Getting Started: How Many Verses to Add
If you are new to Memverse we highly recommend starting with no more than 5-10 verses. We have noticed that people who add 50 verses on their first day almost always become discouraged and give up. It is very difficult to start memorizing too many new verses at once. If you plan to log in daily, starting with 5-10 verses means that your first memorization sessions will take about ten minutes and will be manageable.
Even if you plan to memorize hundreds (or even thousands) of Bible verses, we still recommend starting with around 10 verses. As you gradually memorize the verses, they will be presented to you for review less frequently and the daily time commitment will start to decline. At that point it is a good idea to add another one or two verses. Always resist the temptation to add more than a couple of verses a day. It is much easier to focus on a few new verses than to be swamped with 20 new Proverbs! (Trust me, I've tried)
You might have noticed that some of the people on the leaderboard are learning around 50 verses at a time. We can assure you that they all worked up to that slowly or suffered through some very frustrating memory sessions. As the verse intervals increase, it is quite possible to have 50 verses on 'Learning' status.
Your daily time commitment is listed on both the home page and on the progress page. Lots of people have found that the best approach is to add verses only when the daily time commitment is below what you're targeting. It will vary slightly from day to day but it is a pretty good guide so keep an eye on it.
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86 responses to Getting Started: How Many Verses to Add
thanks im glad i read this now i dont feel bad that i only added 10 verses so far! im pretty new to Memverse.com
Thanks for the common sense advice. I have just started memverse and am memorizing Romans 1. I already had the first eight verses memorized beforehand, but included them anyway for continuity. I am looking forward to memorizing all of Romans, but want to start a journey I can finish! Lord bless you and your ministry here! I added the first 17 verses of chapter one to start.
I have been using Memverse now since May and have just now discovered the Dashboard with its helps. And they ARE helpful. Thank you. Can I make a suggestion? it would have saved me a lot of trouble if I'd seen the helps BEFORE. And I actually LOOKED for them when I started. I just didn't SEE them. It might make it easier on folks just starting out if the "Learning" tab on the screen contained the stuff needed to know for effective memorization rather than having it tucked away on "Dashboard" on the Profile screen. I figured once I entered my profile information I just didn't need to concern myself with that stuff any more unless I needed to change it. Making the helps more visible when opening up Memverse would be VERY helpful.
As a Bible Bee-er, I had a lot of verses in Memverse. But I wasn't very good at typing, so my mom and I decided Memverse wasn't right for me. Now the Bee is over, so I came back but got rid of most of my verses. Now it's way less stressing!
Lydia, I found out a while ago if you have a microphone it might be possible to speak the verses into MemVerse. Maybe if you're interested there might be someone on here who can give us a little instruction! :)
I recognize that it can be overwhelming to learn too many verses at once but isn't there cases when a new user is adding sections previously memorized. I added three chapters on the first day but I can quote them at a rate between 3 and 5 so the review interval won't be overwhelming right away. Does this make sense?
Yes, you can definitely add verses quicker if you've already memorized them. It's still a good idea to space them out over a few days though so you don't end up reviewing them all on the same day.
Andy is right. I made that mistake and added over 50 verses when I started memverse. I thought this was okay since I already knew them all, but even today there is a few days each month when I have 40+ verse for review, while on other days (like this morning) I only have 3 or so.
Yes, previously-memorized sections do go more smoothly. Even marathoners try to get a good start. But both sprinters and marathoners should know their finish line and how to pace themselves for it. Also, think about the time it really takes to apply the verses. "He that handleth a matter wisely shall find good"!
i'm ok at memorizing but its good to know that it will be hard at first but if you keep pushing it you will become really good at memorizing
I have done the Bible Bee for two years now, so I have over a thousand all stored up in my head. So even though I'm new to memverse.com I am adding more than I would otherwise. I also have a lot of time to work on memory so it is okay for me to add about 30-40 verses a day, but I would only reccomend this for people who have time like I do. Thanks for the good advice!
