How do you remember things?, formulas, vocabulary, short cuts, etc? Options

[*My Cinderella.*]

SOHCAHTOA, counting 9 fingers, (a + b)(a - b), and all that jazz. When it comes to memorizing words and formulas, how do you keep them in your head?

For example, if I wanna know what direction I'm going in. (North South East West) I'll always start from the top and go clockwise saying: Never Ever Smoke Weed.

What are some of your methods to short cuts and such?

[moninja]

north, south, east, west = never eat shredded wheat.
^we had a test on directions in 2nd grade, and i've remembered it ever since.

i usually just find a word similar to the certain word i'm trying to remember or i repeat it to myself over and over again. it depends on what it is, really. i guess i can also say i have kind of a photographic memory.

[michellerrific]

Acronyms help for me a lot. Not too long ago i was trying to remember 11 phyla of protozoa (which it turned out I didn't need to know) and i couldn't think of an acronym but my friend made up a great one. Something about anything with apples.

[alysaphobia]

Acronyms. And phrases- like "kings play chess on fine gold sets" for classification. (Kingdom, phyla, class, order, family, genus, species.)
If it's something like Chinese characters, I try to find pictures inside them; like think, oh hey, that radical looks like a person, hence, it means person!

If I can't find anything, I find writing it and reading it over and over again helps.

[Jinny]

"My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nine Pies" which is the order of the planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto).

Well, since Pluto's not a planet anymore.. I guess I'll have to change it.
I've learned it in fifth grade. It's stupid, but..

[sprezzatura]

Usually, when it comes to science and math formulas, I can memorize them without help.

But for memorizing history and literature, I need to read the book over and over again like crazy. Charts and diagrams help me too. Or have someone present the ideas to me verbally in an exciting way.

[cori-catastrophe]

"king phillip came over for great sex" for kingdom phylum class order family genus species.
what's funny is that my teacher came up with it. :]]
uhm. there's alot of them. i remember prepositions by thinking of what a squirel can do to a tree.

[alysaphobia]

"king phillip came over for great sex" for kingdom phylum class order family genus species.
what's funny is that my teacher came up with it. :]]

^HAHAHAHA.... nice one...

Oh, one time I just listened to myself repeating the term and definition over and over again until I got it. It was scary

[*My Cinderella.*]

How could I forget PEMDAS, Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally.

[cori-catastrophe]

How could I forget PEMDAS, Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally.

oh my. i've used that one so many times.
in chemistry, when we memorized the elements i always got the symbols for gold and silver confused. so i remembered gold to be au and silver to be ag for "'aint gold".
i also made up the following.
iron:fe:frank ater[i imagine a frank hotdog on an iron pole]
tin:sn:add an i and it rhyms
mercury:hg:hot gasses
potassiam:k:the potty's ok
i make up odd things.
i remember my planets by a blue's clues song. haha.
lyrics:
well, the sun's a hot star and mercury's hot too. venus is the birhgtest planet and earth's home to me and you. mars is the red one and jupiter's most wide. saturn's got those icy rings and uranus spins on it's side. neptune's really windy and pluto's really small. well, we wanted to name the planets and now we named them all.
let's see....what else.
oh yeah. i remeber this atom song called the adom's family that went to the tune of the adam's family theme song.
lyrics:
1st Verse:
They’re tiny and they’re teeny,
Much smaller than a beany,
They never can be seeny,
The Atoms Family.
Chorus
2nd Verse:
Together they make gases,
And liquids like molasses,
And all the solid masses,
The Atoms Family
Chorus
3rd Verse:
Neutrons can be found,
Where protons hang around;
Electrons they surround
The Atoms Family.
Chorus
Chorus:
They are so small.
(Snap, snap)
They’re round like a ball.
(Snap, snap)
They make up the air.
They’re everywhere.
Can’t see them at all.
(Snap, snap)

[Jinny]

^ Woah lol that Atoms Family thing is good! I'm gonna use that from now on

[angelrevelation]

I'm not sure, I've rarely found acronyms to be too helpful.

But I always seem to memorize things pretty well, because I always seem to just remember in the back of my mind and when the test comes up, I realize I know the stuff.

Like today, I forgot we had a test in PE, so 5 minutes before class starts I read through the notes (only about a page) frantically, and look the main points, and I think I did pretty well.

[*suddenly she*]

I blow it off, and a couple minutes before the test I'm like ZOMGSTUDY! and my brain memorizes everything like cheese. Swiss cheese.

[*stephinika*]

Usually acronyms or certain phrases that go along with something.

[gelionie]

Acronyms, or I relate stuff to images in my mind. The latter really works.

[HakunaMatata]

I blow it off, and a couple minutes before the test I'm like ZOMGSTUDY! and my brain memorizes everything like cheese. Swiss cheese.

<----------exactly the frigging same.

[WickedDreamer]

With vocab I find a word in there that will tip me off... like freshman year the word was assail... sail on a ship... like a pirate ship... Pirate ships attack each other... assail is to attack violently.

Math and science... well, science I can sometimes do the same thing... math... well... there's a reason I'm failing.