‘Link System’ related to memory, also known as ‘Chain Method’, is the system of remembering things like lists and events, based on association between the items of that list. Learning through linking method is way better than mugging or by-hearting.
Mugging is memorising matter word-to-word without really understanding the matter, thereby, totally escaping the very essence and benefit of learning. You are, more often than not, stressed when mugging. The Link Method, on the other hand, is one of the easiest mnemonic techniques available. One can use it by making simple associations between items in a list, linking them with a vivid image containing the items.
How To Work The Link Method: The Link System is a simple and effective memory technique. It works on three fundamental principles – Imagination, Association and Location. The aim should always be to ‘learn once and recollect forever’. Humans remember things, very largely, by linking them to other things. Learning to use the link method effectively will help you tremendously in your studies, personal and professional day-to-day life. The Link System works by coding information to be remembered into images and then linking these images together.
Both Link System and Story Telling techniques are very simple to learn. Let us take these eight words:
Pencil, Shoes, Tennis Racket, Helicopter, Goggles, Fish, Cake, Calculator. I have mentioned eight words, do not write them and say them in order immediately. There is no similarity between these eight words. Let us learn all the words by linking them in this manner:
Pencil and Shoes: Close your eyes. instead of seeing yourself wearing shoes and writing with a pencil, make a funny link of wearing two pencils and walking and falling and writing with a shoes.
Tennis Racket and Helicopter: Close your eyes. See yourself flying to some place in a tennis racket and writing on a helicopter. The tennis racket is the biggest in size and the helicopter too is gigantic.
Goggles and Fish: Close your eyes. See your image of eating two goggles and two fishes putting on your eyes.
Cake and Calculator: Close your eyes. Eat a Big Calculator for Breakfast and visualise doing grocery calculations on a big cake!
Once we finish with these words; we can take many more new words and repeat the same process. Remember the following golden rules:
1) Picture your items out of proportion: While closing your eyes and visualizing, make the item as large as possible. As big, huge, humongous, gigantic and enormous.
2) Picture your items in action whenever possible: It is always the violent and embarrassing things that we all remember, rather than the pleasant things. We vividly remember details of embarrassing situations faced years ago.
3) Exaggerate the amount of items: While associating two items, whenever possible exaggerate the number of items involved.
4) Make Ridiculous Association: Can we eat a computer or type on a biscuit. These absurd associations help us to visualize better and remember things faster.
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