Using Mnemonics for Exams
A very effective way of structuring information for revision is to draw up a full, colour coded map of the subject. This will enable you to see the overall structure of the topic, and make associations between information. A good colour coded Mind Map can be an effective way of remembering information in its own right. The problem with this is that you can forget the label on a line on a Mind Map. Using Mnemonics A more reliable method is to take your Mind Map of a subject, and break it down into a list of important points and facts on a large sheet of paper. This list can be ordered into general subject areas. This list should be numbered. Beside all the important facts you can note down associated and supporting information. When washing cloths it is easy to recognise and distinguish certain garments from others when the garments are on a cloths line. When in a washing basket the garments are just a mixture of colour and patterns. By associating 'items' on a list or information with 'a peg' such as a number or code, we can check that we have retrieved all of the items. This numbered list can be remembered using some of the following mnemonic techniques: For simple, short lists, use a simple 'peg' system, such as: The Number/Rhyme Technique The Number/Shape Technique The Alphabet Technique For longer lists we can use The Journey System, remembering key facts at each stop in the journey. Supporting facts can be associated into images or sub-mnemonics triggered at these stops in the journey system, or can be loosely associated in general memory to be retrieved by the cues of the main facts. Using Mnemonics in Exams By using mnemonics, retrieving all the facts necessary to answer an exam essay question becomes as simple as running through the mnemonic in your mind, jotting down the retrieved facts that are relevant to the question. Once you have written these down, you can apply any sub-mnemonics you have coded, or jot down any associated facts and connections that occur to you. This should ensure that you have all possible information available to you, and should go a long way towards producing an essay plan. The Number/Shape System The Number/Shape system is very similar to the Number/Rhyme system. As with the Number/Rhyme system it is a very simple and effective way of remembering lists of items in a specific order. It is another example of a peg system. Mnemonic Grade: Ease of Use - very easy Effectiveness - effective Power - only codes 1-10 items without use of enhancement Learning investment - low Who should use - everyone How to use the Number/Shape Technique This technique works by helping you to build up pictures in your mind, in which the numbers are represented by images shaped like the number, and are part of a compound image that also codes the thing to be remembered. One image scheme is shown below: 1 - Candle, spear, stick 2 - Swan (beak, curved neck, body) 3 - (rotate shape though 90 degrees!) 4 - Sail of a yacht 5 - A meat hook, a sea-horse facing right 6 - A golf club 7 - A cliff edge 8 - An egg timer 9 - A balloon with a string attached, flying freely 0 - A hole If you find that these images do not attract you or stick in your mind, then change them for something more meaningful to you. As with the Number/Rhyme scheme, these images should be linked to images representing the things to be remembered. We will use a list of more modern thinkers to illustrate the number/shape system: 1 - Spinoza - a large CANDLE wrapped around with someone's SPINe. 2 - Locke - a SWAN trying to pick a LOCK with its wings 3 - Hume - A HUMan child BREAST feeding. 4 - Berkeley - A SAIL on top of a large hooked and spiked BURR in the LEE of a cliff 5 - Kant - a CAN of spam hanging from a meat HOOK. 6 - Rousseau - a kangaROO SEWing with a GOLF CLUB 7 - Hegel - a crooked trader about to be pushed over a CLIFF, HaGgLing to try to avoid being hurt. 8 - Kierkegaard - a large EGG TIMER containing captain KIRK and a GuARD from the starship enterprise, as time runs out. 9 - Darwin - a BALLOON floating upwards, being blown fAR by the WINd. 10 - Marx - a HOLE with white chalk MARks around it's edge Try either visualising these images as suggested, or if you do not like them, come up with images of your own. In some cases these images may be more vivid than those in the number/rhyme scheme, and in other cases you may find the number/rhyme scheme more memorable. There is no reason why you could not mix the most vivid images of each scheme together into your own compound scheme. See the article on Using Mnemonics More Effectively (http://www.mindtools.com/memxpand.html) (to see how you can dress up these pictures to help them stay clearly in your mind. Once you have mastered this technique you can expand on it. Summary The Number/Shape technique is a very effective method of remembering lists. Used in conjunction with the Number/Rhyme system it can be used to generate potent images that can help to make well-coded mnemonics extremely effective. The Number/Rhyme System The Number/Rhyme technique is a very simple way of remembering lists of items in a specific order. It is an example of a peg system - i.e. a system whereby facts are 'pegged' to known sequences of cues (here the numbers 1 - 10). This ensures that no facts are forgotten (because gaps in information are immediately