h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: How to learn facts in a few days - A9186492
Author: MiniMy - U181646

This is a rescue from the Flea Market. The older entry is: A4705706.

Thinking of renaming it:
Memory Stories: A Revision Aid

Any feedback welcome!



minimy

heloo?



anyone?



mini

Nothing much to say, really, other than that I'd be in favour of the title change.

...and done.

mini

I really like this. It's well written, and I can imagine this being useful to people as we get closer to exam time.

Anyway, I have a few minor nitpicks, but apart from those I think this is about ready for the edited guide. The nitpicks are these:

ie -> i.e.
start�While -> start? While
historical events, what certain -> ..event or what certain
an overkill -> overkill
There are qustion marks around 'The Office', rather than quote marks.

Some more suggestions for you, MiniMy.

"Revision - the bane of many people in the world"
'Revision - the bane of almost everyone who has to take an exam'

"While many of us have the best intentions eventually we will find"
'best intentions, eventually'

"Or, you could try this method"
'Or' doesn't work in that context because it isn't joining one thing to another in the way it's meant to. Something like 'There is an alternative method' would be better, grammatically.

"can provide you with a quick and easy way to learn facts"
'can be a quick and easy way to learn facts'

"A word of caution before we start…While this method has been known to work it does not work for everyone"
'A word of caution before we start; while this method has been known to work, it's not suitable for everyone'

"Use it either in addition to normal ie planned revision1 or as a last resort"
'Use it either in addition to normal (ie, planned) revision, or as a last resort'

"The Basics"; "At a very basic level"; "A Basic Example"
I think the word 'basic' is getting too much of a workout there.

"this can be used to learn a string of numbers quickly (a phone number, a password etc though using this method can often be overkill)"
'this can be used to learn a string of numbers quickly, such as a phone number or a numerical password'
Why could that be overkill, btw?

"With slightly more effort and practice you can use it to learn whole lists of facts, for instance dates of important historical events, what certain philosophers thought about an idea"
That second example (the one about the philosophers) is a bit . Are there some other examples you could think of?

"and they want you to known it by heart'
'know'

"10 minutes before you meet up"
'ten minutes'

If you remember this ten minutes before you meet up and you're able recall the phone number well enough to make up a story to remember it, you don't *need* to make up a story to remember it because you already know it. In this example you'd need to make up the story as soon as they tell you the phone number.

"And that is it"
How about 'It's as simple as that'?

"It can often seem like an overkill"
The word 'overkill' is normally used without 'an' preceding it, and I think 'overkill' is far too strong a word anyway.

"but once you're used to using it with numbers make a list of facts and try to learn them using the method"
'but once you've become practiced at using it with numbers, make a list of facts and try to learn them using the method'

"See whether it works for you. If not, then your memory may not work in a picture way"
'If it doesn't work for you, your memory might not work pictorially'
I'm not entirely happy with that because I don't know enough about memory to be able to say whther it *can* work pictorially, and if not pictorially then in what other ways, but I'll run with it for the time being.

"If it does work, then hopefully it will help if you ever find yourself needing to learn facts quickly"
I think that's superfluous.

"Try to keep the story in one or possibly two locations. It makes it connect better than if you keep jumping all over the place"
'Restricting the story to one or two locations will help it to flow and make it easy to remember'

"all these things happening in locations in your house"
'all these things happening in your house'

"For instance if you had to remember that one historian thought the Spanish Armada lost due to the skill of the English fleet then you might have the historian sitting in your bath playing with toy ships some with the English flag on, others with the Spanish flag on and he makes the English ships win"
'For instance; if you had to remember that a particular historian thought that the Spanish Armada lost due to the skill of the English fleet, then you might imagine him sitting in your bath playing with toy ships - some flying the English flag, others with the Spanish flag aloft - and eventually sinking all the Spanish ships'

" Also if an image really doesn't seem to work and you can't remember it then try"
' Also, if an image really doesn't seem to work and you can't remember it, then try'

"go through it the next day in the morning"
'go through it next morning'

"Use things that sound like other things as part of the story"
'Try to connect themes and images in your story with the facts you're trying to learn'

"This way you can easily remember names that you may not otherwise"
'This makes it easy to remember names and associate them with events'

"Don't be afraid to just use the object/date/person/etc in the story. If you need to remember The Battle of Hastings was in 1066 then have a giant 1066 drop into the middle of a battle"
'Don't be afraid to use the object/date/person/etc in the story. If you need to remember that the Battle of Hastings was in 1066, imagine a giant '1066' dropping into the middle of a battle'

"Remember these stories"
'Remember, these stories'

"can be used as either a very quick way to learn something in the short term (a few days) or can be used to remember large amounts of information"
'can be used as either a very quick way to learn something in the short term (a few days), or to remember large amounts of information'

'ie' rather than 'i.e.' is the h2g2 style, Silverfish.

Thanks for that BH and Silverfish!

All done!

Was looking into 'what certain philosophers thought about an idea' as the original researcher had put that in, and I think that he was thinking of linking that sentence to: 'That way if you forget why Descartes is getting hit on the head by a falling tree you can go and check up on what it meant' below.

If it does not make sense, then I will remove it.

mini

I'm going to try this, I usually remember things much better with images.

nice one

thanks!

Added a footnote after the philosophers bit to link it a bit more with the footnote below. Hope that helps!



mini

Your Guide Entry has just been picked from Peer Review by one of our Scouts, and is now heading off into the Editorial Process, which ends with publication in the Edited Guide. We've therefore moved this Review Conversation out of Peer Review and to the entry itself.

If you'd like to know what happens now, check out the page on 'What Happens after your Entry has been Recommended?' at EditedGuide-Process. We hope this explains everything.

Thanks for contributing to the Edited Guide!

Oh my goodness, I forgot to post a to this one

thankys!

mini