Memorization Techniques

Keys to Memorization

Association

Repetition

Review

All of the various techniques for memorization are based on these three keys: Association, Repetition, and Review.

Association: One of the most interesting things about memorization techniques is that it is often easier to remember more rather than less, particularly when it comes to association. I often used association to help me remember student names. I remembered the name of Davy Boyd by picturing him wearing a coonskin cap with a crow on his shoulder (Davy Crocked with a bird). Whenever I looked at my student named James West, I imagined in my mind the first few bars of the theme of the TV show Wild, Wild West, with its main character, James West. Another student who was named John Clayton I associated with Tarzan (Tarzan's human name). Often, the sillier the association, the easier it is remembered.

Repetition: Sales people are taught to use repetition. They will repeatedly say people's names as they talk to them, which serves two purposes: It helps them remember the names, and it encourages the customer to trust them. The more often information is repeated, the easier it is remembered. How many people spell relief R O L A I D S (an example of both repetition and association). Advertisers depend on repetition to sell products. Repetition can be done by saying something over and over, writing it over and over, essing it over and over, or hearing it over and over.

Review: While repetition gets information into short term memory, review gets information into long term memory. The more material is reviewed, the longer it is remembered. A first review should be done shortly after something has been memorized and then additional reviews spaced out over time for as long as the information needs to be remembered.

Acronyms as Memorization Aids

Acronyms are often used as memory aids, associating a particular phrase with a list of items.

Star classifications by color and temperature: O B A F G K M R N S - Oh Be A Fine Girl, Kiss Me Right Now Sweetheart (star classification), Our sun, for instance, is a G type star.
The lines and spaces of the treble clef in music notation: The lines are E G B D F - Every Good Boy Does Fine while the spaces are F A C E, spelling the word FACE.
Spelling Aids: A Rat In The House Might Eat The Ice Cream (spelling of arithmetic)
Names of the Planets: My Very Excellent Mother Just Served us Nachos - Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
Coordinating Conjunctions: F A N B O Y S - For, and, nor, but, or, yet, so. Because some of my students confused Because with But, I began writing the letters vertically on the board with the B titled to the right (so it looked like a "butt." I would remind them that their "butt" (but) was in the middle. Students quickly learned to remember that but was one of the coordinating conjunctions.

Rhymes and Songs

While many people will say that they cannot memorize a poem, they can remember the lyrics of dozens of songs. In effect, they learned the words by adding the additional effort of learning the music. This is another example of how memorization techniques are often easier by having a person remember more rather than less. The rhythm and rhyme of poetry help in remembering the words.,

In the movie Born Yesterday (1993) starring Melanie Griffith, Don Johnson, and John Goodman, Melanie Griffith teachs a group her memory techique for remembering the Bill of Rights.

Sherlock's Mind Palace

People familiar with the British TV show Sherlock, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman will remember his technique for remembering vast amounts of information, his "mind palace." This technique was actually developed by the Romans, especially for speeches. They would imagine entering their home and at each place (the Greek word for places is topoi from which we get our word "topic") in their home, they would imagine their topic sitting. When it came time to give a speech, they would just walk through their home, picking up their "topics" as they did. For more on the mind palace technique, see Learn How to Use Sherlock's Mind Palace Technique and Use Sherlock Holmes' Mind Palace Technique to Improve Your Memory.

Flash Cards

Flash cards can be used for all kinds of information and are one of the most effective memorization tools. Use flash cards for vocabulary, foreign words, dates and events, facts about people or things, arithmetic, math and science formulae (formula on one side of card, explanation on the other), the value of constants (for instance, the symbol Π for pi on one side of a card, and the value to be used on the other side of the card--my high school teachers required us to know pi to four decimal places--3.1415), and so on. Do not put too much information on a card. Flash cards work best with connecting two pieces of information. It is helpful to take a 3x5 card and divide it in thirds on the long side so that each 3x5 card becomes three 1.66x3 cards. For instance, rather than one card with lots of information, create multiple cards with less information:

It is easier to learn three cards with limited information than it is to learn one card loaded down with information.

Effective Method for Reviewing Flashcards

This method is efficient because you spend most of your time on the words you don't know but continue to review the things you know. Using this method you spend the most time on what you don't know. Another advantage is that you do not need large blocks of time to study. Memorization with flash cards works extremely well when you only have a few minutes to study: waiting for class to start, waiting for the bus, sitting in the doctor's office, and so on. It is also easy to carry around a stack of cards.

