Shiho Amster Blog # 15: Click Now For a Way to Easily Cram Information into your Brain Before AP Testing
Click Now For a Way to Easily Cram Information into your Brain Before AP Testing
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What do the planets in our solar system, the order of operations, the colors of rainbows, and the types of rhetorical devices all have in common? Yes, they are all pieces of random information shoved into our brains by school, but more importantly, they are all memorized through the use of acronyms, a form of mnemonic devices used to "easily memorize things." Mnemonic devices come in five different forms: acronyms, association, chunking, Method of Loci, and rhythmic devices.
The one that we are all likely most familiar with are acronyms. From everyday slang over text, we all use acronyms as both a way of creating short-hand ways to express certain ideas and as a way to remember names of companies and other random information. Applying this technique to studying for strict memorization tests like for psychology is probably the biggest benefit for using this mnemonic device as easy memorization.
Association is similar in that you "associate" a certain idea with a concept you are already familiar with. This can be useful to remember people's names or complex processes such as in biology.
Chunking is the process of "break[ing] down pieces of information" into smaller chunks and learning them "individually before putting them together." A technique definitely useful for remember a series of numbers or equations in math, for example.
The Method of Loci is a visualization technique like creating a visual story associated with a string of words or scenarios you need to remember, which is a technique that would likely be effective in memorizing different wars and historical events for US History courses.
Finally, rhythmic devices are self-explanatory and if everybody learned the 26 letters of the alphabet through a song, I am sure we can all apply rhythmic devices to remember useful information for our classes like nomenclature in chemistry.
All in all, while AP testing is approaching in the very new future, I am sure we can all benefit from using mnemonic devices to exercise our memory in an easy and effective way.
Sources:
https://psychcentral.com/lib/memory-and-mnemonic-devices
https://www.masterclass.com/articles/mnemonic-devices-explained#5-types-of-mnemonic-devices
Hey Shiho, the memorization techniques you outlined in your blog reminded me of the time I was tasked to memorize all the elements in the periodic table and recite it for extra credit last year. I barely passed every test so I was in dire need of the extra points I got from memorizing the elements. When I started searching online about how I can memorize the elements faster, I saw some very good examples of “rhythmic devices” you explain in your blog. I decided to choose one of the elements songs, practiced every day, and by the time I had to present in zoom class I could tell it by heart: “Antimony, Arsenic, Aluminum…” Surprisingly I still remember some of the lines today. However, I disagree with you on some parts of your blog as I also believe you learn facts out of pure passion, and by dwelling on a topic you can understand the material.
ReplyDeleteHi Shiho! LEO the lion says GRC, and so does his girlfriend LEOA. I found this acronym particularly helpful with my chemistry class. My favorite memorization method, though, is memory by association. The techniques you listed are all ones I've used for studying, but I never knew they were actual techniques. Thank you for these tips. I will try to use them under the little time we have to cram for AP exams.
ReplyDeleteA lot of these techniques that you provided are actually ones that have helped me a lot in the past studying for tests and memorizing content in class. Chunking actually is something that I've found really useful to learn choreo really quickly and is something that a lot of my dance teachers in addition to my teachers at school try to do. With AP exams coming up right now, this was a really good refresher on memory techniques and I will probably try to use a lot of these to memorize information quickly in this last week.
ReplyDeleteHi Shiho,
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in middle school, I would create acronyms and then memorize a catchy rhythm to remember lists of facts. I used to sing them so often that even weeks after the test, I would find myself repeating the sounds without a clue of what the acronym had represented. This technique is certainly helpful when I need to remember exact words and not just ideas. It certainly helps recollect information that I have yet to understand like grammar rules and which elements form ionic bonds with each other. Even today, I still have to sing the alphabet song to remember which letter comes before a random letter. I might even need a mnemonic device to remember the different types of mnemonic devices, but it will certainly be worth it.
Hi Shiho! I really want to thank you for your very informative blog on learning processes and examples. I certainly will be coming back to this blog to learn more about a specific learning way that would benefit me per my AP test. I genuinely think that the association strategy and acronyms would help with concepts like science, and namely Computer Science, which typically has very wordy terms. Thank you so much for your helpful blog!
ReplyDeleteHi Shiho! Thank you so much for sharing and for the informative blog on summarizing a lot of strategies to help me with my AP tests. It’s so much work and effort that we have to put into memorizing tons of information so fast. I feel like it’s so important to do well on AP exams because even if they don’t really affect your college application and admission, I think it can definitely be a factor that you can put on your college application to enhance your rigor. Nonetheless after a year of hard work, we all want to do good on these exams so, thank you so much for these tips.
ReplyDeleteHi Shiho! I just wanted to start off by saying the picture is so hilarious and quite relatable. I remember learning about these memorization techniques in psych and to be honest I did not apply any of them to my studying. Thinking back, I have used rhythmic devices more than I realize. I remember in Freshman year, my Living Earth teacher made us make up songs to remember the topics better. Though I must admit using these mnemonic devices does prove helpful to some extent, a lot of it still has to do with an individual's attitude towards the subject.
ReplyDeleteHi Shiho, thank you for mentioning all of the different ways to memorize. Hopefully, one of them can stick because we all need it at this point. For some reason, I have never been able to properly use mnemonics. They never work for me, maybe because I forget the word itself that is supposed to help me remember. I think the rhythmic devices method is the one I’ve used more often with some success. For example, memorizing the periodic table and what Pi stands for. I will definitely continue trying out these techniques though, and hopefully I have some success.
ReplyDelete