CITIZENSHIP TEST MEMORY TRICKS
Citizenship Test Memory Tricks: How to Remember Everything
Do you want to remember all the information you’re studying in ‘Discover Canada’? Here are several memory techniques that can help you remember everything you need for your Citizenship Test. We will use these techniques on every page of this website that deals with the citizenship test preparation.
Memory Tricks and Techniques:
1. Draw it
2. Write it (take notes)
3. Say things out loud
4. Move while learning: Use your physical body to help you remember
5. Link the old and the new information
6. Make use of your emotions
7. Make use of your spacial memory
8. Make use of your imagination
9. Teach it to someone else
10. Make numbers into pictures
1. Draw it
This technique is the best to use when learning geography and economy of Canada. You will need to look at a map of Canada to do it. Take a piece of paper and draw a rough outline of Canada’s border. Draw the borders of provinces and territories, then write their names and the names of capital cities. As you’re studying economy, draw the trees for the forest industry, the images of fish for fishing, etc.
2. Write it
Do not make notes on your laptop. It’s important that you use your hand to write – the physical act of writing makes the information more ‘tangible’ and less abstract, which in turn makes it easier to remember because you’re using your body and not just your mind.
3. Say things out loud
Information can enter your mind through your eyes but it can also enter your mind through your ears. The more different entry ways you use, the better you remember. It helps some people to use their cell phones to record the information they’re trying to learn and then listen to their own recordings.
4. Move while learning
Walk around the room or outside and make big gestures – physical movements of your body will help you remember the information better. This technique is especially helpful while learning Canadian History (you can perform a little theater while learning the story).
5. Link the old and the new information
Human brain learns by linking new information to old information. Always connect the new information to something you already know.
6. Make use of your emotions
If the information is boring, you’re guaranteed to forget it. You need to make the information interesting, surprising and unusual in order to remember it. If you’re studying by yourself, you need to use your imagination. (see below)
7. Make use of your spacial memory
Humans have a very good spacial memory. Do you remember all the rooms in your house/apartment? You do, don’t you? We can use that ability to attach the new information to objects within your rooms (the so called ‘Loci method’ or the ‘Roman room’ method).
8. Make use of your imagination
We already mentioned that boring information is easily forgotten. So how can you make boring information into an interesting one? It’s easy if you use your imagination to create ‘movies’ in your head where you distort the reality to make things memorable. (see below)
9. Teach it to someone else
Study it and then teach that information to a friend, a family member or your children – you are guaranteed to remember it well if you were able to teach it!
10. Make numbers into pictures
Numbers are difficult for our minds to remember. While learning Canadian history and trying to remember facts about Canadian economy, you will need to remember years and numbers. The easy way to memorize number is to see them as pictures. You can choose pictures for numbers 0 – 10 or 0 – 100.
For example:
0 – a ring, (or a donut)
1 – a flagpole (or a pen)
2 – a swan
3 – a person’s bottom (body part)
4 – a chair
5 – a cup (on it side)
6 – cherry
7 – a calliper (measuring tool)
8 – a bow tie
9 – a balloon
With this system, if you had to remember a number 82, you will just need to imagine a bow tie on a swan. Or, if you had to remember a number 467, you would imagine a chair, with a cherry lying on it which you’re trying to measure with a calliper.
There’s another system, that some people prefer: choose a rhyming word for every number and memorize the word you chose.
0 – hero (or: mirror)
1 – gun (or: fun)
2 – zoo
3 – tree
4 – floor
5 – hive (as in bee hive)
6 – chicks
7 – heaven
8 – bait
9 – spine
With this system, a number 416 will become floor-fun-chicks, so you would imagine a bunch of chicks playing happily on the floor and memorize that image.
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How to use your imagination and emotions to make things memorable
To make boring things easy to remember, we need to distort reality.
For example, you want to memorize that John Graves Simcoe was a British Army general and the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada who founded the city of York which is now Toronto. You MUST see a picture of John Graves Simcoe to know how he looks like. When you look at his picture, decide if he looks more like a bunny or like a pig, draw two animal ears on his head and imagine him arguing with you, where he screams: “YORK!” and you scream back: “No, John! It’s called Toronto!” Play that funny ‘movie’ in your head, and you will remember it easily.