to. Apply the material to yourself.
“It’s a squirrel! It’s a plane! No!!! It’s an anchovies!!” Whatever the picture is, LOOK at it, learn it. Learn the color, the shape, the object or thing in which you are viewing. Relate a picture to what it is you are studying. This is an excellent way to remember pictures of important people!  Hearing is good but hearing and seeing is even better!
“What is a mnemonic devise, and what size battery does it take?”
A Mnemonic Devise is: A device, such as a formula or rhyme, used as an aid in remembering, according to:
http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Mnemonic+device
There are no batteries required and all you need is your own mind. One form is a method called the method of loci. The method of loci is where you visualize the items into a specific place in your mind. It’s sort of like remembering the rooms in your house. In your living room, you may have a couch and a TV with a coffee table. In your kitchen you may have a stove and specific pot holders used for lifting. The same concept can be applied to your study habits by placing the items in your head into certain compartments. Group what you are studying, and place it in a yellow box in your head, or relate it to another color that fits the material.
There is also a Peg Word Method used for memory recall. 
The Peg-Word Method:
This method is similar to the method of loci except,
instead of putting images along a route, you associate
them (via imagery) with nouns that rhyme with the
numbers.
The typical ones:
one: bun + image representing concept 1
two: shoe + image representing concept 2
three: tree + image representing concept 3
.
32: dirty shoe + image representing concept 32

Whether you’re a number or picture kind of pal, these memory techniques will leave you saying “WOW!”
“What are friends for?” Well, if you are trying to learn something, friends can be of assistance to you by listening to what you have summarized and sit there while you try to explain to them what you have leaned. It’s helpful to hear yourself out loud and if you can do this and explain it to someone it will ensure your memory recall. Explain it to a friend.
Reduce interference within a topic. If you are having trouble distinguishing the difference in something new and something you just learned, try comparing the new material with the old and look for the differences.
Counteract the serial position effect. Most people remember the stuff in the middle and in the end. Alleviate this by studying the parts in the middle. You can do this while studying in sections.
Use related items when taking the test. For example, if the test or assignment will be quiet and cool, find some place quiet, and wear the jacket or hoodie you plan on wearing. Do you have a specific pen just for that class? Get one. For example, I associate green with guacamole. I use a green fountain ink pen to do all of my Spanish flash cards, so on test day, I bring out and use the same green pen and it jogs my memory. Coincidence? I think not! The same can go with perfume or deodorant, a hair style, your shoes, study in it or with it and then wear it or use it the day of the test.
Get some sleep. Sleep helps strengthen new memories. Plenty of rest is good. If you’re going to have an all nighters, try to make it after the test…not the week of or day before. An all night cram session right before the test has shown to be one of the least effective ways to study for a test.
Vitamins are good, but don’t put all of your trust into a ginko biloba. Researcher Paul R. Solomon
http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/288/7/835?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=...
conducted a study proving that after a six week period, ginko biloba showed no results for improving the brain.
Eat well. Sleep well. Study well.