Of course, it's probably OK to add more than one to five verses per day, but only if you already know them perfect or almost perfect. But unless you have been used to memorizing 10 verses a day, DEFINATELY NOT! It's just too hard - trust me, I made it to Nationals two years in a row, and the first year it was not because of work, so I had extra to do, and that was last year, when the Nationalist Primaries had to do 1200 verses!
Courtney: Were you the Courtney in the Bible Bee last year who got 3rd place in the Primary Division? If so, if I remember correctly, me and my mom sat with you at the Celebration Banquet (or whatever they called it last year...)
As a word of advice, even if you already know 500 verses word-for-word, I still wouldn't recommend adding them all at once. If you do, then it's likely that they'll all be due for review on the same day, while other days you won't have ANY verses to study.
Josiah: Yes, Courtney is the one who won third last year and I am her brother, that's how I know! I don't think that I would have been at the Nationals this year if it weren't for her. She gave me the inspiration to work harder!
A comment on my previous comment: For some reason, I got way behind to where I had about 150 verses to quiz one day! I thought, OK, too much and had to delete at least thirty. I guess I just had to learn that lesson the hard way! :-)
I have a Q. Starting June 1, us Bible Bee-ers will have 300-800 verses (I have 800) to put into Memverse. How many would you recommend putting in, and how often?
Sarah--It depends on how much you feel you can do at once. I just put my verses in whenever I had it "memorized" (by which I mean I could say it without looking at the card relatively well; basically when I knew the verse/passage). But you'll have to decide how many verses you'll want to be doing on Memverse each day... The highest number of minutes I needed each day on memverse peaked at around 45 minutes a day, but I mostly had around 30 minutes to do each day. I hope that helps!
Last year I learned a lot of them on Memverse, but everyone's different. I'm not sure exactly what I'm doing this year.
This is a great site, but I've noticed that "Bible" is often not capitalized. I think that "Bible" and "Biblical" should always be capitalized.
Yea, that's been bugging me, too. If nothing else because it's the title of a book, which is ALWAYS suppose to be capitalized, but being the Word of God you would think it would be a little more important???
Thanks for pointing this out. We agree and are correcting it when we see it lower-case (for example, this post was updated yesterday).
I learned this lesson when I first started memorizing Scripture. Too many at once just leaves one frustrated and discouraged. A little at a time really adds up.
What if you don't really know your pace? If I don't have enough it frustrates me and I get discouraged
I just started with 23 and I love it. The first day it took me 30 minutes but now it takes me about 10 and I am already learning 30 verses! I understand wanting to start slow, but if you are really committed you can spend 20-30 minutes for the first three days and then it slowly declines. Today is my eighth day and I take about 10-13 minutes a day. I like to be challenged so I enjoy working to make my time go down along with memorizing verses! Good tip for people who have tough times starting up though :)
A lot of the verses I added at first are verses that I have already learned over the years and want to review or update - my early memory verses were all in the King James Version but I now use the NIV most of the time - so the verses I have added should hopefully not take a lot of time to memorize. But I have to work on my every day goal with what I have now to get the rhythm established.
Great advice on how to pace yourself and to make it manageable so that one doesn't become discouraged and quit. My children and I are challenging each other, which is making this even more doable and a lot more fun. Thanks for this website!
I was trying to memorize a whole chapter until I saw this advice. I'm doing much better with less verses and will probably memorize at a quicker pace.
I'm also new to memverse but it's a great site. Scriptures memorized in this site will never be forgotten
Thanks I could easily get overwhelmed by tooooo many verses, You have made this such an easy wonderful website I want the whole world to do it:):):):):):):):):):)
~Amanda K~
Thanks, I found this thread extremely useful!
Had over 600 verses but they got too much to manage and I deleted over 2/3rds and am now down to a more manageable 200. I have memorized my first 14 and I'm so happy!
Also found how to toggle my verses from learning to pending - this feature gives greater control.
The 'practice' screens are really useful too!
thanks for the reminder