Remembering by Association

If you want to efficiently remember something, it is necessary that it be
regarded in connection, or in association with one or more other things that you already know. The greater the number of other things with which it is associated with, the better chances you will be able to recall it.

Two popular techniques of association are acronyms and acrostics.
An acronym is an invented combination of first letters of the items to be
remembered.

For example: an acronym commonly used to remember the sequence of colors in the light spectrum is the name ROY G. BIV: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet.

Sometimes, the acronym can be more familiar than the complete name itself, such as RAM (Random Access Memory) or SCUBA (Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus).

On the other hand, an acrostic is an invented sentence where the first
letter of each word is a cue to the thing you want to remember. For example, Every Good Boy Deserves Fun is an acrostic to remember the order of G-clef notes on sheet music - E, G, B, D, F.

An acrostic for the nine planets of our solar system would be My Very Eager Mother Just Sent Us Nine Peaches (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto).

 Learn about these and other more advanced techniques at: