Memory Strategies

This is the Spectral Type. " O, B, A, F, G, K, M"

Left is the Quotient Rule. Right is the sentence.

This week's topic is memory. Memorizing class materials means a lot for a student. And memorizing and remembering is also a important aspect of daily life. So if you can use some strategies to help memorize efficiently, that will benefit and equip you for life. There are many different methods, and each one has different characteristics. So which method can work best for you really depends on who you are, or we can say what kind learner you are, and what kind materials you want to remember. For me, I prefer creating an acronym sentence, or acrostic, and rhymes.

I have used these two strategies many times in my astronomy class and math class.

For example, I have to remember "spectral type" in my astronomy class. This is a method to sort stars by different surface temperature. And the basic types are designated by seven letters, they are O, B, A, F, G, K, and M. And one more thing is that this spectral type will appear on exams frequently. What is worse, I have to remember these seven letters in order, since letter O is for the hottest stars and letter M is for the coolest. So in order to memorize this efficiently, I used the strategy, that is creating a acronym sentence. In this case, the acronyms are O, B, A, F, G, K, and M. The acronym sentence is " Oh! Be A Nice Girl, Kiss Me." ( One more thing, I am not the creater for this acronym sentence above, but I decide to use this sentence since it is not only funny but also easy to remember.)

I also applied this strategy in my math class. There is a formular named " The Quotient Rule". Generally speaking, if f and g are differentiable, then d/dx[f(x)/g(x)] equals to ( g(x) d/dx [f(x)] -f(x)d/dx[g(x)])/[g(x)]^2. It seems very complicated. However, this is the formular students have to use hundred times when they learn calculous. So how can we remember this formular efficiently? In this case, I recommend acrostic, or we can say creating an unusual but rhymes sentence. The sentence which I use is " Low di high minus high di low, over the square of what's below." It does rhyme and pretty easy to memorize. Much better than the formular " d/dx[f(x)/g(x)] = ( g(x) d/dx [f(x)] -f(x)d/dx[g(x)])/[g(x)]^2".

All in all, all of those sentences should be very very unusual, so you won't forget the sentence you created. The acronym sentence, acrostic and rhymes are the key to recall the information. If you lose the key, it would be hard to open the door. Anyway, I really recommend these two strategies: an acronym sentence, or acrostic and rhymes.