Though you may have heard of other people referring to mnemonics, there’s a high chance that you’re not entirely sure what a mnemonic is.
Don’t worry if that’s the case, as you’re not alone.
Here’s what you need to know:
What Are Mnemonics?
Mnemonics are an extremely helpful way of remembering certain pieces of information, though they aren’t as commonly used as they should be.
The aim of a mnemonic is to assist us with remembering a piece of information, such as the order of the planets or the colours in the spectrum.
As well as helping us to remember the information itself, a mnemonic often helps to remember the specific order in which the information is given.
Mnemonics are often songs, acronyms and rhymes; this is because they are very easy to remember.
After all, it’s a lot easier to remember a silly little song than it is to remember a list of seemingly random items.
Examples of Mnemonics
A popular example of a mnemonic is ‘My Very Excited Mother Just Served Us Nine Pies’ and this is in relation to the planets in our solar system.
Not only does this help us to remember the list of the planets, it also helps us to remember the order in which they come.
The first letter of each word in the mnemonic refers to a planet.
It tells us that the planets are Mars, Venus, Earth Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.
Another example of a mnemonic is ‘Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain’ and this is in relation to the colours on a colour spectrum.
By remembering this mnemonic, it’s a lot easier to remember the order of the colours.
They are Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet.
As you can see, mnemonics are extremely helpful.
However, a lot of people fail to recognise just how useful they can be in everyday life.
Whether you’re teaching a child something for a test at school or you’re trying to remember a key piece of trivia, a mnemonic is ideal.
It’s a fantastic way to remember information in a certain order.