obvious), and that the starting images of the mnemonic visualisations are well know. At a simple level it can be used to remember things such as a list of English Kings or of Australian Prime Ministers in their precise order. At a more advanced level it can be used to code lists of experiments to be recalled in a science exam. Mnemonic Grades: Ease of Use - very easy Effectiveness - effective Power - only codes 1-10 items without use of enhancement Learning investment - low Who should use - everyone How to use the Number/Rhyme Technique This technique works by helping you to build up pictures in your mind, in which the numbers are represented by things that rhyme with the number, and are linked to images that represent the things to be remembered. The usual rhyming scheme is shown below: 1 - Bun 2 - Shoe 3 - Tree 4 - Door 5 - Hive 6 - Bricks 7 - Heaven 8 - Skate 9 - Line 10 - Hen If you find that these images do not attract you or stick in your mind, then change them for something more meaningful to you. These images should be linked to images representing the things to be remembered, for example a list of ten Greek philosophers could be remembered as: 1 - Parmenides - a BUN topped with melting yellow PARMEsan cheese 2 - Heraclitus - a SHOE worn by HERACLes (Greek Hercules) glowing with a bright LIghT 3 - Empedocles - A TREE from which the M-shaped McDonalds arches hang hooking up a bicycle PEDal 4 - Democritus - think of going through a DOOR to vote in a DEMOCRaTic election. 5 - Protagoras - A bee HIVE being positively punched through (GORed?) by an atomic PROTon 6 - Socrates - BRICKS falling onto a SOCk (with a foot inside!) from a CRATe. 7 - Plato - A plate with angel's wings flapping around a white cloud 8 - Aristotle - a friend called hARRY clutching a bOTtLE of wine possessively slipping on a SKATE (sorry Harry!) 9 - Zeno - A LINE of ZEN buddhists meditating 10 - Epicurus - a HEN's egg being mixed into an EPIleptics's CURe. Try either visualising these images as suggested, or if you do not like them, come up with images of your own. Once you have done this, try writing down the names of the philosophers on a piece of paper. You should be able to do this by thinking of the number, then the part of the image associated with the number, then the whole image, and finally then decode the image to give you the name of the philosopher. If the mnemonic has worked, you should not only recall the names of all the philosophers in the correct order, but should also be able to spot where you have left philosophers out of the sequence. Try it - it's easier than it sounds. Applying the Number/Rhyme Technique You can use a peg system like this as a basis for knowledge in an entire area: the example above could be a basis for a knowledge of ancient philosophy, as images representing the projects, systems and theories of each philosopher can now be associated with the images representing the philosophers names. The sillier the image, the more effectively you will remember it - see the article on Using Mnemonics More Effectively (http://www.mindtools.com/mnemeffc.html) to see how you can dress up the picture to help it stay clearly in your mind. Once you have mastered this technique you can multiply the technique using the images described in the article on Expanding Memory Systems. (http://www.mindtools.com/memxpand.html) Summary The Number/Rhyme technique is a very effective method of remembering lists. By driving the associations with numbers you can ensure complete recall of all items on a list as you will know if some have been missed (because there will be holes in the number sequence). The Alphabet Technique The Alphabet system is a peg memory technique similar to, but more sophisticated than, the Number/Rhyme system. At its most basic level (i.e. without the use of mnemonic multipliers) it is a good method for remembering long lists of items in a specific order in such a way that missing items can be detected. It is slightly more difficult to learn than the Number based techniques. Mnemonic Grade: Ease of Use - moderate Effectiveness - quite good Power - moderate - codes 1- 26 items without use of enhancement Learning investment - moderate Who should use - brighter individuals How to use the Alphabet Technique This technique works by associating images representing and cued by letters of the alphabet with images representing the items to be remembered. The selection of images representing letters is not based on the starting character of the letter name. Images are selected phonetically - i.e. so that the sound of the first syllable of the image word is the name of the letter, eg. we would represent the letter 'k' with the word 'cake'. Tony Buzan in his book 'Using Your Memory' suggests using a system of using the first pictorially vivid image suggested by taking the letter name root, and then coming up with words based by advancing the next consonant in alphabetic order (e.g. for the letter 'S' - root 'Es', we would first see if any strong images presented themselves when we tried to create a word starting with 'EsA', 'EsB', 'EsC', 'EsD', 'EsE', etc.) This has the advantage of producing a mnemonic image that can be reconstructed if forgotten, however you may judge that it is an unnecessary complication of a relatively simple system, and that it is best to select the strongest image that comes to