1. Studying or memorizing for tests will be remembered most effectively by studying one hour before falling asleep. This is because studying right before falling asleep fails to give the brain time to encode the information, but doing it an hour before bed time also prevents the brain from becoming cluttered with other information.

2. Mnemonic devices are techniques a person can use to help them improve their ability to remember something as well. In other words, it’s a memory technique to help the brain better encode and recall important information. It’s a simple shortcut that helps the brain associate the information with an image, a sentence, or a word.

Tip: An example would be an acronym which is especially helpful on tests because it can be written on the top one’s paper.

3. Chunking is simply a way of breaking down larger pieces of information into smaller, organized “chunks” of more easily-managed information. An example would be the fact that telephone numbers in the United States are a perfect example of this — 10 digits broken into three chunks, allowing almost everyone to remember an entire phone number with ease. Since short-term human memory is limited to approximately seven items of information, placing larger quantities of information into smaller containers helps our brains remember more, and more easily.

Tip: Chunking is useful for cramming vocabulary words for tests like the SAT. Associating multiple words with one definition will let one remember more than if one was to remember each separately.