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Students often struggle trying to remember certain
types of information. Mnemonics are memory strategies that make remembering
information a bit easier,
transforming tedious texts into vibrant
memory. They increase your ability to remember difficult
or unfamiliar information. They are most useful
for learning information where there is a sequence you need to learn in a
particular order
such as lists, names or numbers. Let's look at some common Mnemonics.
Acronyms.
Acronyms are when a word or a term is created from the first letter
of each item to be remembered. A well-known acronym
is Roy G.Biv which has helped many students remember the colours of the
visible spectrum.
That's Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet.
Acrostics.
Acrostics are another popular Mnemonic. That's a complete sentence or series of
words in which the first letter
of each word stands for something to be remembered.
My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nachos.
Helps to remember the planets in the solar system
in order from the Sun. Mercury, Venus, Earth,
Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
and, Passing Exams Maybe Difficult
At School, helps to recall an order of operations in algebra:
Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication, Division,
Addition, Subtraction.
The PEG system. The PEG system is useful for remembering numbers.
It uses keywords which are represented by numbers, for example:
1 = bun, 2 shoe
3 tree, 4 door, 5 drive
6 sticks, 7 heaven, 8 gate,
9 wine, 10 hen. To remember the speed of light is
186,000 thousand miles per second, imagine
an iced bun 1, walking through a
gate 8, made of sticks 6.
186.
Image Mnemonics.
Image Mnemonics are when the information to be recalled is constructed in the
form of a picture that enhances memory.
The crazier the image, the more likely you are to recall the relevant information.
You don't need to be an artist as long as you know
what your drawing means. You can use an Image Mnemonic
to remember BAT. The depressant drugs
Barbiturates, Alcohol and Tranquilizers.
You could draw in your notes, a depressed
bat that took Barbiturates, Alcohol
and Tranquilizers. If you needed to remember the name
Julie Gilmore, visualize a fish with large gills
wearing jewels.
Chunking.
Chunking is another method. It involves grouping individual pieces of
information together in a way that makes them
easier to remember.
For example, the individual digits 1, 8, 4, and 6, are easier to recall
as the year 1846,
or a shopping list might be more easily remembered when items are grouped
together by food categories,
such as drinks or vegetables.
Mind Maps. Mind Maps are a
visual pattern that can create a framework for improved recall.
They consist of a central word or concept. Around this central word or
concept
you draw the 4 to 10 main ideas that
relate to that word. You then take each of these words and again draw out the main concepts that
relate to that word.
Be creative and use different colours, symbols, pictures or acronyms to help
organize ideas. A major benefit of Mind Maps
is that they vividly and accurately show relationships between ideas.
They also help you to understand a concept from the broad
and general, to the very specific. The keys to making Mnemonics more memorable
are: -use positive or humorous images; funny and weird images
are easier to remember. - exaggerate particular parts of the image to help it
stand out.
-vibrant colourful images are easier to remember
than dull, drab ones. The key thing
is that Mnemonics should clearly be associated to the concept being
remembered.
It must be vivid enough to be easily recalled when you think about it.
These are just a few examples you can use to enhance your memory,
but there are hundreds of examples on the Internet,
or, you might have some fun just creating your own.