mind and stick with it. One image scheme is shown below: A - Ace of spades B - Bee C - Sea D - Diesel engine E - Eagle F - Effluent G - Jeans H - H-Bomb I - Eye J - Jade K - Cake L - Elbow M - Empty N - Entrance O - Oboe P - Pea Q - Queue R - Ark S - Eskimo T - Tea pot U - Unicycle V - Vehicle W - WC X - XRay Y - Wire Z - Zulu If you find that these images do not attract you or stick in your mind, then change them for something more meaningful to you. Once firmly visualised and linked to their root letters, these images can then be linked to the things to be remembered. Continuing our mnemonic example of the names of philosophers, we will use the example of remembering a list of contemporary thinkers: A - Ace - Freud - a crisp ACE being pulled out of a FRying pan (FRiED) B - Bee - Chomsky - a BEE stinging a CHiMp and flying off into the SKY C - Sea - Genette - a GENerator being lifted in a NET out of the SEA D - Diesel - Derrida - a DaRing RIDer surfing on top of a DIESEL train E - Eagle - Foucault - bruce lee fighting off an attacking EAGLE with kung FU F - Effluent- Joyce - environmentalists JOYfully finding a plant by an EFFLUENT pipe G - Jeans - Nietzche - a holey pair of JEANS with a kNEe showing through H - H-Bomb - Kafka - a grey civil service CAFe being blown up by an H-Bomb etc. Try either visualising these images as suggested, or if you do not like them, come up with images of your own. Although the images are quite laboured, they are good enough to give the cues for the names being coded. See the article on Using Mnemonics More Effectively (http://www.mindtools.com/mnemeffc.html) to see how you can improve these pictures to help them stay clearly in your mind. Once you have mastered this technique you can multiply the technique using the images described in the article on Expanding Memory Systems. (http://www.mindtools.com/memxpand.html) Summary The Alphabet System is the most complex and difficult of the peg systems, requires a longer preparation period and is more difficult to code than either the Number/Rhyme System or the Number/Shape system. It is, however, more powerful in that it allows you to code and remember a list of up to 26 items before you have to start using Mnemonic Multipliers. You may, however, judge that it is more effective to use a simpler peg system with multipliers than to use the Alphabet System without them: this is your choice. The Journey System The journey method is a powerful, flexible and effective mnemonic based around the idea of remembering landmarks on a well-known journey. In many ways it combines the narrative flow of the Link Method and the structure and order of the Peg Systems into one highly effective mnemonic. Because the journey method uses routes that you know well, you can code information to be remembered to a large number of easily visualised or remembered landmarks along the routes. Because you know what these landmarks look like, you need not work out visualisations for them! Mnemonic Grades: Ease of Use - moderate Effectiveness - good Power - powerful Learning investment - moderate Who should use - everyone How to Use the Journey Method The journey method is based on using landmarks on a journey that you know well. This journey could, for example, be your journey to work in the morning, the route you use to get to the front door when you get up in the morning, the route to visit your parents, or a tour around a holiday destination. It could even be a journey around the levels of a computer game. Once you are familiar with the technique you may be able to create imaginary journeys that fix in your mind, and apply these. Preparing the Route To use this technique most effectively, it is often best to prepare the journey beforehand so that the landmarks are clear in your mind before you try to commit information to them. One way of doing this is to write down all the landmarks that you can recall in order on a piece of paper. This allows you to fix these landmarks as the significant ones to be used in your mnemonic, separating them from others that you may notice as you get to know the route even better. You can consider these landmarks as stops on the route. To remember a list of items, whether these are people, experiments, events or objects, all you need do is associate these things or representations of these things with the stops on your journey. Example For example, I may want to remember something mundane like a shopping list: Coffee, salad, vegetables, bread, kitchen paper, fish, chicken breasts, pork chops, soup, fruit, bath cleaner. I may choose to associate this with my journey to the supermarket. My mnemonic images therefore appear as: 1. Front door: spilt coffee grains on the doormat 2. Rose bush in front garden: growing lettuce leaves and tomatoes around the roses. 3. Car: with potatoes, onions and cauliflower on the driver's seat. 4. End of the road: an arch of French bread over the road 5. Past garage: with sign wrapped in kitchen roll 6. Under railway bridge: from which haddock and cod are dangling by their tails. 7. Traffic lights: chickens squawking and flapping on top of lights 8. Past church: in front of which a pig is doing karate, breaking boards. 9. Under office block: with a soup slick underneath: my car tyres send up jets of tomato soup as I drive through it. 10. Past car park: with apples and oranges tumbling from the top level. 