The Best Ways to Use ‘Association’ to Remember What You Study

Of all the study tips out there, from those that enhance reading comprehension to those that improve retention, the one I use the most is association: Making up little personal memory devices helps me with everything from test-taking to completing daily work tasks. Here are some of the easiest ways to use association when you’re trying to improve your memory.

Make up a mnemonic phrase

In elementary school, we all learned mnemonic phrases, like “my very educated mother just sat upon nine pizzas.” That one was designed to help us remember the names and orders of the planets by starting each word in the sentence with the first letter of its corresponding planet: Mercury, Venus, Earth, etc. If you learned it a different way—say, that your very educated mother just served you nine noodles—you might have just had a negative reaction to my version. But that’s just further proof that the mnemonic you learned really stuck with you. That’s the point: They’re supposed to.

I still make up nonsensical phrases to help me remember ordered lists; I did it for a class last semester. That particular phrase was a little more gauche and inappropriate, so I shan’t reveal it here, but it stuck in my brain well enough that I remember it five months after I took the final exam I made it up for. It’s not just me, either; loads of research shows mnemonic devices really help retention. I prefer to make up a sentence that somehow applies to my real life, but if the absurdity of mothers sitting upon pizzas works better for you, run with it.

Use rhymes and songs

Making up little rhymes or songs is also beneficial, though I’ll admit I don’t do this one as often. The “30 days hath September, April, June, and November…” rhyme is a famous one here, but don’t overlook the value of songs. It worked for your ABCs and your 50 Nifty United States.

Start by organizing what you need to study and look for anything that might rhyme—but make sure it all stays in order if it needs to. Use a tune you know or make up a rhyme on the spot, but repeat it to yourself over and over until it sticks.

As an example, let’s look at the first four basic steps to take before conducting research: Identifying and developing your topic, preliminarily searching for existing research, locating materials, and evaluating your sources. A rhyme here could be something like, “Identify what you want to know / but check who’s done it before you go / now you find the tools to help / and judge the work of someone else.”

Paint a mental picture

This is what I do most often: I assign little scenarios to groups of words and paint a mental picture that helps me remember them. For instance, the other night I was helping my boyfriend study accounting and discovered that “book value,” “carrying value,” and “net realizable value” all refer to the same thing. To help him remember that, I suggested imagining a little guy carrying a book and a net. The book could be in the net or the little guy could be carrying them both separately, but once you imagine the scene, it’s hard to forget it, even if it makes no sense or has nothing to do with the real topic at hand. Sure enough, he took his test and remembered all three words to describe the same concept with ease.

When you’re studying for a test, think creatively. If something strikes you as interesting or brings to mind a silly, unrelated picture or idea, don’t dismiss it. Fortifying that mental relationship and making an association will only enhance your memory.