Homework Help BlogTips that A+ students use to get ahead…
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24 Jun
Posted by: Brian Armstrong in: Free Homework Help, Test Prep, Uncategorized
Ever wonder how “smart” people seem to memorize everything the night before an exam?
Sure there are a few rare people who are born with a natural gift for memory (for example, the 2004 World Memory Champion Ben Pridmore memorized the order of cards in a randomly shuffled 52-card deck in 31 seconds). But for the rest of us, using the simple technique of mnemonics is more than enough to prep for an exam.
The technique basically consists of making up a sentence or phrase where the first letter of each word has a special meaning. Because of how our brains work we can easily remember a single sentence word for word, but remembering a random list of unfamiliar material IN ORDER tends to cause us problems.
We’re much better at memorizing words in order; this comes naturally to us.
One thing thats interesting about mnemonics (besides that its a difficult word to spell!) is that even nonsensical arbitrary words or sentences can be easy to remember.
For example…
“Roy” is a legitimate first name, but there is no actual surname “Biv” and of course the middle initial “G” is arbitrary. Why is “Roy G. Biv” easier to remember than to memorize the seven colors of the rainbow? (ROYGBIV) The sentence “Richard of York gave battle in vain” is commonly used in the UK, an almost meaningless phrase.
You have heard “thirty days hath September, April, June and November”, to remember the number of days in the months. If you’ve taken music you will have heard “every good boy does fine” to remember the notes which appear on the lines of the treble clef. Your English teachers may have taught the rhyme “I before E except after C”.
Clearly mnemonics are used in many disciplines.
Furthermore, mnemonics don’t have to just be for memorizing words. They can also be used to memorize numbers. The most common type of mnemonic is the word-length mnemonic in which the number of letters in each word corresponds to a digit. This simple one gives pi to seven decimal places:
How I wish I could calculate pi.
And here is pi to 31 decimal places:
Sir, I bear a rhyme excelling
In mystic force, and magic spelling
Celestial sprites elucidate
All my own striving can’t relate
Or locate they who can cogitate
And so finally terminate.
Finis.
Sure…you might not have the time to make a fancy rhyming mnemonic that looks pretty, but in most cases you can quickly string together a sentence on paper that is memorable to you. Remember, it doesn’t have to be grammatically correct, use real words, or even make sense!
When you get your test, take a minute to write out your mnemonic at the top or back of the paper and decode each word into its actual meaning. Now sit back and relax, you’re taking an open book test!
As a little exercise, lets try memorizing the countries of South America and see what mnemonics people come up with.
Click the image to the right to enlarge it.
To keep the order straight I’m going to start on Brazil (the biggest) and go left in a circle around the outside toward the center. This seems easiest to me but you can do it in any order that works for you.
So my order will be…
Brazil => B
French Guinea => FG
Suriname => S
Guyana => G
Trinidad => T
Venezuela => V
Columbia => C
Ecuador => E
Peru => P
Chile => C
Argentina => A
Uruguay => U
Paraguay => P
Bolivia => B
Let’s see, the first thing that comes to mind is…
Brian fails golf so God takes vengeance. Come eat pineapple chips at ugly park bench.
It might look a little funny but I guarantee you I can memorize that in 30 seconds or so instead of 30 minutes ;)
I bet you can create a better one! Post your own mnemonic in the comments below to memorize the South American countries.
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32 Responses
Ms Mac/Jeanine McGregor
24|Jun|2008 1As a researcher and developer of memory enhancement techniques and processes, I would like to share the following:
mnemonics (the art and science of memory) is as old as the ancient Greeks.
Schools do not emphasize, train or seriously apply mnemonics because it has always been addressed in the field of psychology and not education, yet everything a student learns depends on his/her memory system and how efficient it has been developed.
Acrostics as seen in the statement: “Brian fails golf so God takes vengeance. Come eat pineapple chips at ugly park bench.” is an oddity to the brain while using the chain effect based an agent-oriented statement….in another words it is strange enough to remember yet sets up an order of recall in sentence form.
Mnemonics uses higher thinking skills because it is based on synthesis. Yet it forgiving and non judgmental because there are various ways to apply it.
All of the pre-k students at our learning lab learned their addition/subtraction multiplication/division problems using the mnemonic program http://www.memorizemathfacts.com.
SAT vocabulary can be learned quicker and deeper using mnemonics. There are several products out there that addresses this approach:
Charles Gulotta’s book: 500 SAT Words; Max Burcher’s Vocabulary Cartoons, and The Tales of Fort Word, Texas- http://www.fortword.com.
Thank you for helping others learn quicker and easier.
Ms. Mac
http://www.msmac@multiplymemory.com
[Reply]
Brian Armstrong Reply:
June 26th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
Thanks for the comment! Also, acostic is a good word, had to look that one up! Thanks.
[Reply]
Dan
24|Jun|2008 2Hi Brian,
I agree; all exams etc I ever took I used mnemonics. You may love the site I have just built- if you do please digg it or whatever- theres a button on the site- less effort in constructing your mnemonics…
http://www.JogLab.com
Dan
[Reply]
Brian Armstrong Reply:
June 26th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
Nice work, thanks Dan!
[Reply]
Brian Armstrong
24|Jun|2008 3Thank you for the useful information Dan and Jeanine…good to see research being done in this area by experts such as yourself.
[Reply]
Quint
30|Dec|2008 4Hello Brian,
Nice article. The internet truly pushes us forward through collaboration. By the way, Trinidad and Tobago is not a South American country. It is a republic that is considered part of the West Indies.