11. Supermarket car park: a filthy bath is parked in the space next to my car! Extending the Technique This is an extremely effective method of remembering long lists of information: with a sufficiently long journey you could, for example, remember elements on the periodic table, lists of Kings and Presidents, geographical information, or the order of cards in a shuffled pack of cards. The system is extremely flexible also: all you need do to remember many items is to remember a longer journey with more landmarks. To remember a short list, only use part of the route! Long and Short Term Memory You can use the journey technique to remember information both in the short term memory and long term memory. Where you need to use information only for a short time, keep a specific route (or routes) in your mind specifically for this purpose. When you use the route, overwrite the previous images with the new images that you want to remember. To symbolise that the list is complete, imagine that the route is blocked with cones, a 'road closed/road out' sign, or some such. To retain information in long term memory, reserve a journey for that specific information only. Occasionally travel down it in your mind, refreshing the images of the items on it. One advantage of this technique is that you can use it to work both backwards and forwards, and start anywhere within the route to retrieve information. Summary The journey method is a powerful, effective method of remembering lists of information, whether short or long, by imagining images and events at stops on a journey. As the journeys used are distinct in location and form, one list remembered using this technique is easy to distinguish from other lists. Some investment in preparing journeys clearly in your mind is needed to use this technique. This investment is, however, paid off many times over by the application of the technique. The Roman Room Mnemonic The Roman Room technique is an ancient and effective way of remembering unstructured information where the relationship of items of information to other items of information is not important. It functions by imagining a room (e.g. your sitting room or bedroom). Within that room are objects. The technique works by associating images with those objects. To recall information, simply take a tour around the room in your mind, visualising the known objects and their associated images. Mnemonic Grade: Ease of Use - easy Effectiveness - effective Power - quite powerful Learning investment - moderate Who should use - people needing to store unstructured information on a topic. How to use the Roman Room System Imagine a room that you know well: perhaps this is your sitting room, a bedroom, an office, or a classroom. Within this room there are features and objects in known positions. The basis of the Roman Room system is that things to be remembered are associated with these objects, so that by recalling the objects within the room all the associated objects can also be remembered. For example, I can imagine my sitting room as a basis for the technique. In my sitting room I can visualise the following objects: table, lamp, sofa, large bookcase, small bookcase, CD rack, tape racks, stereo system, telephone, television, video, chair, mirror, black & white photographs, etc. I may want to remember a list of World War I war poets: Rupert Brooke, G.K. Chesterton, Walter de la Mare, Robert Graves, Rudyard Kipling, Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, W.B. Yates I could visualise walking through my front door, which has a picture on it of a scene from the Battle of the Somme, with an image of a man sitting in a trench writing in a dirty exercise book. I walk into the sitting room, and look at the table. On the top is RUPERT the Bear sitting in a small BROOK (we do not need to worry about where the water goes in our imagination!) This codes for Rupert Brooke. Someone seems to have done some moving: a CHEST has been left on the sofa. Some jeans (AlphabetSystem: G=Jeans) are hanging out of one draw, and some cake has been left on the top (K=Cake). This codes for G K Chesterton. The lamp has a small statuette of a brick WALl over which a female horse (MARE) is about to jumping. This codes for Walter de la Mare. etc. Expanding the Roman Room System The technique can be expanded in one way, by going into more detail, and keying images to smaller objects. Alternatively you can open doors from the room you are using into other rooms, and use their objects to expand the volume of information stored. When you have more experience you may find that you can build extensions to your rooms in your imagination, and populate them with objects that would logically be there. Other rooms can be used to store other categories of information. Moreover, there is no need to restrict this information to rooms: you could use a view or a town you know well, and populate it with memory images. Summary The Roman Room technique is similar to the Journey method, in that it works by pegging images coding for information to known images, in this case to objects in a room or several rooms. The Roman Room technique is most effective for storing lists of unlinked information, whereas the journey method is most effective for storing lists of related items.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
