How to Learn Almost Anything in 48 Hours

by Tansel Ali

We all want to improve our knowledge, learn new things, and ace exams, but in this fast paced world we can feel a little time poor to really get the best from ourselves. In this amazingly practical book, memory coach and brain trainer, Tansel Ali unlocks the secrets to learning almost anything in just 48 hours.  In How to Learn Almost Anything in 48 Hours, Tansel demonstrates techniques to apply to learning a wide range of Studying Exams Speeches and Presentations Foreign Languages Music Theory and Practice Speed Reading New Technologies and Software General Knowledge, Trivia and Facts. Includes exercises to hone your skills at memory and train your brain to learn well and learn fast, this is the ultimate book for anyone ready to sharpen their mind and expand their knowledge.

Genres: Self Help, Nonfiction, Psychology, Personal Development, Productivity, Education

207 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 26, 2015

Reviews

[☘Misericordia☘ ⚡ϟ⚡⛈⚡☁ ❇️❤❣ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Personally, I felt it's all dreadfully cumbersome. Instead of remembering 15 things you remember 15 stories. I'm not 100% sure it's the better deal: on the one hand, it must help create some additional neuro connections to hold onto these 15 skippy things, maybe interconnect them or build them in something net to let the memory hold onto, on the other hand, it's still 15 stories you would have to remember, instead of 15 words.

And so on. Then again, it could be a cool stuff to discuss, if one's not bored out of their freaking mind by trying to remember all kinds of things, like Yellow Pages.

Then again, the SMASHING SCOPE, as in
- Synaesthesia/Senses (7D, anyone?)
- Movement (dynamic stage)
- Association (esp. exciting and memorable stuff)
- Sex/Self (so, how do you like being a blackboard?)
- Humour
- Imagination ('Imagination is intelligence with an erection'. Ouch.) ('stepping outside the logical... how about the chair jumping around, jumping and then sitting on you?)
- Numbers (23?)
- Symbolism (Bang! you've crashed)
- Colour ('bright blue tornado... feel the colour)
- Order
- Positive Images
- Exaggeration

[Sir Readalot · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you're a lazy student like me who wants to learn the entire syllabus in 48 hours, this book is not for you (The Buzan Study Skills Handbook might help you tho).

[kia · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book had a great hack on memorization techniques, which could come handy in certain situations. However, I do think that it only applies to recalling and remembering a subject matter instead of actually ‘learning’.

[Daniel Mihai Popescu · Rating 1 out of 5]

Don't even think of taking this seriously. It's a joke. Using your common sense is better than anything self help-ish. I was curious...

[Casey D Wilder · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not going to say I didn't get anything from it, but I felt like it had a little more content than a hefty web article and then a bunch of extra exercises were injected in for fluff. I mean, it's for memory training, so some examples and stuff are needed to illustrate the point, but the chapter on language memory literally has like sub one page of real content and several pages of Mandarin and French content. It's okay. It's got a lot of fluff, though.

[Ryan · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book makes things more complicated than they should. Associate items that you need before leaving the house by making a story.

Erm. You could just put them into your bag the night before and don't have to give a rat's ass the next day.

[Nyalisa . ... · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent book, taught interesting things I might try.

[Willow Rankin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like this is great book for learning the concepts of improving memory, and very useful for those who are about to sit exams and need to know some memory techniques to assist.
It starts with the 7-STEP GUIDE TO LEARNING ANYTHING IN 48 HOURS, which are 7 steps, on how to learn anything, and includes the time each step should take.
However, the memory techniques I kind of already knew, and whilst this book teaches you how to apply those techniques, if your exam is to regurgitate lists of information, this is great, but learning is more than remembering and its being able to apply that knowledge, which this book doesn't teach.
Its not a bad read, but definitely a way of memorising lists of information.

[rm2kdev · Rating 5 out of 5]

great book, doesn't just share the techniques but also gives clear measurable examples of how to use them. After all being able to memorise large lists of numbers in three different ways is no good if you donlt know when, where and how to apply the right memorisation technique to the task at hand.

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

The techniques are really interesting but I got a bit bored with reading all the examples so I skimmed over most of the last half of the book.

[Alexey Vyskubov · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book has to be called "How to mechanically memorize almost everything without making any attempt at understanding."

[Jules · Rating 2 out of 5]

Marketing copy aside, this book is 100% about how to memorize lists of things. Within that there are some useful nuggets, like the Major System, but nothing I couldn’t find through Google for free. Also, who has time to invent and remember little stories about their shopping list when you can just write it down? So yeah, you’re not gonna be able to learn French in 48 hours, no shit, but you can memorize a bunch of French phrases. That’s how they get away with the title and unfortunately there’s no more to this book than that.

[Srikar · Rating 3 out of 5]

The apt title would be "How to Memorize almost anything". Techniques in the book would work well for memory championships and the similar.

[James Devno · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad read. Gives you some really good ideas to use when studying and trying to memorize information.

[Inês · Rating 3 out of 5]

O título arrojado convenceu-me a mergulhar nesta leitura rápida, da autoria de Tansel Ali, o campeão da memória australiano. Temos tendência para observar a nossa capacidade de memorização como um talento (ou a ausência dele) definitivo e imutável, onde alguns são verdadeiros mestres na arte de lembrar tudo o que assimilaram de forma rápida e eficaz e outros esquecem-se dos óculos no frigorífico (estou a apontar para mim).

Mas a verdade é que a nossa capacidade de memória é trabalhável e muitas vezes só depende da técnica certa. Somos ensinados a trabalhar a memória através da repetição, sem darmos conta de que nem todas as informações são fáceis de decorar desta forma e que existem outras alternativas que poderão poupar tempo e frustração. De uma maneira muito prática e exemplificativa, Tansel Ali enumera as suas preferidas.

