How to Memorize Facts for an Exam
Taking any sort of exam is difficult, but it can be more so when you must memorize facts. While memorizing does take time and repetition, using tricks like mnemonics, which assist your memory, can be a helpful solution to naming the planets in order from biggest to smallest--or all the natural elements, or the important events in Shakespeare's life. Memorization does not have to frustrate you into forgetting everything when an exam comes along.
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Instructions
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Grab a pen and paper. Also, have a list of whatever you need to memorize. If the facts you need to retain are each one or two words long, take the first letter of the word or words and write it on the paper. Then take the next fact and write the beginning letter under the first letter on the page. Continue with all your facts until you have a vertical list of letters on the paper.
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Use the vertical list of letters to create a mnemonic, which is a trick that will trigger your memory into remembering the facts you need to know. For example, say you were trying to memorize the organization of living things from largest group to smallest: Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus and Species. On your list, you should have the letters K, P, C, O, F, G and S, written vertically.
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Make a sentence using the letters. For example, with the aforementioned letters (K, P, C, O, F, G, S), you can make the sentence "King Philip Can Operate Five Good Ships." You can make the sentences anything that will help you remember. Once you memorize the sentence, it will be easier to recognize what word you're trying to find in your memory.
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Other mnemonics can be in the form of songs, such as putting all 50 United States in alphabetical order to a certain tune. When you take your exam, think of the mnemonic you studied with, and it should be much easier to remember than by simply trying to memorize a list of unrelated words.
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