Praise for Dhaval Bathia “Dhaval Bathia is a celebrity trainer. Whenever he takes the stage, he leaves the audience spell bound!” — Arab Times “An honorary patron of the Indo-Kuwait Friendship Society, Mr. Dhaval Bathia is promoter of mind power sciences.” — Kuwait Times “Dhaval Bathia packs in quite a cerebral punch. A unique blend of talent, insight, hard work and sheer determination. A ROCKER.” — Education Times, The Times Of India “A WIZARD. Dhaval Bathia needs just a split second to recall details of 100 year old calendars, hundreds of phone numbers and to solve complex arithmetical problems.” — Bombay Times, The Times of India “A unique achiever. We wish him all the best for his future projects.” — Lohana Shakti “Dhaval Bathia is simply astounding. His workshops are commendable.” — Maharashtra Times “A young achiever. His seminars receive a tremendous response from the CORPORATE WORLD.”
— Education World “White-lightning success.” — Sakal “He can recollect all facts on any subject by reading them just once!” — Navbharat Times “After attending his seminars, students have found a sharp increase in their confidence level and their performance in exams has also improved.” — Abhiyaan “Dhaval Bathia’s seminar was definitely a high point. He tantalized the crowd with his mental prowess.” — JAM Magazines “Our country not only produces great talent but also nurtures it so that it reaches its fullest potential which enables it to reach the sky. Since times immemorial India has not only given great intellectuals, sportspersons, revolutionaries, socialists but also great artists, painters, scientists to the countrymen and society in general. Adding another name to this great stardom is Mr. Dhaval Bathia.” — Jazbaat Magazine “The scientific systems in the book create a paradigm shift from hard work to smart work. The whole emphasis is laid on the fact that education is a process to be enjoyed and cherished.” — Afternoon
“Dhaval’s tricks are unbelievable...he can tell you when is your birthday without you telling him.” — Le Mauricien (Mauritius) “Indian Wizard.” — The Gulf Today (UAE) “Studies need not be grueling. meet Dhaval Bathia. the mind power expert who will help you remember your studies with ease.” — Times of Oman “Dhaval has some unbelievable math and memory tricks up his sleeve.” — The Khaleej Times “An inspiration to the youth.” — FM Gold “Dhaval Bathia is a revolution.” — S TV
DISCLAIMER While every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and obtain permission, this has not been possible in all cases; any omissions brought to our notice will be duly acknowledged in future editions. Published by Jaico Publishing House A-2 Jash Chambers, 7-A Sir Phirozshah Mehta Road Fort, Mumbai – 400 001 [email protected] www.jaicobooks.com © Dhaval Bathia MEMORY POWER! ISBN 978-81-8495-650-4 First Jaico Impression: 2015 No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Contents 1. Preface – From an ordinary child to a whiz kid 2. About the Author 3. Introduction 4. Acknowledgements 5. 1. A Challenge, and a Promise 6. 2. Concentration – The Basic Requirement 7. 3. Myths of Memory 8. 4. Three Golden Rules of Memory 9. 5. The Mnemonic System 10. 6. The Link System 11. (a) How to Remember Speeches or Long Answers 12. 7. The Substitution System 13. (a) Remembering Places (Geography) 14. (b) Remembering Spelling 15. (c) Remembering English Vocabulary 16. (d) Remembering Foreign Languages 17. (e) Remembering Scientific Terms
18. (f) Remembering Books and Authors 19. (g) Remembering Case Laws 20. (h) Remembering Names and Faces 21. (i) Remembering the Periodic Table 22. 8. The Conversion System 23. (a) Remembering Dates in History 24. (b) Remembering Playing Cards 25. 9. Remembering the Calendar 26. 10. The List System 27. 11. The Peg System 28. 12. The Repetition System 29. 13. Remembering Skills 30. 14. Customize Your Own Technique 31. 15. Memory Games 32. 16. An Introduction to Vedic Mathematics 33. 17. The Ten Commandments 34. Afterword 35. Organize A Workshop
Preface From an ordinary child to a whiz kid This incident took place in my early teenage years. I was watching a TV show with my family, where a senior university professor performed a seemingly unbelievable stunt in front of the audience. He memorized a deck of well-shuffled cards and recited the name of each of the 52 cards (four of spades, seven of hearts, etc.) in front of the audience with unfaltering accuracy. All of us watching this show were highly impressed. At that point, we presumed that this professor was perhaps an extraordinary individual, blessed with supernatural intelligence. How else in the world could he possibly memorize an entire pack of well-shuffled cards? However, the most interesting part was yet to come. The second participant in the show was an 18-year-old girl, who claimed that she had memorized all the calendars of the past century. In other words, if you asked her any date from the year 1901 to 2000, she could tell you the day of the week corresponding to that date. The anchor of the show asked her random dates (such as February 2, 1931 or December 4, 1974). The girl was able to state accurately whether that particular day was a Tuesday or a Friday or a Sunday. The show went on to feature some spectacular and bewildering demonstrations of the power of memory by many other participants. I was so impressed by the show that I could not help discussing it with my family at the dinner table that night. Seeing my enthusiasm, my father decided to cancel all his social appointments for the upcoming weekend and spend time with me on further research. I clearly remember it was a Saturday morning and we were both hooked to our laptops; running Google searches for every single video, e-book, presentation and audio file that was available on memory, mind power and similar topics. The whole day was spent in frantically downloading every piece of information that we could find on memory.
