Life skills teacher’s notes
Improving your memory
SELF STUDY
If students are working alone, note that 1a, 1b, 3b, 4a, 4b
and the REFLECT ON IT box all have open answers. If
possible, give self-study students the opportunity to
show you their work or to exchange their work with
other students.
Before watching
WARMER
Once your students have settled down, stand at the
back of the class. Then ask your students to make a list
of the following things in 60 seconds, without looking:
1 Everything in their pockets
2 Everything in their school bag
3 What you are wearing
They can now check. What percentage of the things
did they remember correctly? Why didn’t they
remember some things?
1a In this exercise students think about how well they think
they can memorise different types of information that
people often say they forget.
1b This part of the exercise asks them to think about how
they try to memorise different types of information. Ask
them to compare their techniques in pairs first and then
as a whole class. Do they use similar techniques, or a
variety of different ones?
While watching
2a 09 Here, students try to remember the speakers’
names. However, they’ll also be taking in other
information, which means they’ll be picking up on the
gist of what the speakers are saying, which is the focus
of the next exercise. Ask students to compare answers
in pairs before you check them.
Answers
1 Emily  ​2 Bea  ​3 Chloe  ​4 Nancy  ​5 Yuvraj  ​
6 Sam  ​7 Ousama
2b 09 VIDEO SKILLS Ask students to read through the
video skills box before doing this exercise. Like 2a, the
exercise starts as a memory task. Make it clear that this
is an experiment: you don’t expect them to be able to
answer the questions, but it’s interesting to see how
much they can recall even though they were focusing
on the speakers’ names in 2a.
Note: You may need to be flexible when checking 4.
Answers
1 Emily  ​2 Yuvraj  ​3 Sam, Chloe
4 Emily, Ousama (You could argue that Nancy, who
finds images easy to remember, and Bea, who
remembers the way a page looks, are also visual, but
they don’t say this directly.)
5 Bea, Chloe
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B2+ Unit
VIDEO SKILLS: Understanding memory-related vocabulary
This focus picks out some key vocabulary from the video
related to the theme of memory and memorisation.
3a 09 This exercise requires listening for details. Note
that question 4 has quite a complex answer, so you
might need to pause the video to give students time to
write.
Answers
1 That’s what he has to do for his course/he practises
this a lot.
2 Emily
3 Bea and Nancy
4 She repeats things she needs to know vaguely well
three times to herself. Things she needs to know by
heart she repeats ten times out loud.
5 She pretends to draw on her wall while learning
quotes.
6 He puts them on sticky notes around the room.
3b Here, students reflect on how the different speakers
try and memorise things and choose the speaker – or
speakers – who are closest to them. The important
thing is for students to say why they’re like the people
they choose.
After watching
4a This exercise sets up 4b by asking students to think
carefully about when they really need to use their
memory, and what the consequences of having a poor
memory in these situations are. They might not do well
in exams, for example. Ask students to exchange their
lists with a partner to find out how similar they are.
4b SKILLS 4 LIFE This research project is designed to
encourage students to find out more about how they
can improve their memory in areas that matter to them
most. The Student’s Book article mentions a lot of
different techniques, but this will allow them to find out
a lot more about them and how they work. Students
should do this research individually, but could come
back to class and feed back to other students on what
they discovered.
REFLECT ON IT
Students are encouraged to reflect on whether
help from digital devices means they use
their memory less, and what the long-term
consequences of this might be. There’s no right
or wrong answer, so students should feel free
to express their opinions spontaneously and see
where the discussion leads.
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