What are your hints/tips for memorizing lists?

I write it out over and over. If it is a long list and I am short of time, I will type it into a document or a spreadsheet. This didn’t work as well as writing it out longhand, but it was better than trying to remember them by just reading them.

That’s a really good point @WestRiverrat after hand-writing, many times, I don’t forget hydrochlorothiozide – but that’s also because it’s fun to say.

Is there any way you can categorize them into groups? Like, SSRIs, or “heart stuff”, etc? And then remember which is in each group?

I have a cute little rhyme for remembering how Henry VIII’s marriages ended:
Annulled, beheaded, died
Annulled, beheaded, survived.
Might be harder and less cute with drugs, thought…

You’re onto something there @Aethelflaed. In choir, I had to do scales – do re mi fa so fa me re do.
I can use that for a few drugs, singing “lipitor is atvorastatin” “nexium is esomeprozole” but that only works for a handful and then, I’m looking for something different.

statin=fat=cholesterol drugs. So all the statins, I picture as little fat gnomes wandering around Staten Island.

I memorize violent images associated with the words.
Hear me out:

For example:
I visualize a large piece of dinnerware, and see a crack in the middle.
Driven into the dinnerware, and causing the crack is a large pen.
On top of the pen is a Jersey Cow. The blood and gall is running down the pen.
Between the ears of the cow is an overripe peach. It is so overripe, it has split on one side.
Covering the cut on the peach is a large band-aid.
On top of the band-aid is a massive block of ice. It is freezing the band-aid.
Standing on top of the ice is Marilyn Monroe, in a red, white, and blue swimsuit.
Marilyn is holding a streetcar, which is labeled “South Car Line”
Driving the streetcar is a glistening newly baked ham.
Poking out of the ham is a rolled up piece of sheet music, and you can see the song is “Carry Me Back To Old Virginie”
Crushing the sheet music is the Empire State Building.
Balanced on top of the Empire State building, teetering back and forth, is another streetcar, this one says “North Car Line”
Driving the streetcar is a red rooster.

Visualize all that. See the blood dripping down the pen, the frozen mass of ice on the band-aid, and the crushed sheet music.
Got it all memorized? Now, memorize the first 13 states to join the Union:
Dinnerware=Delaware
Pen=Pennsylvania
Jersey Cow=New Jersey
Peach=Georgia
Band-aid (connecting the cut)=Conneticut
Massive block of ice=Massachusetts
Marilyn=Maryland
Streetcar=South Carolina
Newly Glazed Ham=New Hamshire
Sheet music=Virginia
Empire State=New York
Streetcar= North Carolina
Red Rooster=Rhode Island (red)

There are two things that work well for me, depending on how long I want to remember the information. If I don’t care whether I remember it beyond the test, I will alphabetize everything. Then I learn it in alphabetical order. It really helps me remember that way since I know exactly where to go in my memory to retrieve the one I need. I would probably also use that method if it was something I needed to know long term and used regularly. If I didn’t use it regularly, however, I probably wouldn’t remember my whole list this way.

The other thing that works well for me is flash cards. I tend to remember things longer that way, and if I shuffle them, they become more their own pieces of information than they do in the alphabetized list. When I have one down, I set it aside, and keep working through the ones I don’t know. Eventually, the pile is whittled down to nothing, and I will shuffle and start again. If you keep the cards, this also allows you to easily review when you have a few minutes here and there.

Write it over and over again until you can’t think.
Or if you have a rather photographic memory; then find pictures, put them in order and remember it that way.
Or keep rereading them like an idiot. Kidding.
Or if you have an eidetic memory then you don’t need help. More vivid that photographic memory.

For me, I found that if I had to memorize a big list of things I would use a journey method.

Think of a route you use every day. It could be the path or it could be the roads you drive from home to work or school or grocery store.
Visualize the landmarks you pass (intersections, places of business, parks, etc) on the way to those destinations.
Take a moment to really picture in your mind these landmarks. See yourself driving, walking, or bicycling by them. Now you have a mentally tag of each landmark and can associate each with one of the 200. Memorize and associate the items to those landmarks.
Now you have an association. It is a pretty powerful way to memorize things and not leave any items out because you can’t forget the route and can now put an associated item to each.

It works for me.

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