The following techniques and
exercises use associations with letters, images,
maps, etc
to help you remember.
As you proceed through this list of techniques, try to think of strategies that
would be useful to you!
Some people use letters, some images, even songs.
Each depends on how comfortable you are with, or how useful they are to, your way
of thinking!
- Acronyms
An acronym is an invented combination of letters.
Each letter is a cue to,
or suggests, an item you need to remember.
PEMDAS, sequence in solving or evaluating
math equations
Parenthesis | Exponents | Multiplication | Division
| Addition | Subtraction
ROY G. BIV,
the colors of the visible spectrum
Red,
Orange, Yellow, Green,
Blue, Indigo,
Violet
IPMAT, the stages of cell division
Interphase,
Prophase, Metaphase,
Anaphase,
Telephase
Practice your acronym
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- An acrostic is an invented sentence or poem with a first
letter cue:
The first letter of each word is a cue to an idea you need to remember.
Please
Excuse
My Dear Aunt Sally
(PEMDAS, above)
Sequence in solving or evaluating math
equations
Parenthesis | Exponents
| Multiplication | Division
| Addition | Subtraction
Acrostic exercise GARBAGE
| Acrostic exercise EGBDF
See also:
Silva Rhetoricae;
Acrostics for Children
- Rhyme-Keys: (for ordered or unordered lists)
First, memorize key words that can be associated with numbers.
Example: bun = one; shoe = two, tree = three, door = four, hive =
five, etc.
Create an image of the items you need to remember with key words.
Four basic food groups-- diary products; meat, fish, and poultry;
grains; and fruit and vegetables
Think of cheese on a bun (one), livestock with shoes on (two),
a sack of grain suspended in a tree (three), a door to a room stocked with
fruits and vegetables (four)
Practice your
rhymes
- The Method of Loci: (for approximately twenty items)
Select any location that you have spent a lot of time in and know well.
Good for kinesthetic learners!
Imagine yourself walking through the location, selecting clearly
defined places--the door, sofa, refrigerator, shelf, etc. Imagine yourself
putting objects that you need to remember into each of these places by
walking through this location in a direct path.
Again, you need a standard direct path and clearly defined locations
for objects to facilitate the retrieval of these objects.
George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Richard Nixon, you could
imagine walking up to the door of your location and seeing a dollar bill
stuck in the door; when you open the door Jefferson is reclining on the
sofa and Nixon is eating out of the refrigerator.
Practice your loci
- The Keyword Method: (for foreign language vocabulary)
First,
after considering the foreign word you need to remember, select a key word in
English that sounds like the foreign word.
Next, imagine an image which involves the key word with the English meaning of
the foreign word.
For example, consider the Spanish word "cabina" which means "phone
booth." For the English keyword, you might think of "cab in a ... ." You could
then invent an image of a cab trying to fit in a phone booth. When you see the
word "cabina" on the test, you should be able to recall the image of the cab
and you should be able to retrieve the definition "phone booth."
Practice
your
keywords
- The Image-Name Technique: (for remembering names)
Simply invent
any relationship between the name and the physical characteristics of the
person. For example, if you had to remember Shirley Temple's name, you might
ingrain the name in memory by noticing that she has "curly" (rhymes with
Shirley) hair around her temples.
Practice
image-naming
- Chaining: (for ordered or unordered lists)
Create a story where
each word or idea you have to remember cues the next idea you need to recall.
If you had to remember the words Napoleon, ear, door, and Germany, you could
invent a story of Napoleon with his ear to a door listening to people speak in
German.
Practice your
chaining
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