Super Charge you, or your child’s memory…

As a teacher I’ve seen many students struggle because they simply cannot memorize information.? I wasn’t born with a photographic memory either so school was often a challenge for me as well.? The truth is, most students have to work fairly hard because learning and memorizing lots of information can be difficult.?? The truth is that anyone can memorize more information in less time than they ever imagined.?
Did you ever wonder how doctors and other professionals memorize large quantities of information?? Most of them use memory systems to aide in their studies.? I?learned one?of these memory systems early in my college career and it changed my life.? Since then I have taught this same system to my own students and have seen incredible results.?
What is this magical system?? Well, it’s not magic.? It is a process of taking what is normally abstract and perhaps very ordinary information and making it stand out in the brain.? I’m sure you’ve heard of mnemonics??? This is a process where ordinary information is learned by the use of symbols, rhymes and other associations such as poems.? A classic example is learning the colors of visible light as seen in a rainbow by using the mnemonic ROY G BIV?? The letters stand for each of the colors of light, in order!?
R=Red?? O=Orange? Y=Yellow? G=Green? B=Blue?? I=Indigo? V= Violet

The problem with using mnemonics is that there aren’t clever associations for most things we need to memorize.? So the question is how to make ordinary and abstract information stand out in our minds??? In order to do this we must consciously make the information we are trying to remember stand out in the mind.? Some ways to do this are by making the object extremely large or small, picturing millions of them, or making an object move and have color, etc.? How??

For example, let’s say you needed to memorize capitals of the countries on the African continent.? The capital of Sudan is Khartoum.? Most students would learn this by looking at the word dozens of times hoping that the?fact sticks in their brain.? This is a time-consuming process and for many folks it’s not highly effective since there is so much information to learn each day at school.?
In order to memorize this fast and have it stick, we need to associate Sudan with Khartoum in a way that is so unusual it will be hard not to remember it.? In this example, I would have my students use their imaginations to come up? with what the words Sudan and Khartoum remind them of.? Each person must do this themselves as it won’t be as effective it someone else makes the association for them.?

With this word often times the word Sudan reminds people of a type of car called a sedan.? While this works for many people, it really doesn’t matter what the association is.? It could just as easily remind someone of a “suit that is tan.”? The word Khartoum often reminds people of “cartoon” or “cart in a tomb.”??
Now all we have to do is link together in a very unusual way and we’ve got it.?? What comes to my mind is a sedan filled with cartoon characters driving around Africa.? Does that sound wacky?? You bet it is, but I can tell you that that I haven’t forget since I learned this over 20 years ago.? It was such a silly association that it’s hard to forget.?

Now you might be saying “that works for that country and capital because those words easily sound like something else, but what about words that are harder or longer?”? Great question.? The good news is that this can work every single time because the learning takes place when the brain is rapidly trying to associate the words or facts.? So even if you’re image isn’t perfect, the brain still finds it unusual and therefore it will stand out.?

Does this method take a little longer?? Perhaps in the beginning, but wouldn’t it better to work a little harder in the beginning to create something that will last a very long time in the mind?? Also, like everything, once you get good at doing this, it comes much easier.? And the wonderful news is that younger kids often do this much better than adults!

Very soon I will have created my memory program, found at www.ScottStraub.com giving tons of examples so every student, no matter how young or old, will fully understand how to use this system.? But you don’t have to wait. Try it today and see how it works.??

Your school Coach,
Scott Straub