Something I like to do is memorize stuff. I consider the brain a muscle, too, and like any other muscle, you can exercise and strengthen it. Likewise, it can undergo muscular atrophy with lack of use. I believe memorization is a good workout for the brain. Thus, I often memorize random things. By practicing memorization recreationally, one can develop, learn, and practice memorization techniques and efficiency, which come in handy when one really needs to memorize, such as for tests, quizzes, Jeopardy!, and other trivia shows :-).
You can also learn while you memorize by choosing the right topics. Though some things you memorize might seem like trivial information, you're still learning and acquiring knowledge, and you never know when it might prove useful. Just as developing a diverse skill set helps you in life, developing a wide knowledge-base will help, too. And, if you become really proficient at memorization, you might consider competing at the World Memory Championships ;-).
Finally, memorization is something you can practice anywhere without requiring anything except your mind and something to memorize. If you look around you, I bet there's something you can memorize, and if not, you can always review what you've already memorized.
Below, I've made a list of some memorization topics.
| Topic | Memorization Strategies and Comments | Personal Experience |
| Countries and capitals of the world | Refer to an up-to-date globe or world map. Start with South America or Australia, as these two continents contain the least number of countries. You may need to search for a more detailed map when memorizing island nations' capitals because often, they are not shown. For fun, one can memorize the Animaniacs' Nations of the World song, though it doesn't include all the countries and uses several obselete names. | Back in elementary school, my brother told me about an about.com article that featured a geography master from Morocco. The article mentioned that this person had memorized nearly all the capitals and countries of the world, in addition to knowing a tremendous amount of other information. When I heard this, I thought, nearly all the the capitals and countries of the world? Why not all of them? Was it really that hard? So thus I was inspired to learn all the capitals and countries of the world. I would stand in front of a world map in my brother's room and just stare at it, sometimes saying countries and capitals out loud. By looking at the map so much, I also developed a general sense of where each country was located. In addition to nations and national capitals, one can also memorize states, provinces, territories, and their capitals. |
| State Nicknames | You can easily obtain a list of states and their nicknames online. You can learn in alphabetical order or in can work your way around the country region by region. | I memorized these once upon a time, but I forgot most of them :-). |
| Digits of pi and e | Buy a pi shirt to learn from and encourage memorization. Do they sell e shirts? Take advantage of other people wearing pi shirts and use the opportunity to memorize a few more digits. You can memorize in chunks of specified length (e.g.: 5 or 10 digits), or you can memorize in short strings of numbers that flow together (e.g.: 979323, 846264, 02884, 1971, 693993). | I was inspired to memorize pi by Ken Kawamoto. At one point, I think I memorized up to the 144th decimal place, but right now, I only recall up to the 100th decimal place. As far as e is concerned, I've never been too serious memorizing it and only know it to 13 decimal places. |
| Greek alphabet | I would start with lowercase first. I find saying the letters out loud as you write them helps. | My first physics teacher, Mr. Wallace, wrote out the entire Greek alphabet during our final physics class at Newark Academy in the summer of '06. Since I already knew about half the Greek alphabet just from its frequent use in math and science, I figured I might as well learn the rest. Intending to learn the rest for nearly a year, I finally started learning the rest at Governor's School 2007. I learned the rest of the lowercase letters there, and after I got home, I learned the rest of the uppercase letters. |
| International radiotelephony spelling alphabet a.k.a. radio code | Practice speaking in radio code with a friend to reinforce your command of the alphabet. | I don't remember exactly when I started memorizing this, but I do recall my initial thoughts: Cool, the first letter of the radio code alphabet is the same as the first letter of the Greek alphabet! These are some interesting words to designate each character :-). |
| Morse code | Again, I'd recommend practicing communicating with a buddy. | I've been meaning to learn this, but as of now, all I know is SOS :-). |
| Ingredients of foods and other substances | If you memorize this a lot, you'll start seeing patterns between foods. And, you'll probably discover some strange-sounding ingredients which can be interesting topics of research. | I'm not a big fan of shopping. Thus, when I must shop, if nothing peaks my interest, I try to occupy myself by memorizing the ingredients of chips and lubricants and stuff like that. |
| Mythological persons | Greek, Roman, Norse, and Egyptian are probably the most common and useful. A good mythology knowledge is good for doing crosswords and reading/understanding/interpreting literature. | I never really dedicated to memorizing any mythology. I only know the primary gods and goddesses of Greek and Roman mythology. |
| Presidents of the United States | Good knowledge for U.S. history test takers. Once you memorize the presidents, you can move on to vice presidents and secretaries of state. Knowing the years of office is useful, too, and helps you match up events with presidencies. The Animaniacs' Presidents Song is recommended. | I've tried memorizing this many times, probably succeeding a few times but always forgetting them later. It's always the 19th-century presidents between Jackson and Lincoln, all of which served one term of less, that I forget or switch the order of. |
Last Updated: Saturday, September 1, 2007.
Back