Memorization Method and Schedule for John
How I started memorizing verses
I've started on memorization isolated verses in young age like John 3:16 but I couldn't even recall others aside from John 3:16 and "Jesus is the Way the Truth and The Life..." and could not even remember the reference then (now its engraved in my permanent memory John 14:6). Then I focused on reviewing and adding new ones starting April 2015. Right then I noticed there is a huge progress on how much I could quote, I could recall more than 50 in just two months I'm surprised how putting our focus on something can accomplish so much.
How I started memorizing chapters
My very first entire chapter that I committed to memory is Psalms 23, oh I still love to recite this almost every day. It took me two weeks then. Then I added others like Psalms 91, then Romans 8 and a few more Psalms. Its amazing that after a few months, a chapter length that takes me two weeks to memorize I could do in one sitting. We always get better in things we do regularly and love doing.
Temporary and Permanent Memory
We could memorize a verse in one sitting and could not even recall it before we sleep. Means this is still in our temporary memory. I've noticed that after about three months with spaced repetition it goes to my permanent memory. Although there are verses that doesn't really sit in the permanent memory perfectly that needs some review. I use AnkiDroid for this, its an apps in my phone that has SuperMemo algorithm just like how www.memverse.com review system was built, but with Anki you can control when it would remind you again, like you can choose 10 minutes, 1 day to x months as interval to the next review.
How I started memorizing Books
The first book I memorized was James. It took me two weeks. At first I used drawings as the book explained, and also write every verse on a notebook but after I memorized James, I no longer write nor draw every verse, I've progressed by finding other methods, but James is very memorable to me as we all need to start from somewhere.
Here are all the books I've memorized. When the chapter was just memorized, I would review it daily for a week, then once a week. The others are a month interval or whenever needed to keep it fresh:
1. James
2. 1 Peter
3. 1 Timothy
4. 2nd Timothy
5. Titus
6. Ephesians
7. John (completed as of 20-Mar-2015)
My memorization method
I've got many tips from this e-book 'An approach to Extended Memorization of Scripture' by Dr. Andrew Davis, although I drop memorizing the verse numbers. I drop the verses because I find it difficult to recite as a story. We memorize with different aim in mind, for me for this gospel, my reason is to be able to tell the story naturally with ease. How would someone understand my story when now and then I would say numbers in between? This is my reason but others might want to keep just as the book recommended.
Here's my detailed steps:
1. Day 1, read a verse 10 times (say John 1:1 or sometimes 2 verses if one is short), then recite 10 times from memory. I strip the verses references, I only remember book and chapter, sometimes the topics. I would then read the next verses or manageable verses 10 times (Ex. John 1:2), then recite 10 times. I'll repeat this process until I can recite altogether 5 verses once (Ex: John 1:1-5)
2. Day 2, recite yesterday's 5 verses from memory (John 1:1-5) for about 5 times. Then same as how I did the first 5 verses, I'll do it for the next 5 verses (John 1:6-10). Then recite once from memory altogether John 1:1-10.
3. Day 3, recite yesterday's 5 verses from memory (John 1:6-10) for 5 times. Repeat as what I did in Day 1 for the new verses (John 1:11-15). Recite from memory once altogether John 1:1-15.
This goes on until I memorize the entire Chapter. Once I memorized the chapter, I'll recite it everyday for a week or until I am confident that rarely I'll need to check my notebook or bible (I eventually stopped writing on notebook). Then I would just recite it weekly then every two weeks. Sometimes I would memorize more than 5 verses a day, usually 10-20, then I could have a day-off in memorization if I am ahead of my schedule then use the remaining days for reviewing. Sample weekly schedule on http://memorizent.blogspot.sg/2015/12/sample-weekly-schedule.html
I would check from the bible (weeding) if my memorized verses are consistent with the text at least once a week or when I felt needed.
One memorizer said to me that he memorize by sight and remembers the place of the verses in the bible. I just adapted this strategy as of February 2015 and it works. I always go out the house and its quite uneasy to bring my bible so I had a great idea. Let's say for today I am memorizing John 17:1-10 and reviewing John 15-16 and the book of Ephesians, I will bring the photocopy of those portions from my bible where I do my memorization. I realized it is more convenient to bring a few pages than my bible, and actually if I forgot one word, it is easier to look in the paper than to lookup in the bible. This helps me a lot.
Here is my plan for completing John, I target to complete on April. May the Lord guide me and continue to give me grace to complete this.
I've started on memorization isolated verses in young age like John 3:16 but I couldn't even recall others aside from John 3:16 and "Jesus is the Way the Truth and The Life..." and could not even remember the reference then (now its engraved in my permanent memory John 14:6). Then I focused on reviewing and adding new ones starting April 2015. Right then I noticed there is a huge progress on how much I could quote, I could recall more than 50 in just two months I'm surprised how putting our focus on something can accomplish so much.
How I started memorizing chapters
My very first entire chapter that I committed to memory is Psalms 23, oh I still love to recite this almost every day. It took me two weeks then. Then I added others like Psalms 91, then Romans 8 and a few more Psalms. Its amazing that after a few months, a chapter length that takes me two weeks to memorize I could do in one sitting. We always get better in things we do regularly and love doing.
Temporary and Permanent Memory
We could memorize a verse in one sitting and could not even recall it before we sleep. Means this is still in our temporary memory. I've noticed that after about three months with spaced repetition it goes to my permanent memory. Although there are verses that doesn't really sit in the permanent memory perfectly that needs some review. I use AnkiDroid for this, its an apps in my phone that has SuperMemo algorithm just like how www.memverse.com review system was built, but with Anki you can control when it would remind you again, like you can choose 10 minutes, 1 day to x months as interval to the next review.
