Learning new repertoire, quickly and well

[chopinrabbitthing]

So I've almost pretty much confirmed what I'm gonna learn for next year, and honestly the workload is about twice as much as what I had this year. (It's basically what I have down in my signature, minus a duet, which I don't know what piece will be played).

After the summer I'll be in my fourth year in secondary school, which over here we basically don't do anything important academically - so I'll have a lot of time to dedicate to music (hence why I picked to do).

I'm the type of person who likes to learn and memorise everything as soon as possible. What would be the most efficient way to do so, in the shortest time possible?

I'm planning to try out a method where I take a page or two of a piece a day and learn it really well, and then keep moving on everyday. Before I used to just keep sightreading to from start to end, but I figured the new method might work better, theoretically at least.

Oh, one more thing, all of this, at least the 1st movements of the Beethovens, should be ready by Christmas.

Thanks in advance!

[faulty_damper]

Learning = process of memorization.  The fastest way to memorize is to take 2-3 second chunks and recall it without looking at the music.  2-3 seconds is how long it takes you to play it, not the performance tempo.  Thus, sightreading from beginning to end is a waste of practice time unless you are practicing sightreaeding.

[quantum]

I'd sight read an entire piece, then work on memorizing the parts that feel the most difficult.  Recognize repetitive patterns and when they occur, as you don't need to memorize the same material over and over again. 

[cabbynum]

I'd sight read an entire piece, then work on memorizing the parts that feel the most difficult.  Recognize repetitive patterns and when they occur, as you don't need to memorize the same material over and over again. 

I agree here but I'd like to add a thing or two. A very talented pianist on this forum have me this tip and I have taken it and modified it a bit.
I won't quote exactly what he told me because I don't remember exactly, so I'll just explain what I do.

Read through it as many times as I can over a 2 day period. You should get a good feel for it by this point. I let it sit for most of the third day until the evening... Then I go back t it and do the hardest sections and make them the easiest. Then I go back through and read it again 3-4 times. Then I find more tricky passages.  Usually by this point I've got the whole thing under my fingers and basically memorized. I hardly need the music after the fourth day. But I keep it there for tricky parts and just to make sure I'm learning it correctly.

Oh one more thing, before you touch the keys of the piano. Go through and mark up the score with chord names and what not. If there is polyrhythm I go ahead and draw lines to where it lines up and where it doesn't.

Hope this helps!

[hfmadopter]

These day ( I'm older now) I more do this as Quantum mentions. In the past when I was much younger with a young mind ready to absorb I would learn ad start memorizing that as I learned the next movement. I found that to work best for me. I learned multi pieces at a time the same way, I always had at least two going at the same time. If prepping for a recital then it was a recitals worth of music. My recitals may have differed from some folks around  the forum though in that I included a mix of pop, show tunes and classical music. I shot for about 6-8 pieces of music in a recital.