The following works for me…
Brian failed golf so God verbalized, “Come eat pineapple chips at ugly park bench.”
[Reply]
Brian Armstrong
02|Jan|2009 5Thanks for the correction! :)
Brian
[Reply]
The Reasoning Behind Homework & A Few Useful Tips For Memorization » HomeworkHelpBlog
09|Feb|2009 6[...] mnemonics to remember things (see the mnemonics [...]
The Homework Factory
04|Apr|2009 7Mnemonics is an interesting subject and this is an article that I will be suggesting as I think the subject is not given enough focus.
Thanks for yet another great post.
[Reply]
Brian Armstrong
05|Apr|2009 8Thanks for the feedback!
[Reply]
How Kids Can Memorize Anything! « PJ’s All Day
27|Apr|2009 9[...] is all learning based on “mnemonics” at some level? And, if we incorporated more mnemonic-style teaching methods, wouldn’t our children have better retention of new [...]
david antonius
13|May|2009 10you are great it works so well
[Reply]
How Kids Can Memorize Anything | pjsallday.com
06|Jun|2009 11[...] is all learning based on “mnemonics” at some level? And, if we incorporated more mnemonic-style teaching methods, wouldn’t our children have better retention of new [...]
Peter Pan
26|Jun|2009 12Blatant fouling Goads: Sacking Goalies, Tripping Victims, Causing Effusive Puking, Crippling and Upsetting Pantywaist Boys
I think it would be more entertaining just to make a mnemonic anyway! I know it would liven up my biology and chemistry tests (for me)
Thanks for the article! I’ll be teaching it and using it for my college studies.
[Reply]
Brian Armstrong Reply:
June 26th, 2009 at 7:47 pm
Quite the active imagination you have! I was surprised at the one I came up with on my own too. Maybe mnemonics could be used is Freudian psychoanalysis too! Yikes…scary thought. :) Anyway, glad it helps!
[Reply]
Samantha Geller
29|Jul|2009 13hey u have just emphasized on the technique i think most of us have been using unknowingly to remember difficult things.
[Reply]
Brian Armstrong Reply:
July 29th, 2009 at 6:15 pm
Yep, agreed! :)
[Reply]
supersmartkid
19|May|2010 14I use mnemonics the whole time for my GCSE’s
[Reply]
Von Rezak
14|Jun|2010 15A Excellent wordpress post, I will bookmark this in my Newsvine account. Have a great day.
[Reply]
Frank460 Reply:
October 18th, 2010 at 9:32 pm
I have software developed over the years that automatically generates
mnemonic sentences and phrases. If you have any lists that need converting
just let me know. I can usually e-mail you back the results pretty quick.
[Reply]
Frank460 Reply:
October 18th, 2010 at 9:51 pm
Here is another mnemonic for the list of countries that might make
even better sense.
British
Financial
Services
Groups
Took
Venture
Capital
Elsewhere
Profit
Changes
Are
Under
Pension
Benefits
Brazil => B
French Guinea => FG
Suriname => S
Guyana => G
Trinidad => T
Venezuela => V
Columbia => C
Ecuador => E
Peru => P
Chile => C
Argentina => A
Uruguay => U
Paraguay => P
Bolivia => B
[Reply]
Frank460
09|Aug|2010 16Memorizing the countries of South America
How about something like:
Ben
Franklin’s
Sewer
Gushing
Toilet
Vibrating (Veteran)
Cleanout (Clint)
Exploded (Eastwood’s)
Plumbers
Came
And
Unstopped
Pink
Bowl
—————————————————————————————-
Brazil => B
French Guinea => FG
Suriname => S
Guyana => G
Trinidad => T
Venezuela => V
Columbia => C
Ecuador => E
Peru => P
Chile => C
Argentina => A
Uruguay => U
Paraguay => P
Bolivia => B
[Reply]
Brian Armstrong Reply:
August 9th, 2010 at 6:46 pm
Haha, nice one! I like it :)
[Reply]
Liz F
13|Sep|2010 17Hi, I had to make one up that my 8 yr old daughter could relate to & remember! Here it goes (I built off of your original mnemonic)!
Brianna failed geography so God very calmly emailed Pastor Chip at University (of) Preferable Behavior!
[Reply]
chuckie monroe
18|Oct|2010 18thankss
[Reply]
Zak
15|Nov|2010 19Standing on the shoulders of Liz F, but compromising ordering for what I find a more logical sequence:
Bruna Failed Geography So Gran Very Crossly Picked Up Atlas (and) Bruna Crammed Every Page
I’m sure more could be done :)
[Reply]
immaguest :)
05|Apr|2011 20Here’s one I made up. I even have the first two letters of the country in the word (except for Peru and pretty, but close enough) for the countries with the same first letter to help me remember.
Breaking five green schools gets vice Commander Emily pretty chilled at ur parent bob.
And I used “ur” instead or “your” to help me remember “URuguay”. :)
[Reply]
Gabkegree
22|May|2011 21у вашего блога прикольный дизайн, сами делали?
откуда фамилия рахманова
[Reply]
gratitude!
29|Sep|2011 22it’s cool u know,I hpoe we should have expreience as a habit!
[Reply]
gratitude!
29|Sep|2011 23“when you change the way you look@things, the things you look@changes!!!”
[Reply]
jeeva
12|Jan|2012 24kindly let us ,same for european countires and african countries
[Reply]
avacroefe
29|Jan|2012 25homeworkhelpblog.com : http://www.ahoqotapoleryhi.blogspot.соm
[Reply]
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