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Memory Remembering Lists

Remembering Lists

Remembering Lists

If you’re new to memory skills, here’s where to start. This is the basic technique that underpins virtually all expert memory systems. Its official title is the Linking System and it works because it taps into how your brain likes to work. Namely, it uses stories, fun, humour, weird stuff, craziness... no boring lists and definitely no reading the same thing over and over. Prepare to have fun – and wow your friends.

The idea

Memorising is very very hard to do if you’re just trying to drill random items or facts into your head. What the Linking System does is remove the randomness between items, forming connections between them, and creating action sequences that make Hollywood blockbusters look tame. It’s all up to you and the power of your imagination

Here’s how to do it:

1
Step One

Get someone to write you a list of words or objects to remember. Say there’s a banana, a ball, a paintpot, a hammer, a teapot...

2
Step Two

Choose your first object, and use your imagination to create a memorable image for this in your mind. A boring old banana, for example, is no good. Imagine it huge, or gyrating, or blue. Or all three.

3
Step Three

Now link this first item to the next. In this case it’s the ball. So perhaps your huge gyrating banana could sprout a hand and start bouncing the ball on the ground.

4
Step Four

Now link the ball... to item 3, the paintpot. And make it memorable. So the ball could fly into the open paintpot with a giant splash which causes paint to fly everywhere... See the paint, hear the splash.

5
Step Five

Continue linking each item to the next in a story. Just make sure that each link is really visual, unusual and memorable. Go wild – make it funny, surreal, even rude (ssh). Whatever works for you.

6
Step Six

Rehearse the whole story in your mind a couple of times.

7
Step Seven

And off you go – you should be able to remember the whole list effortlessly. And even backwards... give it a try.

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What is Brainsmart?

It’s easier than you think to remember a long list of items flawlessly. All you need is a good system. Watch the animation and learn how to use your imagination to make everything on your list seem vivid, memorable and linked into one big story.

Use the technique for everyday life and apply it to your revision to reap extra marks.

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