
Contents
Ch 3. Link System
- In order to remember any new piece of information, it must be associated to something you already know or remember in some ridiculous way
- Not logical or sensible
- Ex: Want to memorize airplane, tree, envelope
- Imagine a gigantic tree flying instead of an airplane, then millions of envelopes on a tree
- Must picture these associations in your mind
- Tips
- Apply substitution, picture one item instead of the other
- Out of proportion, picture gigantic objects
- Exaggeration, picture millions of the item
- Action, use verbs to bring the objects to life
- Used for memorizing a list of items in a sequence
- A speech, formula, numbers
- To retain, go over the list during the next day, three days later, a week later, a month, etc.
Ch 4. Substitute Words
- When you encounter a word or phrase that seems abstract or intangible, think of anything that sounds like or reminds you of that abstract term, that can be pictured in your mind
- Alabama becomes album
- Florida becomes flower
- Georgia becomes George
- Minnesota becomes mini soda
- Can combine with the Link System, linking the substituted words together
- An album’s songs causing flowers to grow
- A gigantic flower named George
- George sipping on a super tiny mini soda
Ch 5. Long Words, Errands, Shopping Lists
- Long words
- Use link system and substitute words
- Antiphologistine becomes Auntie flog a stein
- Periosteum becomes pear eat a steam
- Picture your auntie flogging a stein (beer) as she eats a gigantic, steaming hot pear
- Errands and Shopping Lists
- Use link system
- Need to pick up a lamp you ordered and your suit from dry cleaning
- Imagine wearing millions of lamps instead of a suit
Ch 6. Speeches
- A speech is a sequence of thoughts
- Use link system to link keywords
- Speech about a sharp drop in profits over the previous two years
- Keywords: profit margin, walk in, new line
- Imagine your Ma drinking gin, and being paid millions of dollars profit
- Does so while walking into a store, where there are millions of new lines painted
- Linking keywords can also be applied to reading material or lectures
- Forces you to read/listen actively, with concentration
- Identify keywords as you’re learning new material
Ch 7. Foreign and English Words
- Instead of associating one state to another, you can associate each state to a capital
- Capital of Maryland is Annapolis
- Imagine a bride (marry) landing on an apple
- An entity consists of two items: a name to a face, address to a company, price to an item, etc.
- For the French word pere (father) you can picture a gigantic pear being your father
- Jambon (ham), you jam a bone into a gigantic ham
- Can also apply to phrases
- Apply the same technique to new English words
- Peduncle means flower stalk, imagine paying your uncle in flower stalks
Ch 8. Names and Faces
- For names, apply the substitute word method
- The name Antesiewicz (pronounced ante-sevage), imagine an anti-savage
- Pukczva (pronounced puk-shiva), imagine a puck shivering
- Must then associate substitute word with person’s face
- Find an outstanding facial feature: hair, forehead, eyebrows, eyes, nose, cheek, etc.
- Form a ridiculous association
- Met Mr. Crane (imagine a construction crane), who has a large forehead, so imagine the crane fitting onto his forehead
- If meeting a ton of people, feel free to write down the names for future review
Ch 9. Absentmindedness
- Forgetting that you put your pencil on your ear while taking a call
- Before picking up the phone, imagine the pencil going into your ear
- Forgetting that you put your car keys in the kitchen
- Before placing the keys in the kitchen, imagine cooking the keys in a pan
Ch 10. Long-Digit Numbers
- Learn a simple phonetic alphabet, consisting of ten pairs of digits and sounds
- 1: Sound made by t or d (t written with one downstroke)
- 2: Sound made by n (two downstrokes)
- 3: Sound made by m (three downstrokes)
- 4: Sound made by r (four ends in ‘r’)
- 5: Sound made by l (your left hand’s five fingers can be made into a L shape)
- 6: Sound made by j, sh, ch, soft g [gentle] (digit six looks like a capital J)
- 7: Sound made by k, c, hard g [glide] (can write a capital K with two sevens)
- 8: Sound made by f, v, ph (a cursive written f looks like an eight)
- 9: Sound made by p or b (number nine looks is the mirror image of a capital P)
- 0: Sound made by z, s, soft c [century] (first letter in the word zero is ‘z’)
- Rules
- Vowels are disregarded in the phonetic alphabet
- Silent letters are not used, knee would refer to 2 not 72
- Interested in the sound, not the letter
- Bomb refers to 93 not 939
- Double letters not counted, patter refers to 914 not 9114
- Bellow would be 95, b = 9 and l = 5, the ‘ow’ has no value
- If you need to memorize 941140494275
- Split into 941, 140, 494, 275
- 941 = parrot, 140 = dress, 494, rubber, 275 = nickel
- Imagine a parrot wearing a dress made out of rubber, bought for a nickel
Ch 11. The Peg
- If you want to know what number an item is in your list, use a peg
- 1: tie
- 2: Noah
- 3: Ma
- 4: rye
- 5: law
- 6: shoe
- 7: cow
- 8: ivy
- 9: bee
- 10: toes
- If you memorized items using the link method, to find the 8th item you’d start from the beginning
- To instantly recall the 8th item, include ivy somewhere in the association
- Need to know the number 8 is cracker, then imagine millions of crackers growing instead of ivy
Ch 16. The Alphabet and Picturing Letters
- For remembering the positions of letters in the alphabet
- Use the letter as the first in an adjective describing the peg
- 1 refers to tie, so imagine an Awful Tie
- 2 refers to Noah, so imagine Brave Noah
- 3 refers to Ma, so imagine Cute Ma
- Create Alphabet Words that sound like (not look like) the letter
- A to ape
- B to bean
- C to sea
- D to dean
- E to eel
- F to half
- G to jeans
Ch 22. Music for Beginners
- For a piano, the basic white notes are CDEFGAB
- Use the Alphabet Words above
- If you need to play ACE picture an ape swimming in the sea being chased by an eel
Ch 23. Reading
- Physiologically impossible to read more than 800 words per minute
- “Speed readers” often cannot remember what they read
- Slow readers are horizontal regressors, once they reach the end of a sentence they didn’t understand what was at the beginning, their eyes go back horizontally
- Fast readers are vertical regressors, they get to the 3rd or 4th paragraph and then forget what was in the 1st, their eyes go back vertically
- The best way to read better, faster, and more effectively is at a normal rate, and remember as you read
- “Not how fast you can get through the material, but how much material can get through to you” – Mortimer J. Adler
- To remember information you read use the link method
- Identify facts/keywords and link them together
- If reading about the rapid development of railroads in Zambia, you can remember a zombie walking fast along a railroad track
- Continue to link the above image to whatever new keywords arise
- This method will slow down the rate you can read technical material
- But the benefit is you will only have to read the material once