Tool #8: Rhymes, Acrostics & Acronyms

We bring you here three easy and funny strategies to memorize information. It is very likely that you have practiced any of them in the past, just keep in mind that they can be much more helpful than you think. 

If you ever have a problem with some specific words or short sentences, make up a rhyme with it. For instance, in the movie Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (you can watch the scene above), Hermione remembers the properties of the Devil’s Snare plant with a rhyme: “Devil’s Snare, Devil’s Snare, Is deadly fun, But will sulk in the sun.” 

An acrostic is a funny sentence using the first letters of the words to be memorized. The one above is a helpful one to memorize the order of the planets. In biology, students have used the acrostic “Katy Perry Comes Over For Grape Soda” to memorize Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species. 

Acronyms are similar to acrostics but creating one word (instead of a full sentence) made up from the first letters of the items to be memorized. As you can see on the picture above, He IS TIRED is an acronym that helps us to memorize the symptoms of hypoglycemia. If you need to remember something easier, such as the five Great Lakes (Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior), you can use the word HOMES. Which is, of course, another acronym. 

By trying these strategies out, you will realize that each of them will work better with a specific type of information. You might not want to create a rhyme to memorize the periodic table (that would be a really long poem!), but you can turn the elements into acronyms. Just give them a try and post a comment on how do you think these strategies can be helpful to you.