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Memorization aid for subjects like Biology


ephika

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Anyone that wants to share their mnemonics? :P

I have biology, and as you know it involves a lot of memorization. Usually I use the link method, which means making up these crazy stories about the material I need to know. For instance, if I want to learn that a jellyfish has a nerve net and stinging cells called nematocysts, I would imagine a fishing boat pulling a giant jellyfish up from the bottom of the sea in a fishing net made up of nerves, and when the fishers are about to eat the fish, it pulls out its stinging cells and paralyses them. Sounds pretty weird, but it actually does work.

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LOL! I love those stories :P

I try making up crazy stories and acronyms for things I have to memorize but oddly enough, I can never memorize them so I just memorize the material straight off.

My chem teacher is so funny. She was trying to help us memorize the alpha & beta structures for glucose and she was like "Beta has the aaa sound like in saaame" :)

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Oooooooooo.

I LOVE mnemonics. I always use them for memorizing, particularly lists of names and etc. I am TERRIBLE with names so I have to use them haha and they have saved my grade several times.

Some examples:

hierarchy of taxa - kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus and species

King Phillip Catches Oranges For Gaining Support

Cell division - prophase, metaphase, anaphase, telophase (for both mitosis and meiosis. If meiosis, you just repeat it. Oh and of course one sometimes need to add 'interphase' in the beginning and 'cytokinesis' at the end)

Pack My Apples Today

The six first prefixes in organic chemistry - Meth, eth, prop, but, pent, hex)

Must Eat Proper Baked Pasta Here

Redox reactions (Oxidation Is Loss, Reduction Is Gain of electrons)

OIL - RIG

Trigonometry in Math (this is a classic)

SOH --> Sine = Opposite divided by the Hypotenuse

CAH --> Cosine = Adjacent divided by the Hypotenuse

TOA --> Tangent = Opposite divided by the Adjacent

Calculus Application

For me to remember the application of calculus, I use this simple thing:

DV'

DA''

Basically, to get the velocity function, one differentiate the distance function once. To get the acceleration function, you differentiate the distance function twice. This then can be read backwards for integrals or etc (i.e to differentiate the velocity, gives acceleration. Or to integrate the acceleration once, you get velocity etc.)

Radian/Degree Conversion

R1P --> Radian x 180 / pi (which gives degrees)

DP1 --> Degree x pi / 180 (which gives radian)

It is of course okay to just remember one since then you can just use algebra to get the other instead.

there are many many more and if you have others please do share!!! :P Mnemoics and such are sort of my most precious study technique :)

Edited by Afterglow
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Trigonometry

TOA CAH SOH, which means 'big foot woman' in Hokkien or Cantonese (I can't remember, it was some Mandarin dialect).

Remembering in which quadrants the trig functions are positive - All School Teachers are Crazy/All Students Trust Calculators (Quadrant I - all, II - sine, III - tangent, IV - cosine)

Chemistry

OIL RIG - Oxidation is loss, reduction is gain (of electrons)

Diatomics - BrINClHOF (pronounced brinkle-hoff)

Also for Biology's taxa hierarchy I just chant KPCOFGS (has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? :P ), because I've seen the names enough times that as long as I remember KPCOFGS (the order) I will know what each letter stands for.

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Trigonometry

TOA CAH SOH, which means 'big foot woman' in Hokkien or Cantonese (I can't remember, it was some Mandarin dialect).

Remembering in which quadrants the trig functions are positive - All School Teachers are Crazy/All Students Trust Calculators (Quadrant I - all, II - sine, III - tangent, IV - cosine)

TOA CAH SOH

=

SOH CAH TOA

Sun On Holidays Can Always Happen To Our Advantage.

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Trigonometry

TOA CAH SOH, which means 'big foot woman' in Hokkien or Cantonese (I can't remember, it was some Mandarin dialect).

Remembering in which quadrants the trig functions are positive - All School Teachers are Crazy/All Students Trust Calculators (Quadrant I - all, II - sine, III - tangent, IV - cosine)

Or All Silly Tom Cats.

TOA CAH SOH

=

SOH CAH TOA

Sun On Holidays Can Always Happen To Our Advantage.

I don't know if you even need a further sentence really. SOH CAH TOA is pretty catchy on it's own :P

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