Mnemonic devices are techniques used by schools and people everywhere to remember concepts and equations. Many times the concepts may not be complicated but some people may have problems memorizing something that comes easy to someone else. There are 9 different techniques in all that can be used. Some of the techniques wont work for everyone, so no one should be discouraged if common examples that are sited here don't help. Some of the techniques are up to a persons personal taste since everyone's brain works differently.
1. Music Mnemonics
One of the main reasons people remember song lyrics so easily. The first thing you learn as a child in school is your alphabet which is turned into a song. Children will remember the song much easier than the list of letters. Music mnemonics are also used by advertisers through the use of a product "jingle". The song or jingle will get stuck in someone's head very easily thus allowing the consumer to remember the product by reciting the song in their head. This has always been a very effective way to sell product.
2. Name Mnemonics
Name mnemonics come to us in the form of acronyms. Not only are these efficient for shortening long names or phrases but are great for memory recall as well. If you need to memorize a list of items, read over the items then memorize an acronym for the list using the first letter of each word. Example: Colours of the rainbow, ROYGBIV, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.
3. Expression or Word Mnemonics
With this way you will create an expression or phrase with every word having the first letter of something you have to remember. This is similar to a name mnemonic but is used when the letters don't spell anything that makes sense to you.
A good example of this is remembering a musical scale. The first scale on a treble clef you are taught is E, G, B, D, F. This doesn't spell anything close to a word so to remember the order the expression Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge is used.
Another common one is remembering the order of the classes in the animal kingdom which the phrase Kids Prefer Cheese Over Fried Green Spinach, (Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species)
4. Model Mnemonics
Model mnemonics are the using of charts or graphs to represent information. Using pictures you can emphasize certain information when also used with words or numbers. This is important for people to have some sort of representation for the information to help the brain remember.
Examples can include virtually any type of charts or graphs including pie charts, line graphs, pyramid charts and flow charts.
5. Ode Mnemonics
Ode mnemonics are also called rhyme mnemonics and are similar to music mnemonics. This technique puts information into the form of short poems.
A good example of a useful rhyming or music mnemonic is: In fourteen hundred ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.
Also for remembering the amount of days in a month:
Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November;
All the rest have thirty-one
Excepting February alone:
Which has twenty-eight, that's fine,
Till leap year gives it twenty-nine.
6. Note Organization Mnemonics
Note organization mnemonics is a technique of breaking up important information into short notes. This differs from reading out of a textbook because you would be extracting just the most important information that you are looking for and not having to read through a lot of information that you ultimately don't need. Note organization can come in different forms since it is up to the individual to organize important information how they see fit.
Notecards or Flashcards
7. Image Mnemonics
Also called visualizations, image mnemonics are a way of associating something with an image or picture. This is a very primal way that people remember things such as "putting a name with a face". Another common one is using the image of your knuckles to remember which months have 30 days and which have 31.
Using images with labels is very common which is very common is a subject like biology where you would have a picture of a body with internal organs exposed and labelled. Recalling positions and shapes of the organs can be as helpful as the labels themselves.
8. Connection Mnemonics
Linking new information with information you already know or have committed to memory. This is also called "learning by association". This is usually up to the person themselves since it has a lot to do with personal preference. One persons trigger may not be the same as someone else. An very common example is the lines of latitude and longitude on a globe. When trying to remember which ones run north and south remember that the word longitude contains the letter "N" which could stand for the "N" in north.
Another way to remember something could be remembering a person who is famous for doing something specific. Remembering whatever that particular thing is could be as easy as remembering who did it. Basically you are using memories to trigger other memories.
9. Spelling Mnemonics
Spelling mnemonics are similar to expression and connection mnemonics but use small clues in a short phrase to remind a person how to spell a word that may be giving problems. These are again mostly up to the individual person to use ones that make sense to them and may not make sense to other people. Some examples include:
For the spelling of church - CH on the right, CH on the left, and U R (you are) in the middle.
An island is land surrounded by water.
There is a rat in separate.
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