How to Memorize Anything (21 page)

Now whenever you will write the word
Believe
,
‘lie’
will automatically come to your mind.

• Argument or Arguement
  

Argument:
To spell it, remember the phrase:

I lost an ‘e’ in an ‘Argument’?

• Ascertain or Accertain
  

Ascertain:
When you ascertain a fact, be AS CERTAIN as you possibly can

• Business or Bussiness
  

Business:
There is a
Bus
iness meeting going on inside a
Bus

Some more examples:

• Slaughter:
  LAUGHTER with an ‘S’ in the beginning.
  
• Embarrass:
  Can you spell it correctly without missing a single ‘r’ or ‘s’? Well, remember it as follows:
  

  ‘I go
  r
  eally
  r
  ed when my
  s
  ister
  s
  ings’.
  

• Mississippi
  :
  Miss is sippi
  ng tea in Mississippi.
  
• Separate:
  has a ‘
  rat’
  in it –sep- a- rat-e
  
• Stationery
  :
  ‘e’
  for envelope, which means the other stationary
  (not moving)
  is the one with the
  ‘a’
  in it.
  
• Necessary:
  In the word
  Necessary
  , confusion is in the number of Cs and Ss.
  

  You can remember it through a phrase: ‘It’s necessary to have
  one c
  up of tea with
  two s
  ugars.’
  

Spellings can also be memorized using ACROSTICS

For example,
necessary
can also be learnt by saying:

• N
  ever
  E
  at
  C
  risps,
  E
  at
  S
  alad
  S
  andwiches,
  A
  nd
  R
  emain
  Y
  oung!
  
• Ocean:
  Only
  C
  at’s
  E
  yes
  A
  re
  N
  arrow
  
• Rhythm:
  Rhythm
  H
  elps
  Y
  our
  T
  wo
  H
  ips
  M
  ove
  
• Geography:
  G
  eorge’s
  E
  lderly
  O
  ld
  G
  randfather
  R
  ode
  A P
  ig
  H
  ome
  Y
  esterday
  
• Arithmetic
  :
  A
  Rat
  I
  n
  T
  he
  H
  ouse
  M
  ay
  E
  at
  T
  he
  I
  ce
  C
  ream
  
• Laugh
  :
  L
  ittle
  A
  nger
  U
  psets
  G
  ood
  H
  ealth (so keep laughing)
  

Acrostics will help you not only to remove the confusion in spelling; it will also help you memorize the complete spelling of the word. You need to use the complete sentence just for a few times initially. With regular use of the word, the correct spelling will get embedded in your long-term memory and you won’t have to remember the complete phrase later.

WORDS WITH THE SAME SOUND BUT DIFFERENT SPELLINGS

• Affect and Effect
  

  A
  ffect describes an
  a
  ction and
  e
  ffect is the
  e
  nd consequence.
  

  You can also remember it with the word RAVEN:
  

  R
  emember
  

  A
  ffect (is)
  

  V
  erb
  

  E
  ffect (a)
  

  N
  oun
  

• Desert and Dessert
  

  Rem
  ember a De
  s
  ert is ‘
  s
  ’andy and de
  ss
  ert is too (two) sweet with two ‘
  S
  ’.
  

• Hear/Here
  

  You H
  ear
  with your
  EAR
  

• Principal (of a school) and Principle (a rule)
  

  A princi
  pal
  at a school is your
  pal
  , and a princip
  le
  you believe or follow is a ru
  le
  .
  

Some more tips for better spellings:

1. This may be the best-known spelling rule:
   

   i
   before
   e,
   except after
   c
   or when sounded like ‘ay’ as in
   neighbour
   and
   weigh
   

   Here are some words that follow the rule:
   

   IE words:
   believe, field, relief
   

   CEI words:
   ceiling, deceit, receive
   

   EI words:
   freight, reign, sleigh
   

   Some exceptions:
   either, foreign, height, leisure, protein, weird
   

   ‘CIEN words’ are another exception to the rule. These include
   ancient, efficient,
   and
   science.
   

2. Have you heard the expression:
   

   ‘When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking?’
   

   This means that when there are two vowels in a row, the first usually has a long sound and the second is silent. That’s why the word ‘Team’ is pronounced as ‘Teem’ where ‘a’ is silent. Similarly
   coat,
   not
   caot;
   and
   wait,
   not
   wiat.
   Remembering this rule will help you to put vowels in the right order.
   

