Learning/Reviewing Verses by Typing - BibleMemory.com Tutorial

Every Sunday afternoon, I will be posting encouragement/tips/stories as related to Scripture memorization.  I have a zillion things to share eventually, but my husband told me to put them into bite-sized pieces so as not to overwhelm people. There is nothing very "bite-sized" about me, but I will try to keep these at least "meal-sized" (and in this case, this post will be more of a reference post, if you are interested, than a read-in-entirety post).

With all that I want to share this year, one of my first priorities relates to finding a website or app to help you on this journey.  I stumbled upon the Scripture Typer website (now BibleMemory.com) several years ago, and it has been revolutionary for me in three ways:

1. helping me LEARN verses (this helps me to practice and then "test" myself to see if I know each word of the verse)
2. helping me REVIEW verses (learning new verses is way more fun for me than reviewing old ones, but that is important, too. For all the verses that I have memorized, I am on a review cycle to review them at least every three months)
3. helping me CATALOG verses (I knew verses from songs from my childhood and from verse projects over the years, and I was having a hard time keeping track of them all. Now I have them all here!)

Before I go any further, I do want to say that there are plenty of great apps out there. (Here's an article on the 7 Best Bible Memorization Apps and here's a link telling you more about the two free apps from my friends at Scripture Memory Fellowship).  Other ones may be a better fit for you; I'm simply sharing from my own experience with one particular website/app. And some of you think you already spend too much time on technology and would rather memorize "offline."  This is a tutorial for those of you who are interested in the BibleMemory.com website/app.

STEP ONE: CREATE AN ACCOUNT

I started with creating a free account on the website. (Note: the regular version of the app is also free, but you are limited in how many verses you can add from the app. I always add my verses from my desktop computer, and they sync to the app on my phone)

STEP TWO: CHANGE YOUR SETTINGS/PREFERENCES

Next, click on your name to go to the settings: My Account/Account Settings/Preferences

When I first started, I was typing every single letter of every word at a certain WPM speed in order to master a verse. So, if I was a slow typer, I couldn't master the verse. Now, I have it set where I just type the first letter of every word (I still have to hit 90% accuracy so I can't just guess all the time). Here's what I recommend to start with:

Preferred Translation - whatever you prefer (but you can change for each individual verse)

Review Type - I'd suggest "Memorize It" (so that when you review, every other word is already given to you)

What to Type? Type first letter of each word

Verse Reference - Type it (I didn't do this in the beginning but realized that I really wanted to learn the references along with the verses)

Punctuation - Keep going if I miss it (because who's got time/mental energy to perfect the punctuation?!)

STEP THREE: ADD VERSES

There are three ways to do this:

GROUPS - Find a group, and add the verse collections they've already set up. I usually do this when I'm memorizing a whole book, because there's probably another group that already has all those verses. I've made my own groups, like for all the Seeds Family Worship songs or for my fifth grade students with all their memory verses for the year. Once you join a group, you have the option to select a verse collection to memorize with the group.

VERSES BY TOPIC - Maybe you don't know what to memorize, but you have a certain theme in mind. There are all sorts of topics, such as: Top 100 verses, creation, God's plan for me, instruction for parents, peace, salvation, etc. If you find one you like, you can click "Add this collection."

ADD A VERSE - Go to My Verses/the red +/New Verse. 

• Type in the verse reference (whether one verse or multiple).
• Select the translation (they have several, including NIV84, which is not on BibleGateway. Also, they have AMP, CSB, ESV, HCSB, KJV, NKJV, MSG, NASB, NLT, NIV. If your preferred translation isn't listed, you can copy and paste from BibleGateway).
• I recommend putting it in a verse collection. Maybe you could set up a collection for your 2021 Scripture Memory Challenge.
• Click "Import Verse Text". If adding a passage, you'll have to decide if you want to leave them as a passage together or to split them into individual verses. I've done both ways.
• You'll see the verse(s) appear and then click "Save Scripture." This will add it to your verses.

STEP FOUR: LEARN VERSES

I'm going to jump over to the app screen shots although it works very similarly on the website. Click on "My Verses" and choose the verse you want to learn.

Type It. Again, on my settings, I'm only actually typing the first letter of each word. This is the phase for when a verse is brand new to you. You may have to do this step multiple times.

Memorize it - Now you're starting to test yourself by seeing if you can remember every other word. There's also an option where you can switch to view the opposite words.

Master it - Once you are ready to type the whole verse (first letter of every word) from memory, you go to the third level. If you get 90% accuracy, you've now "mastered" the verse. Congratulations!

STEP FIVE: REVIEW VERSES

Click the "Review" tab to review your mastered verses. There is a review cycle built into the program. When you first master a verse, it will pop back up to review in 24 hours (although it's okay if you don't get back to it then. It will just show as "due" whenever you log back on). Once you have reviewed it at 90% accuracy, your "review frequency" will increase to every 2 days, then every week, every month, every two months, etc.

Here are some of my mastered verses. I've reviewed Romans 1:12 enough that it is on a monthly review cycle, but Romans 1:16 is still every week (and will be up for review next in 6 days). Romans 1:18 is every 5 days (and will pop up in 15 hours), while Romans 11:33 is one I memorized awhile ago, so it's at the max review frequency of every 3 months. 

Here's the max review frequency I was referring to. I used to set mine to review all my verses every month, but that got to be overwhelming, so I backed up to every 3 months to make it more manageable.

Here's what it looks like when I click "Review" in the app:

Again, this won't be for everyone, but I hope some of you find it helpful! Please reach out if you have any further questions. I've spent a lot of time with this program and have helped my oldest son and upper elementary students with it, so I'd love to help you get started!

Sometimes, it can feel like more of a task, so I have to remind myself to connect with Jesus through the process, but the discipline of it has allowed me to learn, retain, and catalog more verses. For that, I'm grateful.