[Ida Isotope]

One of my weakest points is retaining information or memorizing. I know there isn't alot of it Chemistry but when it is needed I tend to fail miserably. 

For example....knowing catalysts and reagents for synthesis reactions....I always mix them up.

Does anyone have any tips or exercises I can do to help myself?

[renge ishyo]

For memorization I use repetition. Usually the way this works is I will break up my notes into small little groups. I will work one group at a time and read the notes for this group over a few times. Then I will go over the notes in my mind without looking at anything at all (by closing my eyes or whatnot). If I forgot certain things without looking I will then go over the notes again from scratch to re-imprint the things I missed and keep following this pattern until I can consistently go through the notes in my head without looking at all. Then I move onto the next group of notes and do the same thing. When I am done with the next group, I then review both groups together in my head one after the other to make sure that I can still do the first group along with the second.

I build things up in this manner one group at all time followed by reviews of all the previous groups together after each new group until I am through with the notes. Then I start the same process over *backwards* starting with the last group I learned the previous time and working towards the first group I had started with. Usually this is enough. I have been able to memorize ridiculously large amounts of information this way, but I admit that it is a time consuming way to go about things (but hey, whatever works).

[Ida Isotope]

Thank you...I will give this a try!

[Fridushka]

Also you can try to have logical connection between the names of reagents and of the catalysts. For example, the first letters..you make a new word with the first letter, and memorize only the new word that you made and know which of them stand for what..
Hope it will help:)
Good luck

[Donut]

I build things up in this manner one group at all time followed by reviews of all the previous groups together after each new group until I am through with the notes. Then I start the same process over *backwards* starting with the last group I learned the previous time and working towards the first group I had started with.

Repetition is definately the best way to study. When I'm doing this sort of revision I find that doing them backwards or all mixed up is the true test of whether you have retained the information, otherwise I just remember the pattern and cannot recall the fact without having to go through all the previous points haha.

[Hemidol]

One of the greatest memory techniques I ever discovered was the Method of Loci. It is a bit complex to develop, however once you have mastered the technique, it is very powerful.

[mir]

I sometimes use anagrams in remembering. Try to make funny or easily pictured anagrams, like "Insect-y" for the amino acid Cysteine, "Emotion-I" for Metionine, "Raining" for Arginine. usually they don't match exactly. I also use the first letter of each member and put them into a easy to picture word, like "KIK-AID-KMEK" for the protein families involved in Glycolysis or "GLAMVIP" for the aliphatic aminoacids (Glycine, Leucine, Alanine, Metionine, Valine, Isoleucine and Proline). Other times I make whole words from the first letter of each member of the list and put them into a funny or tragic sentence. When I do the latter I try to make the connection of the words more obvious to the original member of the list. Like involving as many common letters as possible.