Seja para estudar para os exames, nunca mais esquecer um nome ou onde deixámos as chaves do carro, aprender combinações numéricas num ápice ou dominar uma nova língua em tempo recorde, há um método de memorização ideal e How To Learn Almost Anything In 48 Hours diz-nos qual e a média de tempo que leva a que o processo fique completo com sucesso. Em jeito bónus, seguimos ainda o relato de como o autor foi capaz de memorizar as páginas amarelas australianas — e de as enumerar para um anúncio publicitário.

Sendo um livro com muita componente prática, senti que é um exemplar a que vou recorrer regularmente no futuro e não me senti defraudada. Achei curioso que alguns dos métodos eu já fizesse, mesmo sem os conhecer formalmente (eu fazia muitos apontamentos de humor para memorizar conceitos de fisiologia e anatomia). Recomendo!

[Moony Dee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall a good introduction into the different memory techniques and ways of learning/remembering things.

Pros:
It contains some actual practical examples within. For instance it contains a lot of exercises and drills you can practise in using the techniques mentioned within.

Cons:
One thing I really disliked about the quiz/trivia examples was that the answers were printed upside-down so it can be a bit tedious when doing those drills. Also it would have been nice to include a summary sheet (ideally in PDF format) for review.

Don't expect to read this book and then become able to learn anything in 48 hours as the title is implying. The reality is that after reading this book, you will first need to invest countless of hours in learning the different techniques first. THEN, and only then (once you have mastered the techniques within), can you go on learning 'almost anything in 48 hours'.

[Sorrowka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Concise with key points and times derivations for keeping up the learning.
the fundamental thing is how you apply the tiny trivia right after you learn about it.

The association technique with such imagination and exaggeration works well. As well for turning numbers into visual memorization.
The book teaches about fast reading in a cunning way, which is by putting the line into some brackets and read as if in visualization way.

Not only that, but also in learning languages using tone associated with a story visualization.

[Lee Cochran · Rating 4 out of 5]

More A Handbook For Memory Training Not Learning

The title us a little deceptive.
You learn how to remember and recall information mainly for memory competition and not learning to understand and become a pro at.
There are many techniques to learn cards and numbers rapidly but the book said lean anything in 48 hours.
Not like another book The First 20 Hours by Kaufman that how's you how to learn effectively.
Half the book are exercises.
Worth reading if practicing to be in memory competition.

[atharvroooom]

Engaging, and a fun read. Not earth shattering though, neither it needs to be so. Provides with some really pragmatic applications to help you be a better learner. Although the techniques the book speaks of for better memorization are all helpful only when you are conscious of what you what to memorize at the time. it gives methods to memorize stuff you consciously want to memorize, does not provide you with techniques to, y'know- organically strengthening your memory. 7/10

[Jock MURRAY · Rating 3 out of 5]

A few spelling mistakes throughout, but the content is okay. After getting about halfway through I got the idea and didn't bother with the trivia and extra bits. It is very Australian and could be changed to fit a more of a global community - even though I am Australian, I feel he is limiting his audience.

[Luca Kra · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book should be named „How to REMEMBER almost anything in 48 hours“. I believe most of the tips are great if you want to become a memory champion or remember lots of facts. For learning, I disagree.

Active recall and spaced repetition will get you further. 👍

The funniest line in this book was „repetition sucks!“ 😂

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the better self-help books I've read. This book gives some concrete tips in improving overall memory and is useful for those who tend to procrastinate on exams. I felt that the language section was lacking in some areas and that there is an imbalance in content relevance in the second half of the book.

[Jakub mróz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cool tips on how to basically memorise anything. Useful for high school students as well as university graduates and those who want to improve their memorization skills. It also helps with membering people's names, dates, and basically any information you want to remember for your presentation, your job, or your date, or even just to improve just to impress your friends.

[Scarlett · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish I could read this book a little bit earlier. This is one of the best self-help book ever. After reading this book, memorizing anything becomes soooo fun..... soooo amazing..... soooo effective. I even become motivate to study a lot. Studying seems not that boring anymore when I'm applying this book's stratigies. I just love it. Really appreciate the author's work. 💜💜💜

[Preslava · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think the book was helpful overall. There were some techniques I was already using, and I didn't know until I read about it. I do think, however, that some of the techniques have to be mastered, and you have to remember the logic behind the method before actually using it. I think it will take more time to learn the technique rather than using your way. idk man

[Cezar Black · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simple explanations of memory techniques, but doesn't gloss over the amount of work needed to achieve success.
It's not ground breaking, but my first experience with dedicated memory techniques and a decent introduction IMO.

[Cory · Rating 4 out of 5]

A myriad of useful strategies for memorizing numbers, names, dates, almost any quality/quantity of information you can think of. The important notice in this book is the command TO ALWAYS PRACTICE & STUDY.

4/5

[Carlos Ramos · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book begins with some memory techniques... then it gets filled with examples and exercises, and that is pretty much it.
This book could have easily been half as long as it was.
Will look for memory and learning elsewhere, since I feel this book has not enough information on it.

[Thang Pham · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just a quick pick from a library.
Most of the techniques are not “learn” but to memory stuffs.
Also, it covers a range of methods for different skills, so it’s reasonable to not have good reviews here.

[Cynthia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Apart from a few interesting memorization techniques, there’s hardly anything useful to be found in this book. The part about using memorization techniques with stories to learn music by heart was complete nonsense. No practicality whatsoever in that.