The Hindu Business Line : Jog your memory with tested tools

You can choose between ‘dead monkeys smell bad,’ and ‘dad, mum, sister, brother,’ if long division is trouble remembering. The phrases will guide you through the sequence, ‘divide, multiply, subtract, bring down.’ Similarly, ‘All hairy men will buy razors,’ should help you recollect the soil components, as ‘air, humus, mineral salts, water, bacteria, and rock particles’.

But why tools to get the grey matter going? Because memory is a funny business, cautions Judy Parkinson in ‘i before e (except after c)’ ( www.landmarkonthenet.com). In the fun book, she takes “a nostalgic look back at the many quirky and amusing ways you were taught to remember ‘stuff’ at school… which can still be used to solve a problem or cap an argument”.

For instance, do you feel stuck when someone asks you to name the conjunctions? Call ‘fan boys’ to help with the list: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so. Likewise, the six main elements of storytelling, viz. viewpoint, mood, plot, characters, theme, setting, can be memory-jogged with ‘very many pupils come to school,’ suggests the author.

“The English language is full of complexities and contradictions, which can make the spelling and pronunciation of certain words quite difficult to predict,” reads a sympathetic line in a chapter titled ‘to spell or not to spell.’ Is it license or licence, practise or practice? Spellbound? Try this pithy rhyme: “S is the verb and C is the noun, that’s the rule that runs the town.”

Listen to ‘raven’ if caught in the affect-effect trap. ‘Remember: affect, verb; effect, noun.’ To the ‘arithmetic’-challenged, ‘a rat in the house may eat the ice cream,’ can be a rescue sentence. How about ‘diarrhoea’? Here: ‘Dash in a real rush, hurry or else accident!’

A chapter on geography educates you on the seven continents of the world through ‘eat an aspirin after a nasty sandwich,’ and the eight Central American countries, through ‘my great big hungry elephant nearly consumed Panama.’ The letters MGBHENC stand for Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. VDU, or visual display unit, may double as shorthand for the three longest rivers in Europe, Volga, Danube, and Ural.

‘All the great chancellors live very long since shops can’t alter politics.’ Check if you can see, coded in the line, the twelve signs of the zodiac, from Aries to Pisces?

Do the planet names elude your memory? ‘My very easy method: just set up nine planets,’ used to order the names, from Mercury to Pluto. But, after August 2006, when the International Astronomical Union decided to downgrade the status of Pluto, you may have to work with, ‘my very energetic mother just sent us nowhere.’

Mrs Gren may sound ordinary, but the name encompasses the vital processes of life: movement, respiration, sensitivity, growth, reproduction, excretion, and nutrition. It may help to add to your recall skill, ‘skill,’ an acronym for the excretory organs, viz. skin, kidneys, intestines, liver, and lungs.

Take ‘pride’ (or, personal responsibility in daily efforts), counsels a chapter on the world of work. Deploy the ‘fasta’ technique to battle office egos: focus on your goals, not just on yourself; ask of other people’s opinions; say thank you; treat everyone as your equal; and allow yourself to fail.” And, if you want ‘to shoot a rifle without missing your target by a mile, or at least make you seem as if you know what you’re doing,’ do BRASS: breathe, relax, aim, sight, squeeze.

A book you should remember to read.

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