5 Best Ways to Memorize Tricky Things

Everyone Can Have this Superpower

Amy E. Barr, The Lukeion Project

"To observe attentively is to remember distinctly." ~Edgar Allan Poe

Being able to memorize tricky things is better than a superpower. Only a few people get to have super powers and super suits, but nearly anyone can learn how to memorize tricky things. Sure, shape-shifting and mega-strength will make you more popular at parties, but memorization skills can take you from a mild-mannered denizen of dull to a rocket scientist, brain surgeon, brilliant botanist, or illustrious archaeologist.

Stylish modern pedagogy (a fancy term for teaching techniques) has turned a pouty frown towards this old skill, to the detriment of all. Teachers are taught to promote using “tools” instead of boring old-fashioned memorization. “Why waste brain space on memorization,” they argue, “if you can learn to master tools like computers and search engines?’

Can you imagine Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot asking the inspector to wait a few minutes while he checks his smartphone for information? Can you imagine your surgeon needed to pause every few minutes during a life-saving procedure to look stuff up online? What would have happened to the Iliad and Odyssey if Homer had not been able to memorize all those lines of epic poetry he'd composed in his mind?

This time of year at The Lukeion Project, we have our Witty Wordsmith, Latin 1, and Greek 1 students coming to--for many--their very first big memorization challenge. Most survive admirably. Others? Not so much! 

Fret no more! Here are the top FIVE ways to start memorizing tricky things right now:

1.  Repeat it

This seems like an obvious first step but if you are new to memorizing things you may be unaware of how MUCH repetition is needed. It takes, on average, 8 exposures to a new vocabulary word before you recognize it at all, much less with speed. Parents: If your learner sits down to a digital deck of vocabulary cards once and performs poorly on the quiz, there’s nothing wrong with your child’s brain but there is something wrong with her methods. It takes 5 to 10 repetitions with a hand-printed paper deck of flash cards that can be shuffled, flipped, and shuffled again to get the job done.

2. Sense it

Gone are the days when chanting alone helps anyone but the small minority known as audio learners. Audio learners were once the majority in the screenless, computer-less, YouTube-less days of yore. Visual learners rule today, and they need to use more senses, especially the ones that employ their eyes. If you have something to memorize, draw it, write it, speak it, illustrate it, journal it, demonstrate it.

3. Teach it

If you are a homeschool parent, this one should be obvious. If you have been homeschooling for a while you know how much you are learning (we’ll say “re-learning”) from all those years of being a passive listener in a school desk. Teaching tricky things to others will force you to learn those tricky things quickly. If your shy little thing doesn’t want to teach it, have him journal it, write out an explanation as if he were sending a letter to a student.

4. Shuffle it

Ever notice when you want to alphabetize things you find yourself singing the Alphabet Song? When our students learn Latin or Greek, they must learn a lot of information that is initially presented in chart forms such as the endings of a noun or the forms of a verb. We call these paradigms. Many learners can reproduce a paradigm perfectly but utterly fail to recognize the various components of that paradigm when translating an actual sentence or recognizing a word form joined to another Greek or Latin stem. Always turn the various parts of each chart into separate flash cards to aid the student in rapid identification outside of chart form. Students must recall the individual parts of a paradigm to make use of those parts. Therefore, we don’t promote a ton of those cute memorization songs. Students can learn a zippy tune but none of that helps if they can’t pull apart the smallest pieces of the puzzle.

5.  Visualize & vocalize it

Rapidly build your brain’s storehouse of tricky things by associating visual cues with new words. This can be as basic as making all nouns in your deck a certain color while prepositions are another. Artistic students might draw a little doodle. Anyone can pair a visual idea of a word or grammar concept as they memorize it. Don’t leave out SAYING the word to yourself even as you visualize it. In the first assignment of Latin 1 the textbook includes a Latin sentence with the Latin word labor. You would be surprised by how many students send me a distressed note complaining this word is not in their vocabulary list and they have no idea what it means. I invariably tell them, “say it aloud and see if that helps.” It always does. 

Meet Peri and The Lukeion Project

"To Begin, begin." ~William Wordsworth

Aristotle was the kind of person that I could invite over for dinner but never for a grand holiday feast. He would likely occupy the whole conversation at the dinner table and then eventually wander off to look at the garden and tree fungi well before dessert was served but well after everyone was riled up about metaphysics or politics.  Aristotle was a Friday dinner kind of philosopher. If you fed him some souvlaki, he would grab a fast nosh and still have plenty of time to browse the library, watch the sunset, and make predictions about where our copious hummingbirds sleep at night.
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher who also happened to make his reputation by teaching. His most distinguished student was Alexander the Great. Aristotle’s teaching success is best demonstrated by the fact that Alexander prized his copy of Homer’s Iliad more than anything else, even tons of Persian gold.

Aristotle had troupes of students who rallied around him at the Athenian Lyceum (Ancient Greek: Λύκειον) from which our online program, The Lukeion Project, takes its name. This temple library served as the world’s first university. Aristotle wasn’t much for staying put in the library, so he would always teach on the go, a real mobile school, one might say. The sight of Aristotle leading his gaggle of students around Attica like a flock of geese prompted people to refer to them as Peripatetics, the walkabouts.

Athens was already famous for smart people walking about the place, and for good reason. Their patron was Athena. Her symbol was her wise little owl as the official town mascot. Aristotle, like Athena and her wee owl, was famous for a type of practical hands-on wisdom that is still popular today in all circle of academic interests. He was as likely to touch on topics of physics, biology, and zoology as he was on logic, ethics, rhetoric, and linguistics.

Thus, the name The Lukeion Project was given to our (then) little online program which was founded way back in 2005 by a couple of Classical archaeologists who also happened to teach Latin, Greek, mythology, and history. Now we have a bigger teaching staff and even more classes, but we can’t yet compete with Aristotle nor his original Λύκειον (or Lyceum). Still, we offer a lot compared to not only most online programs but even compared to most college Classics degrees.

Our mascot looks like Athena's little owl and he’s also a walkabout. We gave him the name Peri the Peripatetic because the Latin name for owl, Bubo, was voted “not nearly cute enough” by all our AP Latin students at the time.