Mnemonics
Mnemonics
Photo by moose.boy (retrieved on 07.11.2009)
Short description
Using mnemonics, people develop devices (mnemonic tricks), such as rhymes, formulas, sketches, or special words or sentences. The principle of mnemonics is to associate hard to memorise information with simpler representation.
Process description
We choose a specific topic, which has particularly difficult to remember content. We choose an appropriate mnemonic device (system/method). The terms to be remembered are expressed in simpler terms, according to the selected mnemonic device. They are repeated until all terms are properly learned by heart.
Required resources
Nothing special
Examples
Memorising with the help of a walk:
Write the information to be learned on a notepad.
Imagine walking (a specific route) and stopping at certain locations (for example, on a street, at a bus stop, by a lake, by a distinctive tree) and by each memorise one of the items from the notepad.
Note in the notepad which content is associated with which place.
Keep repeating the walk on that route until you have mastered the subject.
During an examination, you just need to imagine going on that walk to recall with relative ease what was learned.
See also:
Comments
Mnemonics doesn't only help memorising complicated processes faster and remembering them longer. The fact that you need to limit yourself to certain keywords, when using this learning technique, and that these keywords must be itemised in a specific format helps to structure the entire topic. Those who must constrain themselves exclusively to the important keywords in order to learn successfully will certainly let the "useless knowledge" go. Thus, although the mnemonics technique is primarily intended as a memorising and learning aid, it can also lead to pushing the extraneous, secondary information to the background and free the mind for the essential knowledge.