3. Find words within the word.
   
   • When: There is ‘hen’ in ‘when’
     
   • What: has a ‘hat’ in it
     
4. Break the word up into sounds:
   
   • Complementary: comp–le–ment–ary
     
   • Wednesday: Wed–nes–day
     
   • February: Feb–r–u–ary
     
   • Saturday: Sat–ur–day
     
   • Friend: Fri + end
     
   • Lovely: Love + ly
     
5. Write the confusing letter extra large in size:
   
   • Let’s take a word ‘repetitious’. Many people write it as repititious, You can remember that it is ‘e’ not ‘i’ by making that ‘e’ stand out from the rest by writing it extra large (‘rep-E-titious’). Look at it and concentrate on it for a moment. Chances are you will spell it correctly from here onwards.
     
   • Liquefy: liqu-E-fy
     
6. Write the word with your finger in the air, or in sand. Or you may write the spelling in big writing on a piece of paper and then trace over the letters with the finger several times, repeating the sounds. It helps to have a better impression in the mind by combining kinesthetic, auditory, and verbal input.
   
7. Count the letters: If you remember that there are 13 letters in ‘accommodation’, you are more likely to include the double letters.
   

These are a few examples of confusing words of different kinds whose spellings can be memorized using different kinds of associations. Now whenever you find any difficult or confusing word, observe the spelling carefully. I am sure you will be able to find some or the other association to retain it in your memory.

C
HAPTER AT A GLANCE

• Spelling mnemonics
  helps us to remember the spellings of words correctly.
  
• We can also use various associations to memorize long and tricky words.
  

  For example, for memorizing the spelling of necessary, if you have confusion in the number of Cs and Ss, you can remember it through a phrase: ‘It’s necessary to have
  one c
  up of tea with
  two s
  ugars.’
  

• If you are confused which vowel out of ‘e’ and ‘a’ comes first and how many times, you can remember it through a phrase: ‘
  e
  at
  e
  astern
  a
  pples’. Furthermore, you can also relate this phrase with the word necessary by saying ‘It’s necessary to eat eastern apples to have a good memory’.
  
• If you want to memorize the complete spelling of necessary, you can do it by using an acrostic:
  N
  ever
  E
  at
  C
  risps,
  E
  at
  S
  alad
  S
  andwiches,
  A
  nd
  R
  emain
  Y
  oung!
  

So there are various ways to fix a spelling in your memory—it depends on where you are getting confused and what association works best for you.

12

PEG SYSTEM

J
ust as a physical hook on a wall can help you to hang something on it, in the same way, a mental hook or a
‘peg’
can help you hold information in your mind. We have already learnt that any new information can be stored in the brain by connecting it with any existing information. That old information serves as
pegs
for the new one. Information like
counting numbers
(say 1 to 20)
or
alphabets
ABC
that we know well since our childhood can serve as pegs to associate any new information.

Since numbers are abstract, intangible, and difficult to visualize,
how can we associate numbers with things to remember?
So here we are going to share a few methods that will help you convert numbers into images.

We call this the ‘Number Rhyme Method’.

NUMBER RHYME METHOD

Rhyme method is a very useful, yet simple and powerful peg system used to memorize list information. It not only allows you to remember items in their correct order, but also the item’s exact position on the list.

In this method, we represent numbers by images of things that rhyme with it.

Here is a chart of images we can assign to the numbers according to their rhyming sound:

These are the images that I use. You can choose rhyming items for each number as per your liking. For example, number
one
can be visualized as
bun
or
nun
or
gun
also. Similarly, besides
shoe
, number
two
can be visualized as
glue
.

Caution:
The images that you choose for the numbers should be concrete ones, not abstract. For example, number three can be
tree or sea
, but not
free
as visualizing free is a bit difficult compared to other two.

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

Try to recall the rhyme images given in the above chart and complete the following table:

Three = _____________

Six = _____________

Two = _____________

Ten = _____________

Seven = _____________

One = _____________

Four = _____________

Nine = _____________

Five = _____________

Eight = _____________

Now, you can use these number rhymes to memorize a list of 10 items in order by connecting the pegs with the items you want to remember. With a little bit of practice, you can memorize any list of 10 items between one to two minutes. What’s more, the memory for the list tends to be a lot stronger than if you had used rote learning.

MEMORIZING INGREDIENTS OF A RECIPE

Suppose you visit a friend one evening and she serves you an apple pie. You love it and ask her for the ingredients that she has used. She tells you a list of 8 ingredients but as you are not carrying a pen, you decide to memorize it. Let’s see how you will memorize this list using peg system.

1. Apples
   
2. Sugar
   
3. Flour
   
4. Butter
   
5. Essence
   
6. Egg
   
7. Lemon juice
   
8. Milk