memorizing information can be difficult
but I'm going to give you a very
effective trick to help you to retain
lots and lots of vocabulary or lists
that you have to remember in a certain
order and this trick is called image
chains later in the lesson I'm also
going to introduce you to a fantastic
resource a website and an app that's
absolutely perfect for helping you to
revise they are today's sponsors Quizlet
but more about them a little bit later
how do image chains work let's take a
very simple list tree house guitar
pencil and phone now what we have to do
is visualize each of these words we need
to see them as an image of some sort so
this is easy a tree a house a guitar a
pencil and a phone then once you're able
to visualize them you have to put them
together in order in a story so let's
say there is a huge tree standing alone
in a field the tree folds down landing
on a house ah the house starts to
crumble and fall the man who lives
inside the house screams starts to run
out of the house grabbing his prized
possession the one thing in life that he
loves his guitar he runs as fast as he
can with his guitar away from the house
and he falls over a giant pencil word
while he's falling over this giant
pencil he manages to break his arm ow
luckily with his other arm he's able to
reach for a phone and he's able to call
for help getting the ambulance to come
and pick him up okay so that's a very
very simple story a little bit
exaggerated
exaggeration is good it helps you to
remember so we had a huge tree it falls
into what a house and then the man
inside the house is screaming he runs
out but what does he grab before he
leaves his guitar as he runs away from
his house he falls over a giant pencil
but while falling over he breaks his arm
luckily his other hand is able to grab a
phone to call for help so if I now asked
you to repeat a list of words in order
I'm sure you would be able to remember
the list and if not you would at least
be able to remember the story which will
remind you of the list and the order in
which it's supposed to be now that's all
very easy if the words are easy to
visualize but what if you're learning a
completely different language what if
the words you need to remember are
medical words or scientific words like
sodium potassium I don't know what
sodium and potassium looks like so how
would I use an image chain for words
I can't imagine well we simply associate
them you take a word like potassium and
you start to ask yourself what do I
think of when I say the word potassium
some people might think of a banana
because many people know that bananas
are full of potassium other people might
look at the actual word and think that
because it starts with pot it reminds
them of potato potato
potassium potato potassium so that's how
you associate you could either use a
banana for potassium or you could use a
potato for potassium it all depends on
what triggers in your mind when you hear
those words once you've made the
associations then you can start a new
image chain so let's do this together
let's make an in
Chane for the activity series of metals
something you had to learn back in
science class let me tell you a story my
story is about Burt the bat Burt the bat
who wore brown boots Burt the bat was a
miniature bat he was so small that he
decided to leave all of his bat friends
in their big bat caves and come to
London to try and find a mini flat to
suit his miniature stature so Burt the
bat is wandering around London and
suddenly realizes he's hungry
oh poor Bert so he decides to get
himself a jacket potato but he doesn't
want a plain potato so its decides to
add a little bit of salt and then lots
and lots of cheese mmm perfect he's so
hungry that he Wolf's it down
that means he eats it very fast he will
sit down as fast as he can but he burns
his mouth because the potato was a hot
potato in order to help his burning
mouth he runs to the ice-cream van and
buys himself a magnum ice cream a magnum
ice cream yum yum
that sorted him out then Burt decided to
go home to his mini flat his flat was so
small it only had three rooms it has a
living room a kitchen and a loo and
minion a loo a minion his kitchen was
also a mini room it only had a sink in
it and because it only had a sink he had
to store his iron on the sink and his
tin of baked beans now because there was
no room
when he walked into the kitchen he ended
up knocking the tin of baked beans onto
the floor it made a really loud sound
which led to the copper who lived next
door copper is a slang word for
policeman or policewoman the copper who
lived next door popped her head in to
see what was going on yeah I'm a copper
from next door
it's everything right and as she looked
into his living room she discovered all
of the stolen silver and gold hidden
behind Bert plasma TV Bert was in a lot
of trouble you're nicked okay that was
my crazy story that's going to help me
to remember the order of the activity
series of metals so we started off with
Bert the bat it's a crazy character but
crazy characters help you to remember so
Bert the bat was hungry the first thing
he did in London was grab a potato on
his potato what did he have he had a
little bit of salt sodium and a lot of
mmm cheese calcium after eating the
potato he burnt his mouth so he ran to
the ice-cream van and what did he buy he
bought a magnum magnesium ice cream yum
yum yum he ran home he didn't run he
probably flew he went home to his
miniature flat and in his flat he only
had three rooms he had a living room a
kitchen and a loo a minion a mini one a
million aluminum that's a difficult one
but that's the best way that I could
think of to remember the word aluminium
he also had a very
or kitchen what did he have in his
kitchen he had a sink zinc on top of his
think he had an iron iron and a tin of
baked beans as he walked past he knocked
the tin onto the floor it made a loud
noise and led to the copper who lived
next door to come bursting in what does
she discover the silver and the gold
behind the plasma Platinum TV so there
you go that is how I would use image
change with words that are not easy to
visualize this memory trick takes a
little bit of work you have to sit there
and write your story but once you've
done it that I'll take you like five ten
minutes and what you've done it I would
suggest you tell a story to someone tell
it to yourself in the mirror
five minutes later tell it again the
next day tell it one more time a week
later tell it again a month later tell
it again I can guarantee you in what has
taken you no more than ten to fifteen
minutes will help you to retain that
information in your long-term memory so
it's definitely worth taking the time to
create the image chains or feelings anas
exam was just around the corner an exam
that could change her life forever
her motivation to revise was nowhere to
be seen she was alone and overwhelmed
until she heard about Quizlet a fun
revision resource for students of all
levels covering a range of subjects now
she can join over 30 million students
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cup of English team click on the link
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tool for learning anything well I hope
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you have any tips or hints on how to
remember lots and lots of information
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