My Brain Compressed into a Blog.

Recently, i’ve been studying for the SAT, and that means memorizing vocabulary. People have told me that I’m really good at memorizing stuff, but I don’t really think I am all that good. Really, the more you know about anything, the easier it is to memorize. Here are some tips:

• If you read any “learn to memorize really quickly” book, it will just tell you to relate things to the most abstract, strange thing that you can imagine. Just like how dreams without any interesting features are easily forgotten, so are words. When you memorize a word, try to think of it in context with something incredibly strange. It can even be lewd or perverted, just as long as it works, and you don’t re-enact it in public xD. I won’t put an example here because… well, I don’t think I need to.

• Another really useful method that I use 60% of the time is by taking parts of a word and then making a weird situation/sentence/story/etc. with that. What’s the difference between this and the tip above? Well in the one above, you take the whole word, so you need to know what it means, and then use the meaning to make the weirdest story you can think of. However, in this method, you simply take parts of a word to help you remind or tell you the definition itself. For example: the word enamored means charmed, or captivated. How do I remember this? Well the word amorous means passionately loving, so I think en (in) amor (love) with something, which clicks in my brain as : charmed or fond of something. It may be hard at first, which is why this method is a LOT easier if you know more and have more to associate with.

• Sometimes, the sound of a word will help you remember its meaning. The word phlegmatic means calm (almost too calm), or impassive. Try saying the word “phlegmatic.” It comes out very slowly at the ‘plegm’ part. This helps me remember it as a boring, almost lazy word, which then helps me imagine someone who is boring and doesn’t respond much – calm or impassive. I’d have to say I’m a little phlegmatic. A Stoic, perhaps.

• Learn roots! They help a lot when you are guessing what a word means. For example, “chron” means time, so if you have a word or question relatated with time, go for something with “chron” in it.

Well that’s all. Hopefully, it will help you on your journey in becoming a SAT-vocab spiting guru. Oh, one more thing, continue to review the vocab you learned the previous session so that you won’t forget them! Now go, apprentice!