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Training Your Memory
Remembering
Words and Letters
T
o remember a group of names or
words—as in a list—or a string
of letters, use one of two straightforward
techniques. Acronyms create a trigger for
the memory, while the Phonetic Letter
Technique applies images to letters.
MAKING ACRONYMS
Acronyms are an age-old method
of remembering lists. To create
an acronym, take the initial letter
of each item and arrange them
to make a word. For example,
the five Great Lakes are Huron,
Michigan, Superior, Ontario,
and Erie. Reorder them as
Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie,
Superior, and the initial letters
create the acronym HOMES.
USING EXTENDED ACRONYMS
Extended acronyms take the initial letters of words
and use them as the initial letters of words in a
sentence. They are useful when you need to recall
items in a certain order. For example, a popular
acronym for the colors of the rainbow in correct
order (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo,
Violet) is “Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain.”
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Try to make acronyms as
a first step in memorizing
lists—most lists can be
rearranged to create one.
FOCUS POINT
Making lists manageable
Use more than one acronym if you have a particularly long
list to remember. Break the list down into groups—by color,
for example—then create an acronym for each group.
Getting the order right
To memorize the points of the compass—
North, East, South, West—in clockwise
order, you might use the acronym
Naughty Elephants Squirt Water.
Look for patterns
in your list
Sort into
shorter lists
Create acronym
for each list
Sort by color?
Sort by type?
Sort by shape?