When is a Verse Memorized?
Posted on October 10, 2011
I want to encourage you to not focus too much on Memverse's designation of whether or not a verse is memorized. We picked 30 days as an arbitrary milestone which wouldn't prove to be too elusive but was also something to strive for. Truly committing a verse to memory, though, takes a lot longer and will likely require you to frequently select option 1 or 2 and start again.
Let me illustrate my point. All of us at some point had the equation for the roots of a quadratic drummed into our heads in high school. I remember being able to wake up in the middle of the night and recite it without hesitation. Like so much we learn, after leaving school I never had occasion to use the equation for about a decade. A year ago, I had to solve a quadratic and was astonished to find that I couldn't recall the formula. Something that I had once memorized perfectly was no longer accessible.
Fortunately, I asked Google and it gave me the answer. What I found interesting is that a single refreshing of that memory (after more than a decade) was sufficient to completely lay down the track again. I'm fairly sure I will remember it for the next twenty years.
This is why it is best to rate yourself as honestly as possible when reviewing your verses. I've been using Memverse now for over two years and I am starting to experience some of my early verses that I haven't had to review for a long time come up again. Some of them I remember and as I type them out again I can feel the memory track getting deeper. Others I have to reset and over the next few months, as the interval grows again, I get to really know them well.
That's how Memverse is designed to work. Next time you experience your mouse swaying between option 2 and 3, remember that the race is long and not necessarily to the swift. It's often better to reset a verse earlier, rather than later.
Incidentally: the roots of a quadratic are given by: -b +- sqrt(b^2-4ac)/2a
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38 responses to When is a Verse Memorized?
Good point. I know I have trouble with that :) But, sometimes I accidently click the wrong number, I tell myself "Maybe the Lord wanted me to click the wrong number because I need this verse." :)
That is a great blog! I shared it with my family and they enjoyed it very much so! Keep posting blogs like that! :)
What if we have it memorized before 30 days? It takes me about 10-20 minutes depending on how long the verse is.
BBJ11 - if you have it memorized then just keep clicking 5 if you remember it perfectly. Most people find that they can store a verse in their short term memory fairly quickly. Keeping it in your long term memory (which is what Memverse is trying to help with) usually takes a bit more effort. I can memorize a credit card number in less than a minute but it will only stay in my head for a short while.
@Jesus-paid-it-all
That's right. I click the wrong one sometimes too, but I always hope that it will all even out sooner or later anyways.
Thanks, Andy, for the great blog post. we can all use a reminder for that!
@Andy - oh yeah, I forgot about that. I can memorize them really fast and then forget them really fast. :) Thanks for the reminder. :) lol
@Grace (I can't spell your last name) - I like it too!:)
@BBJ11My last name is Harrison. Sometimes boys will have that name as their first name. What is your real name?
@Grace Harrison - I meant Grace M. :) Mieckzowski or something. I can't spell it right. My name is Annalysa Cagasan. I like BibleBeeJunior11 better as my username though. :)
@Grace Harrison - sure, but I don't use that name on MemVerse. I use BBJ11 - that's what everyone else calls me. But you can call me that if you want to - my little brother used to call me that! :)
@Jesus-Paid-It-All - thanks! I just "memorized" my 11th verse today! :) yayyyy!
Kaitlyn Vredevoogd memorized the 98,000th verse. All of the 1K-mark finishers are listed on the 100,000 Scripture Memory Verses Blog.
Andy was talking about resetting verses. Rating a verse as a 1 or 2 on the Memorize page "resets" the interval to 1 day.
@Josiah K - oh ok :)
I memorized 11 verses on MemVerse.com!!!!! :)
I just started memverse. I'm hoping to memorize verses as soon as possible!
I'm already learning 73 verses!!
@God's Maiden of Virtue - have you done Bible Bee?
@Everyone in the Nationals - how is your memorizing going??
Going great, BBJ11! I think most of us have finished memorizing the Nationals verses by now, and are just working on studying 2 Peter and reviewing. At least that's my status. :)
@BBJ11--God's Maiden of Virtue happens to be my sister, who just joined Memverse. :) She was a Junior Timothy in the Bible Bee and added a whole lot of verses in the first day. :) She's hoping to memorize a lot of them on one day, as she has been able to rate most of them as a five and is planning to keep doing that until they are memorized and beyond. :)
@Matthew Minica--Most of us? I only wish. I still have 61 verses to memorize, because I just started high-school, and it's taking up a lot of my memorizing time. :) But great job to all of you who have been able to finish so long before the Nationals! Be careful with the time you now have!
@BBJ11--Yes, I have done the Bible Bee.Have you? If so, did you make it to the Nationals?
(Now I'm learning 108 verses! How many are you learning?)
@God's Maiden of Virtue - I have done the bible Bee both times. Actually, I was going to do the BB this year too but ended up in the hospital. (Nicolas can tell you about it, it takes too long to type) And I only had 11 cards left to memorize for the Locals! I was so sad!!! :( I mostly use MemVerse as a review site but I am memorizing a few too.
@BBJ11 - I'm sorry to hear about you ending up in the hospital.
It must have been a big bummer that you didn't get to do the Bible
Bee. I hope you can do it next year!
Thanks for writing this article, it is very useful! :) Here's a little extra math: I just memorized my pi (3.1415926535897932384626433832795) x 100th verse!
I will catch you soon, God's Maiden of Virtue! Keep looking over your shoulder; I am right behind you!
Aaaargghh! Just when I pulled within 13 verses behind you, God's Maiden of Virtue, you pulled ahead further! I'll catch you yet, my daughter! I'll catch you yet! (In the meantime, good job!)
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Thank you for the reminder, Andy :) I love knowing that if I don't know a verse well, I simply need to mark it 1 or 2 and it will come back and I WILL know it better the next time it comes back because of that!