By Erika (age 12, @KNEstemGirls)
If I asked you to memorize a list of 10 random things in order, such as pig, couch, vase, chicken, pillow, hill, knife, book, ribbon, and lamp, would you be able to do it? You might be able to remember it today, but what about later? What about a week from now? Or maybe two? Would you still be able to remember those objects? Luck for you, Harry Lorayne wrote a book, Super Memory Super Student, with many memorization techniques to memorize license plates, US presidents, math formulas, and other things that you can never quite grasp.
One technique is to link concepts with images that are very bizarre and very interesting. For example, you can link the pig and the couch by having a giant pig sit on and crush a neon yellow couch with pink spots. If that is normal for you, then you should come up with an image that is even crazier. Go from one crazy image to another, until you can remember them. If you think of a giant ribbon entrapping a screaming lamp, then you should be able to say “oh, it goes from a ribbon to a lamp.”
If you need to memorize numbers then you can learn the peg system. In this system, each number has a certain sound connected to it. The number 0 stands for “S”, “Z”, and soft “C” as in citadel. The sounds of “T” and “D” are 1, and “N” is 2. The “M” sound is 3, and “R” is 4. The number 5 is “L”, and 6 is “J”, “Ch”, and “Sh”. 7 has the sounds of “K” and hard “C” like cake. “F” and “V” sounds are 8, and the sound “P” and “B” are used as a 9. Once you know the numbers and what sound you replace them with, you can come up with words for certain numbers before memorizing important things like your flight number. My flight number was 6267. 62 is chain and 67 is chick so I just had to think of a chick with a big metal chain around it (i.e. a gangsta chick).
These aren’t the only methods for memorization, though. There are many more included in Lorayne’s book. He includes pictures and diagrams on memorizing math and science formulas, presidents in order, the periodic table, and much more. I just used his techniques to memorize the first 50 digits of pi! If these peaked your interest go read his book to find out more.
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