Potential Uses for Flashcards

Alphabetical Techniques

From the time we were children, we have been taught to alphabetize words. As a result, the letters of the alphabet can be effective memory cues. Can't remember someone's name? Try slowly working through the alphabet. Often that will help a person remember. Lists of words can also be more effectively memorized by first alphabetizing the list and then using the letters of the alphabet as cues. Years ago, I gave workshops on memorization at school, and I would teach this technique to students using the following list of randomly chosen words.

After reading the list outside of any particular order, I would write them on the board in alphabetical order by the first letters in three columns (association):

After writing the words on the board, I would lead the class in reading them aloud from the board, stressing that it was important that they read them aloud with me off the board. After reading through them once or twice (repetition). I would then point out that "power, play, and persuade" were not in fully alphabetical order but that the order they were in was more rhythmical than any other order, and by illustration, I would read them aloud emphasing the rhythm. With the two words "these temporary," I pointed out that they fit a more natural grammatical order as in "these temporary words we are learing." "Form Function" were an association common to nursing students. "Hanging human" was a visual cue, and "magic natural", Magic Johnson was a natural ball player.

We then returned to reading the words off the board, but this time, I began erasing groups of words, one set in each column as we read them "off the board." This continued until we were reading all of the words "off the board" although I pointed out that all of us could still "see" the words on the board.

AABBFFGG
HILLMN
PPPSTTUWY
pointing to groups of letters and having everyone recited what words the letters represented. Any that students had trouble with, I returned to more often, but made sure that we covered every set of letters at least three times after which I began erasing groups of letters while still "pointing to them on the board" until I had erased all of the letters. This whole process took longer to write about than to do. Typically, we finished in less than 15 minutes. I would ask for two or three volunteers to recite the words, and they were always able to do so. The most interesting aspect of this is that I would have students come to me years later, still able to recite all of the words--after only 15 minutes of study.

I have had teachers give me lists of things to remember, sometimes with as many as 15 or 20 items in the list. I combined this alphabetical cue approach with flashcards. The results looked odd, but were very effective as a study tool. Using the words above, I might make a flashcard that looked like this.

I would look at the front of the card and rattle off the letters on the other side without looking. Then turning over the card, I would say the key word that each letter represented. Often with those lists, the key word was then a cue for a full phrase so I would repeat the key word followed by the phrase, and then move on to the next letter, key word, phrase. While the process sounds complicated, it was extremely effective and took less time to study then other methods might have.

This technique can be combined with the key word technique to memorize more involved kinds of lists (you remember the key word to remember the phrase or sentence, you remember the alphabetical letters to remember the key word).

Block Memorization: poetry, prose passages, speeches, Bible verses

Read

Repeat

Review

Example

While in tenth grade, I was involved in a local Bible quiz program similar to programs by Youth for Christ. Quizzes covered two to four chapters from a specific book of the Bible. I had never done any serious memorization before (I could quote John 3:16 and the shortest verse in the Bible, John 11:35 "Jesus wept"). But I was motivated to try, so I worked out a schedule for memorizing. I wanted to be able to memorize both the verse and its reference, so I went about it like this:

I was memorizing the opening chapters of I Corinthians. I would read the verse out loud, beginning with the reference (for example, 1:1) often breaking the verse into sections that I would repeat over and over. Once I could repeat the whole verse, I would work on the next verse. When Iw as comfortable with the second verse, I wouild review both verses, being sure to include the reference. I continued this process until I finished verse 10. Instead of dropping all the way back to verse 1 after memorizing verse 11, I dropped back to verse 6 and reviewed. I did the same thing after verse 15 and so on. In that way, I was reviewing overlapping groups of ten verses. When I finished the chapter, I would review the entire chapter.

Later in the day, I would try to recite the chapter, checking myself against the text whenever I stumbled.

Over the course of several months, I memorized all of First and Second Corinthians.My junior year, I memorized all of Matthew, using the same method, but I was able to learn more quickly now, and my senior year, the books of Romans and Galations. I regret to say that I cannot rattle off those books today, although I can recite some passages, and reading back through the books, I find them coming back to mind.

Years later, while walking to reduce weight, I began memorizing favorite poems as I walked. I worked on about fifty poems although, with most of them, I only remember snatches now. I used the same basic techniques I used while memorizing books of the Bible in high school. In both cases, I also usually memorized passages out loud so that I was seeing the words, saying the words, and hearing the words, which helped reinforce my memory.

Additional Resources

"The Ultimate Guide to Memorization (Student Edition)." KOI: Science-Based Systems to Learn And Earn More. YouTube. 12 Nov. 2024. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kntcUApUBoM>.