sefer wrote:
When you read a history book how do you make sure to remember every important name, date and event? Do you have a good memory or do you write stuff down? I don't have the awesome autistic memory and I'm about to read a book on the French Revolution, and I want to remember everything about it.
I'm thinking about just having an exercise book with me and writing down each important name (with a little bit about them), date and summary of each event as it happens.
Thoughts?
As a joke back in grad school, sometimes I'd get really bored and start writing my notes in haiku format:
Funny, it seemed to help a lot with binge-and-purge style memorization the day before an exam.
Guess it forced me to think about the words a bit and mentally relate with them.
I'd usually forget everything by a week-or-two afterwards, though.
Also, since you're reading a book on the French Revolution -- you may want do a bit of online browsing and discover some of the artwork created during that era which depicts those locations and the social/political figures -- may help in connecting some "visual" historical context to your readings.