Frankenstein and Laudanum: How to Remember the contents of a book!!!

A question arose recently where a student asked me, ‘Davey, I’m dreading tomorrows English literature exam, I can’t remember anything of the books I’ve read’. I looked at my student and asked the question, ‘have you drawn the book me dear?’  To this she looked confused and shook her head.  I knew that the student was doing her course on ‘the Gothic’, and a few books such as Mary Shelly’s, Frankenstein, and Edgar Alan Poe’s ‘the Raven, so I drew a picture of Frankie boy, and then told the student to put around it all the main chapters and its contents (abridged) with anything else such as the characters etc, things that they would be expected to put in it. Off she went and with half an hour the page was full, and she was smiling. Yes, this had worked, and she then went off and started on the Raven. I also suggested that the student before tomorrow’s exam sit down and watch both the film adaptations of the books just to help her a bit more.

I always find that sometimes the more detailed the drawing, the more I have to add to these details, which drags out more data, and so forth. Of course if you number these points, you are then able to reproduce in the order, similar to the ascribing images we have used above. It is ideal for subjects like literature where you have to tackle a number of different books and these can be summarised easily through this picture system.  You can then begin to put these on your wall, and go over them in your own time. One of my students photocopied them and took them on the bus and so on, making every spare five minutes or so a chance to go over. Obviously they did very well in the exam and also found themselves also far more conversant over the book than a lot of other people. Articulating it in this well helps to be a well rounded learner, either over a cuppa with your friends, staring at mirror or doing a bit of reflective standup...’You know, if that monster, or Adam to his friends could have realised how much of an influence he would have had on technology in science-fiction writing, he would have got that bloody writer Mary Shelly to sign a royalties clause when he met her on weekend retreat for laudanum addicts at Castle Frankenstein in Darmstadt.”

Of course you don’t have wait for the exam, you can actually do this for each book that you read, watch or scan during the year and be prepared for any test that may come up or set the ground work for an essay you are preparing for. Also this can be done at any part of your education be it 12 to post-doc. By creating a journal or even a ‘scrapbook’ of such things gives you the chance to be at ease with the piece, and with only a few titles around the key theme/picture you are able to access your bits and bobs of data that much easier. You are again creating little boxes, and prompters. You are also getting into the story telling routine that all humans enjoy, and the more you use and add to this piece the more flowing the details will become. By going over these book plans you are of course taking away the strain and vacuum you have created before an exam when you have to go back and basically start again to recall information. With the cut and paste routine available with the internet, you can add pictures, lines etc, or as I have done below used Aspirations software to create my own pretty outline.