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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