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

Entry: How to learn facts in a few days - A4705706
Author: Skenvoy ACE, IWOC, Returned to h2g2 at last! - U198983

Well I think this is finished! If you think it needs more detail somewhere let me know! This is a method I've used for the past 3-4 years and it has worked for me.
I hope the spelling and grammer is correct, but despite best efforts I won't be surprised if there is something I've missed!

~Skenvoy

My psychology teacher taught us something similar for remembering the names of psychologists and their studies. Some people called Bahrick, Bahrick and Whittinger did a study with high-school yearbooks; so she remembers a castle (Bahrick = barrack) with a bird flying overhead (Whittinger sounds a bit like 'wing'), and the bird is carrying a yearbook Doesn't work for me, but some of my friends spent hours coming up with sketches, word associations, etc!

Oh, yeah... feedback I'm reading this in Firefox, which is a bit stroppy about bullet points, and sometimes doesn't display them at all. Since most of this entry is bulleted, it makes it quite difficult to read. Is it worth trying to paragraph some of it?

Could you change all your subheaders to headers, please? House style says so.

Oops, can't believe I did that shows how long I've been away from guide-ML. Thanks for pointing that out .
I guess it is slightly over the top bulleted. That won't be too hard to change, but I'll have to do it later; I'm going out soon!

~Skenvoy

With the bullet points, can you put tags in them (like blahblahblah</LI&gt to separate the points and make it easier to read?

There is another, argueably better, way to remember numbers - the trouble with your method is that you're still remembering numbers - even if they're in a story - and for instance, what happens in your example if you forget that you got out of bed at 7:44 and thought it was 7:45 ?

The method I've always used is to associate each number between zero and nine with a noun (hopefully one that rhymes with the number) and then remember a story using those words.


For instance
423765189
Open the DOOR(4) to find the PEW(2) on which is sat a BEE (3) from DEVON (7) playing a SAX(6). It then leaves for its HIVE(5) which weighs a TON(1). I HATE(8) it when things work out FINE(9).

If you've a couple of words for each number (for instance 7=DEVON, HEAVEN, OVEN; 3= BEE, TREE, FEE... etc.) you can make up an infinite number of phrases - the weirder they are the better, you'll be less likely to forget them.

And you don't even have to remember the whole story - with the above example if you just visualise being outside a church where a bee's playing a sax it'll bring back the rest of the story.

Yeah, as I say in the article it is really overkill for numbers. But I didn't really feel like typing up one of the ones I've used for my exam revision as they quite strange so most people probably wouldn't get how to use it. If you feel it would make it a better entry (by moving away from the numbers) I can change the basic example into how to remember a list of facts though...

Also in my basic example most of it is like yours only instead of sounds like I have looks like, for instance the saucepan with the bent handle. The 7:44 one is the weakest of the lot I admit, but I have found just dropping a number into a story (as long as it is in a dramatic way) can work just as well. For a lot of the history revision I've done in the last three years many times I've just dropped a number into the story, having it crush someone or something.

I admit I ahve used that method before, but I use it less and less these days... I could also create another section detailing the sounds like method and showing how it can be incorporated into memory stories? What do you think?

~Skenvoy

P.S. I'll try the etc bit now and see what it looks like, if it still seems like someone has shot those bullet points onto my page with a machine gun I'll try making them into paragraphs.

Great entry Skenvoy - well written and presented. Only one small comment - the link for "Revision" - I'm not quite sure why, but the fact that you put in a link for the very first word is offputting to me.

Otherwise I like it a lot!

Thanks as to the link I originally had it lower down in the entry. Does it put anyone else off? If it does I'll just move it to the next time I say revision. Or possibly at the bottom have another header saying "Other revision tips" and just say "Need any tips for revising? Then check out these tips" or something like that.

~Skenvoy

How's this one going?

It seems fine to me. I did notice that 'an' was used a couple of times instead of 'a' (the indefinite article), such as 'You put an couple'.

Otherwise, I think it's a great Entry, and a very useful revision skill to know.

Oh yes, and the link to 'Revision' at the beginning didn't bother me at all.

Ah... an and a is the thing that usually trips me up the most... so any help correcting that would be appreciated (or just a clarification of when to use them, I've never been given a good defenition so far!)

Otherwise I'm not sure what else I can do with the article, other than sit here and post to keep this convo near the top of the list

~Skenvoy

Your Headers, 'A Basic Story' and 'How to Make the Memory Story Stick' are mnemonics.

Perhaps you could mention this and link to A765975 ('Mnemonics and Other Learning Devices')

"Your Headers, 'A Basic Story' and 'How to Make the Memory Story Stick' are mnemonics."
Are they?

But I agree that a link to the Mnemonic article would be a good idea.

Concerning a/an:

Use 'an' only when the word that follows begins with a vowel (or the letter 'h', sometimes).
So it's 'an apple' or 'an exciting topic' etc, and some people will say 'an historical account', which allows the h to be dropped when spoken.

Use 'a' for everything else.

It's a good article, but I'm not sure about the title - it's a little too general for an article that only discusses one method. How about "The Story Method of Memorisation" or something?

The a/an thing - you use "a" unless it's before a vowel sound (not just an actual vowel - which is why it's "an hour", because the h is silent, and the first sound is the "ou" which is a vowel sound). Just try saying it a few times quickly with a and then with an and see which is easier - the easier one is probably right.

I was always taught that revision should be a must from day one of any course; that is 'normal' revision.
Notes should be brief and of the 'main facts' only as you read through the course.
That one should seek to connect each fact to its general context in an imaginative and logical way.
And that you should not only know your facts, but 'know that you know them!' In that way, you become very confident that your preparation for the examination is both thorough and accurate.
The best form of final revision is to answer all the required questions in previous examination papers, under exam. conditions and in the time allowed. This is not always possible in certain seats of learning.

The methods outlined in this Entry remind me of those originally recommended and demonstrated in various books and lectures by one Tony Buzan, some decades ago.
In my personal view, the methods he advised just clog the mind with images and other devices that also need to be remembered!

Let me add that one should also concentrate, for about the last month or six weeks of the course, on your weakest area of understanding or knowledge.
These areas can be identified by marking them up in your notes as you encounter them in the course and find them heavy going or difficult to grasp.

Are you still around Skenvoy? It seems to have been a couple of months, but I can see you've been here a few years and may return to work on this again.