How I started memorizing Books
The first book I memorized was James. It took me two weeks. At first I used drawings as the book explained, and also write every verse on a notebook but after I memorized James, I no longer write nor draw every verse, I've progressed by finding other methods, but James is very memorable to me as we all need to start from somewhere.
Here are all the books I've memorized. When the chapter was just memorized, I would review it daily for a week, then once a week. The others are a month interval or whenever needed to keep it fresh:
1. James
2. 1 Peter
3. 1 Timothy
4. 2nd Timothy
5. Titus
6. Ephesians
7. John (completed as of 20-Mar-2015)
My memorization method
I've got many tips from this e-book 'An approach to Extended Memorization of Scripture' by Dr. Andrew Davis, although I drop memorizing the verse numbers. I drop the verses because I find it difficult to recite as a story. We memorize with different aim in mind, for me for this gospel, my reason is to be able to tell the story naturally with ease. How would someone understand my story when now and then I would say numbers in between? This is my reason but others might want to keep just as the book recommended.
Here's my detailed steps:
1. Day 1, read a verse 10 times (say John 1:1 or sometimes 2 verses if one is short), then recite 10 times from memory. I strip the verses references, I only remember book and chapter, sometimes the topics. I would then read the next verses or manageable verses 10 times (Ex. John 1:2), then recite 10 times. I'll repeat this process until I can recite altogether 5 verses once (Ex: John 1:1-5)
2. Day 2, recite yesterday's 5 verses from memory (John 1:1-5) for about 5 times. Then same as how I did the first 5 verses, I'll do it for the next 5 verses (John 1:6-10). Then recite once from memory altogether John 1:1-10.
3. Day 3, recite yesterday's 5 verses from memory (John 1:6-10) for 5 times. Repeat as what I did in Day 1 for the new verses (John 1:11-15). Recite from memory once altogether John 1:1-15.
This goes on until I memorize the entire Chapter. Once I memorized the chapter, I'll recite it everyday for a week or until I am confident that rarely I'll need to check my notebook or bible (I eventually stopped writing on notebook). Then I would just recite it weekly then every two weeks. Sometimes I would memorize more than 5 verses a day, usually 10-20, then I could have a day-off in memorization if I am ahead of my schedule then use the remaining days for reviewing. Sample weekly schedule on http://memorizent.blogspot.sg/2015/12/sample-weekly-schedule.html
I would check from the bible (weeding) if my memorized verses are consistent with the text at least once a week or when I felt needed.
One memorizer said to me that he memorize by sight and remembers the place of the verses in the bible. I just adapted this strategy as of February 2015 and it works. I always go out the house and its quite uneasy to bring my bible so I had a great idea. Let's say for today I am memorizing John 17:1-10 and reviewing John 15-16 and the book of Ephesians, I will bring the photocopy of those portions from my bible where I do my memorization. I realized it is more convenient to bring a few pages than my bible, and actually if I forgot one word, it is easier to look in the paper than to lookup in the bible. This helps me a lot.
Here is my plan for completing John, I target to complete on April. May the Lord guide me and continue to give me grace to complete this.
| Book | Chapter | Verses | Days | Vrs/day | Target start | Target end |
| John | 1 | 51 | 10.2 | 5 | 10-Oct-15 | 19-Oct-15 |
| John | 2 | 25 | 5 | 5 | 20-Oct-15 | 24-Oct-15 |
| John | 3 | 36 | 7.2 | 5 | 25-Oct-15 | 31-Oct-15 |
| John | 4 | 54 | 11 | 5 | 1-Nov-15 | 11-Nov-15 |
| John | 5 | 47 | 9 | 5 | 12-Nov-15 | 20-Nov-15 |
| John | 6 | 71 | 14 | 5 | 21-Nov-15 | 4-Dec-15 |
| John | 7 | 53 | 11 | 5 | 5-Dec-15 | 15-Dec-15 |
| John | 8 | 59 | 12 | 5 | 16-Dec-15 | 27-Dec-15 |
| John | 9 | 41 | 8 | 5 | 28-Dec-15 | 4-Jan-16 |
| John | 10 | 42 | 8 | 5 | 5-Jan-16 | 12-Jan-16 |
| John | 11 | 57 | 11 | 5 | 13-Jan-16 | 24-Jan-16 |
| John | 12 | 50 | 10 | 5 | 25-Jan-16 | 3-Feb-16 |
| John | 13 | 38 | 8 | 5 | 4-Feb-16 | 10-Feb-16 |
| John | 14 | 31 | 6 | 5 | 11-Feb-16 | 17-Feb-16 |
| John | 15 | 27 | 5 | 5 | 18-Feb-16 | 22-Feb-16 |
| John | 16 | 33 | 7 | 5 | 23-Feb-16 | 29-Feb-16 |
| John | 17 | 26 | 5 | 5 | 1-Mar-16 | 5-Mar-16 |
| John | 18 | 40 | 8 | 5 | 6-Mar-16 | 13-Mar-16 |
| John | 19 | 42 | 8.4 | 5 | 14-Mar-16 | 21-Mar-16 |
| John | 20 | 31 | 6.2 | 5 | 22-Mar-16 | 27-Mar-16 |
| John | 21 | 25 | 5 | 5 | 28-Mar-16 | 1-Apr-16 |
| TOTAL | 879 | Plus 10% | 19-Apr-16 |
I'm glad to update I am now on the middle of 11th chapter and I'm on schedule. I also put chapters 1-6 on a weekly review, likewise 7-9 on a different day weekly review, 10 is still on daily review.
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