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.

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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 8^th item you’d start from the beginning
  • To instantly recall the 8^th item, include ivy somewhere in the association
  • Need to know the number 8 is cracker, then imagine millions of crackers growing instead of ivy

• 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

• 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

• 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 3^rd or 4^th paragraph and then forget what was in the 1^st, 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