Rote memorization can be the bane of a student’s existence. People often criticize rote memorization as outdated and unnecessary in education, stating that understanding concepts is where the game should be at. Repetitively going over facts to commit them to memory can be dull and boring, requiring serious self-discipline to pursue this enough to really commit those facts to memory.
However, from a practical point of view, memorizing data and facts still holds value. To learn math, a student must learn the basics such as 2+2 = 4. Learning a language requires extensive memorization of new vocabulary. This can be particularly difficult when learning a language such as Chinese or Japanese that is based on pictographs (Hanzi in Chinese, or Kanji in Japanese).
Rote memorization can be a painful, difficult, laborious task, but it does not always have to be. There are strategies that students can use to make memorizing facts easier, and maybe even a little bit fun. The basic foundation is to link something hard to memorize to something that is easy to remember, or that the student already is familiar with on a regular basis.
Memorable Because It Is Familiar
One method is to link the fact to be memorized to something familiar. For example, to memorize a list of items, imagine a room (e.g. your bedroom at home) that you see regularly and know like the back of your hand. Link those items you wish to memorize, to your room in a creative narrative. For example, to memorize a short grocery list of olive oil, vinegar, tortilla chips, bananas, and yogurt, I could imagine accidentally pouring oil all over the pencil sharpener near my desk, gumming up its works; loose papers on my desk dissolving in vinegar; and then turning to a snack to ease frustration consisting of tortilla chips, bananas, and yogurt.
As another example, to memorize a list of items to buy at Target consisting of new sandals, liquid soap refill, and gloves for dishwashing, I imagine Jesus humbly removing his disciples’ sandals to wash their feet with liquid soap; followed by a further demonstration of his humility by helping to wash dishes, wearing gloves as he does so. Yes, I realize the liquid soap and rubber gloves are an anachronism for the day and age when Jesus was alive, but it makes for a vivid story that makes memorizing this list of items easy to remember.
Astronomy uses this strategy extensively. Astronomers created images, many based on myths and legends, to memorize the stars and constellations seen in the night sky. Students learning astronomy still learn in this manner today.
To memorize numbers, you can use a color code similar to that used for resistors in electronics. To memorize the sequence of numbers, first convert each number to its corresponding color and make a vivid mental image or video that uses those colors in sequence. You can use the following color code suggested by Dave Farrow or make your own:
0 – white or black
1 – red
2 – orange
3 – yellow
4 – green
5 – blue
6 – violet/purple
7 – brown (imagine dirt)
8 – silver
9 – gold
Numbers 1-6 of this color code are colors of the rainbow. Think of 7 as the ground at rainbow’s end, with silver and gold in the pot at the end of the rainbow.
For example, to memorize the number 9438 (gold, green, yellow, silver) I could imagine selling some gold for cash (green), using some of the money to buy a bright yellow outfit, and then using some of the remaining money to buy silver.
Another trick for memorizing numbers is to convert them to letters as they correspond to on a telephone dialpad, and make a word with those letters. For further discussion of the number color codes and linking a to-be-memorized list to your familiar room, see the book Brainhacker by Dave Farrow.
Memorable Because It Is Outrageous
By attaching an item to something outrageous, memorizing facts can become much easier. For example, recently I told a student that to memorize the trigonometry mnemonic SOHCAHTOA, he could imagine having an argument with his girlfriend after a concert and saying “SO what? The CAR got TOWED!” It’s an outrageous little story, to help make memorizing SOHCAHTOA easier.
In my own academic pursuits, studying Japanese required memorizing thousands (yes, literally) of Kanji (pictographs). To memorize the Kanji for “samui” which means cold, I looked at the pictograph and thought that with a bit of imagination, it looks like an armored samurai squatting down in the cold to defecate. Again, it’s an outrageous image that makes memorization easier.
Another technique discussed in Brainhacker to remember where you leave an item, is that, as you place it somewhere (e.g. on the coffee table at home), imagine it exploding. This outrageous visual will help cement in your mind exactly where you are leaving the item, making it easy to recall later when needed.
Mnemonic Acronyms
I have already mentioned the acronym SOHCAHTOA that trigonometry students learn in order to remember the appropriate ratios for sine, cosine, and tangent. You can make your own mnemonics when you have a list of items or words to memorize. For example, decades after taking biology class in high school, I can still remember the nine phyla of the animal kingdom because of the mnemonic acronym PCPNAMAEC.
Poriphera
Coelenterata
Platyhelminthes
Nematoda
Annelida
Mollusca
Arthropoda
Echinodermata
Chordata
Grade school and middle school students are likely familiar with the acronym HOMES to remember the five Great Lakes.
Huron
Ontario
Michigan
Erie
Superior
You can create your own mnemonic acronyms with a little imagination.
Rote Discipline
Analogous to the brute-force method of solving problems in computer science, this is simply a matter of reading the item, and maybe writing it and speaking it as well, over and over again until it becomes ingrained in your memory. Martial artists will be familiar with this discipline as they have practiced the same punch, kick, or block hundreds or thousands of times in their journey toward earning a high belt level (possibly a black belt) in their respective martial art.
I remember that to memorize Kanji when studying Japanese, I would write the same Kanji over and over again. I also sometimes practiced saying the pronunciation while writing the Kanji. Sometimes to save paper I would write “dry” – using the non-writing blunt end of the pen to make the writing motions on paper to build muscle memory in my hands, but not actually marking the paper and using up paper and ink. While this is not the most enjoyable task – it can get mind-numbingly boring and arduous – it was certainly effective. By the time I left for school in Japan I had mostly committed to memory almost 2000 JouYou Kanji (commonly used Kanji). Now, I will admit that my family (and especially my parents) ingrained in me strict discipline and study habits when I was young, so this task came naturally by this point in my life. As I sometimes tell my students, there are times in life when discipline will save you when nothing else will.
Flash cards are useful for this rote memorization discipline as well. You can carry a pack of flash cards in your pocket, and review whenever you have a moment, such as while waiting in line to order food. When I started studying Chinese characters, I made extensive use of flash cards to help me study and learn the characters.
Learning will require disciplined effort, that will never change. But by being smart and creative, you can make the task of memorization easier and even more enjoyable.
What do you think? Please leave a comment below. Thanks for reading.