1. THE RHYME.
For hundreds of years, schoolchildren started the study of American history with: “In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue.”
2. THE VERBAL GIMMICK.
Clearly, modern civilization would be impossible without these four words: “Spring forward. Fall back.”
3. THE POEM.
Probably a million people every day resort to this famous six-liner:
Thirty days hath September, April, June, and November; All the rest have thirty-one Excepting February alone: Which hath but twenty-eight, we find, Till leap year gives it twenty-nine. .
4. THE EASY ASSOCIATION.
Many people have trouble with these similar words —desert, dessert — until they remember that when it comes to tasty treats like cake and ice cream, you always want an extra helping — just as the word itself has an extra s.
5. THE CONTRIVED ASSOCIATION.
The essential trick is to focus on something odd or funny, and use that to jog your memory. All the memory experts are doing this when they rattle off the names of many people: Bob is big and bald; Charlie has a chin as big as China. And so on.
These two words are killers: stalactite, stalagmite. But stalag means prison; and mite suggests mighty. Clearly, a fortress solidly on the ground. So the other thing has to be hanging from the ceiling.
