Memory is a funny thing, well, it is for me anyway, which is the only perspective I can realistically share. I’ve never been good with lists or specific subjects. Some subjects I’m absolutely terrible at. The reason being that they simply don’t interest me.
One of the things people often assume when they find out that I devote an uncomfortable amount of time in my life to writing quiz questions, is that I must be really damn good at quizzes.
The simple truth is – I’m not. Although that in itself is a little bit of an un-truth. I’m just probably not quite as good as they would expect me to be.
I find it fascinating the way that people are able to devote themselves to memorising lists or, as is meant to be the subject of this blog, use mnemonics to remember things. Even if they don’t like the subject matter they’ll still be able to take it in and somehow remember at least the majority of it.
Anyway, I’m on the verge of writing a blog post about how my memory / brain works, and I think that would probably only be of interest to my parents so let us get to the point here.
Mnemonics. What are they? I remember them trying to introduce a couple to me even back at school, so let’s take a look at them starting with a definition and then going through some.
Mnemonic:
noun
a system such as a pattern of letters, ideas, or associations which assists in remembering something.
adjective
aiding or designed to aid the memory.
“My Very Easy Method Just Speeds Up Naming Planets”
Did anyone else get taught this one? Of course we were then never informed it was wrong because poor old Pluto got kicked out of the club at a later date. However it seems that according to the IAU, Pluto is technically a “dwarf planet” as of the time of my writing this. Make of that what you will.
For those of you who haven’t encountered this before, it’s a mnemonic for naming the planets in our solar system in order of average distance. Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.
The other one I struggle to remember but we were taught at school was:
“Able Bodied Seamen Catch Hairy Pirates”
This one is for the (surnames of the) wives of Henry VIII. Useful eh? Anyway, that would be; Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, and Catherine Parr. I’m sure people have found use for this outside of trivia, but I’m not sure devoting any of my brain space to this has enriched my life, which is probably why I can’t remember it most of the time.
So, the whole point of this blog before I did my usual and started rambling was to share a few mnemonics which I discovered while researching this, which will hopefully help some of you on your trivia travels.
This one is great for biology:
“Dear Kate, Please Come Over For Great Spaghetti”. The order of taxonomy:
Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species.
Alternatively you might find this easier:
“Kids Prefer Cheese Over Fried Green Spinach”.
This is a lovely simple one for the great lakes:
“Homes”: Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior.
Books of The Bible:
“God equals light not darkness”: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.
Of course mnemonics can be used to remember other things such as spelling, for example the American spelling of gray and the English spelling of grey.
How about how to set a table correctly with: “Anything with four letters goes on the left, anything with five letters goes on the right”. I’ll leave it up to you to figure that one out. Incidentally, teaspoon has eight letters, so it goes into a quantum state of both being in and out of a cup of tea.
Anyway, I hope you have enjoyed another of my ramblings and perhaps picked up a couple of things which might help you at your next trivia or quiz event. I’ll leave you with my personal favourite find from this little delve of mine, one which I might even remember…
“How I wish I could calculate pi”: The number of letters gives the first seven digits of pi – 3.141592.
Will