Don’t use a source you can’t revise ten times

A learner wrote to us that she couldn’t retain anything even after reading the standard culture book twice. The answer is relevant to everyone: don’t go for sources you can’t revise at least ten times.

For culture, make a table: states as rows, art forms as columns. It takes more than 15 hours to build, and it gives you three things:

1. A psychological benefit: 70% of culture on one page. Most culture questions are about the type or region of an art form.
2. Memory: with the table in front of you, techniques like the memory palace work. Even if you vaguely remember where an item sat, you can tell whether it was at the top (Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal) or the bottom (the southern states).
3. Revision: once memorised, you can revise it in 30 minutes.