Care to share your favourite mnemonics?

When I’m trying to memorize a passage, short or long, I find it helpful to write down the first letter of each word of the passage. If it’s a long passage without paragraphs, I break it up into smaller sections. Then I begin by memorizing the last sentence of the last section, using the first letters of the words as cues if I stumble. When I can say that, then I work on the next to last sentence, following with the last sentence, and I work all the way through the passage from back to front. That way, I am making it easiest on my brain by saying the newest sentence first, and repetition has already helped me in remembering the other sentences.

I like Johnny, despite the robotic, wooden acting of Keanu..as per usual.

I went to high school with a guy named Barney Burke. When we need to memorize capacitance color code, we used:

Barney Burke Rapes Our Young Girls But Violet Gives Willingly

(Black brown red orange yellow green blue violet gold white)

Roy G Biv (color spectrum)

Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain.

I used to make these up a lot for short-term memorization. Accordingly, I can’t remember any of them now. :/

The one I use most often is a classic: King Philip comes of fairly good stock.

”Bad boys rape our young girls, but Violet gives willingly.”
In electronics, this help you remember the resistor color code: Black, brown, red, orange, etc.

Also: The standard medical school mnemonic for cranial nerves:
”Oh, oh, oh—to touch and feel a hot vagina—ah, heaven!”
Olfactory, optic, oculomotor, trochlear, etc.

I guess the most memorable are a bit naughty.

Oh be a find girl. Kiss me right now, smack! Learned in Astronomy 101.

Mnemonics for the
Harvard Spectral Classification Scheme

“The modern stellar spectral classification scheme (also known as the Harvard Spectral Classification Scheme) was created by Annie Jump Cannon through her examination of spectra from 1918 to 1924. ...to reflect the surface temperatures of stars. In order of decreasing temperature, these types were O, B, A, F, G, K. and M. Three additional categories also in the scheme: R, N, and S types, were later realized to represent stars with peculiar heavy-metal abundances… According to astronomical myth, Henry Norris Russell suggested the following mnemonic to assist students in remembering the scheme.” Source

Every Good Boy Does Fine Learned in piano lessons 101

Used by many to remember what the notes in the five main lines of the Treble Clef in Music, representing E, G, B, D, and F from bottom to top.

*F A C E * spaces for the treble clef

BASS CLEF:

God boys do fine always. lines

All cows eat grass. spaces

@gailcalled I learned the the notes using Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge. That is another that I’ll remember forever. :)

@glacial: So, apparently did I (since I also remember that), probably from another piano teacher,

Two typos: Sorry. Oh be a fine girl

Good boys do fine…

When I was going through the Masonic Degrees, I had to memorize a considerable amount of stuff to be able to perform lectures and ‘secret stuff’ that we Illuminati do. :) The Book, which was the same one my Father and Grandfather used was written in code. Once I learned the code, it was easy to memorize large amounts of stuff. I had thought that I might start writing my college notes in the same code and would have a better time remembering. But alas, I did not. I still look at that book sometimes, knowing I am the end, of the line my son has no interest in the craft, feeling over a hundred years of our family and thousands of others have learned what was an oral tradition through these codes.

People in the medical field have to memorize so much stuff that there are many, many mnemonic devices. My favorite was “Never lower Tilly’s pants. Mother might come home.” That’s for the bones between you wrist and fingers. Navicular, Lunate, Trigeminate or something, Pisiform, M___, M___, Cuneiform, Hamate. If those are right, that’s not bad for over 40 years ago. I don’t have much call for that information.

King Philip Cried Out, “For Goodness Sake!”

^^^Standing for what?

^^ Kingdom Phylum Class Order Family Genus Species.
I wanted to see if I could remember them and I can so high-five for me.

He gets around, that King Philip. ;)

You see, I always thought it was about an evil guy named Kyle. The nerve of him to Pour Coffee On Fred’s Green Shirt…

Indeed, that doesn’t sound like particularly regal behaviour!

Good job, @dxs.

I had a spelling problem Beautiful so big elephants aren’t ugly their beautiful

^^^ A for spelling. Usage is another issue. And what does *B s b e a u t b * stand for?

@gailcalled

My guess is that @graynett used “Big Elephants Aren’t Ugly They’re….” as a mnemonic to help him spell the “beaut” part of beautiful.

@gailcalled I think it’s a punctuation issue:

I had a problem spelling “beautiful”. So, “Big Elephants Aren’t Ugly, They’re… Beautiful”.

^^Interesting, isn’t it, how punctuation serves a purpose?

I believe it was GW Bush who wrote, “Anyone whom insists on punktuation is a Commanist”. ;-)

@gailcalled Yes! In fairness, I did reverse the order of two words. I probably should have done this instead:

I had a spelling problem (beautiful). So, “Big Elephants Aren’t Ugly, They’re… beautiful”.

Dyslectic me! I had a problem spelling beautiful, along with anything that had a “u” in it Why is it so?

I suffer from spoonerism. ie. dear old queen ended up as the queer old dean.