I watched in excitement as my father printed book after book for me. In the coming months, I immersed myself in learning and practicing all the techniques. Since I was a school student then, I could relate and remember all of what I learnt in school with the memory techniques that I was practicing. My dad gave up his leisure time on weekends to monitor and revise my progress. Days, weeks and months passed by. Exactly a year later, I was featured on the same television show on memory with more or less the same participants. After seven grilling rounds of intense mental testing, I was unanimously adjudged the winner. * Many miles away, my family was also watching the show. They were overjoyed to see me win the gold medal. My father sat in his signature armchair and watched me with tears of happiness running down his cheeks. He knew his son had arrived.
About the Author Dhaval Bathia (BCom, ACS, LLB) is an international bestselling author, trainer and businessman. He wrote his first book at the age of 17. It became a popular hit within weeks of its launch. He then wrote four more books, all of which have become bestsellers and have sold over 200,000 copies in 14 languages worldwide. He has trained millions of people in seminars, workshops and conferences in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, the USA, Mexico, the UK, Mauritius, Oman, Kuwait, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the UAE. He is on the advisory boards of the educational ministries of many countries, where his math and memory systems are being gradually implemented in the mainstream curriculum. Dhaval’s infomercials on Vedic Mathematics have been broadcast by Star TV, Zee TV, Sony TV and many other television channels. He was awarded the Young Achiever of the Year by Rotary International and Honorary Patron by the Indo-Kuwait Friendship Society. For any suggestions and queries, you may contact him on his website, email or through social media. Website: www.dhavalbathia.com Email: [email protected] Facebook: Dhaval Bathia’s Community Page Twitter: www.twitter.com/dhavalbathia
Introduction Every other person who meets me complains of having a weak memory. Ranging from the inability to remember telephone numbers to the very embarrassing habit of forgetting people’s names, there are persistent complaints of chronic amnesia. In this book, you will find virtually all of your memory-related issues addressed in specific sections. For those who wish to remember random lists of objects, there is a List System. Those who wish to remember numbers (such as telephone numbers or dates) can use the Conversion System. Those who wish to remember playing cards, faces or foreign words, can make use of the Substitution System. Each of these systems is scientific, time-tested and has an amazing track record of providing accurate results to whoever practices it with sincerity and patience. I request you to go through each system (in the same order as given in the book) and diligently test yourself by using the separate tests given at the end of each chapter. You will be surprised to notice how these seemingly small techniques can bring such a radical improvement in our ability to remember! Happy Reading, Dhaval Bathia
Acknowledgements I take this opportunity to thank Dad, Mom and Shreya for making the perfect family. To Pratik, Brinda, Jay and Raj, all of you are so far away, yet so close. I would also like to thank my in-laws and Shrinit for their enthusiasm. My special thanks to my uncle Mr Shailesh Bathiya for teaching me the Peg and Link Methods and so many other things in life, which have become the foundation of my work. His guidance at every step of my life has been of immense help. I would also like to thank my grandmother, my uncle, Mr Pankaj Bathiya, and my aunts, Mrs Sheetal Bathiya and Mrs Harsha Bathiya, for their unconditional love and support. Sincere acknowledgements to Anand, Silky, Janak, Khushal, Haseet and Gunja for being a great team. May we continue to have millions of happy moments in our lives together!
Chapter 1 A Challenge, and a Promise Research says that given a randomly selected book, only 5 to 6 per cent people read it completely. The other 94 to 95 per cent leave the book midway due to monotony, frustration or being preoccupied with something else. We challenge you to finish this entire book, and in return, we promise that you will discover some unbelievable powers of your brain. In fact, some of the promises that we are going to make here might sound too good to be true. However, by the end of the book, you will be able to accomplish everything that we have promised. In the table given below, there are 40 randomly selected words. If I were to ask you to memorize all the 40 words and that too in the same order, you would probably tell me that it would take you hours to learn it. However, after completing the chapter on the link system (please refer to Chapter 6), you will be able to recite accurately all the 40 words, in the same order and that too within four minutes!
Second Promise You will be able to predict a person’s birthday without him telling you! You will also be able to say how much money he has in his pocket, or how many brothers and sisters he has, without him telling you any of this. (Please refer to Chapter 15.) Third Promise You will be able to remember an entire 100-year calendar and that too in less than 10 minutes. (Please refer to Chapter 9.) Fourth Promise You will see some amazing optical illusions, where you will not be able to read simple sentences in the English language, identify colours or see photos that are right in front of your eyes. These excercises will be of great help to your concentration power. (Please refer to Chapter 2.) Fifth Promise You will be able to multiply any number with any number and get the answer in a single line. (Please refer to Chapter 16.) You will be able to do all of this and much more, such as remembering dates and calendars, faces, telephone numbers, playing cards, appointments, schedules, history dates, geography maps, foreign languages, complex vocabulary and so forth. So, let us begin this exciting journey into the world of memory. However, before we go ahead, let us take a small test to check your concentration power.
Chapter 2 Concentration – The Basic Requirement I was once attending a wedding, where a very senior memory coach decided to pull my leg. “So, you think you are a professional memory champion?” he began the conversation with an obvious intent to test my skills. “Well, uh...not exactly a champion, just an enthusiast,” I replied modestly. “In that case, could you tell me what you had for dinner two days ago?” I was surprised by the question and could not recollect the answer instantly. It took me a few seconds to reply. “What took you so long?” the coach was surprised. “Is it because I didn’t bother to remember it?” “Exactly,” he said with a satisfied look. “You see, the human mind only remembers those things that you consciously observe with a clear intention to remember them. Unless you observe consciously and have a clear intention to remember, you cannot remember anything in this world. “I have met many people,” he continued, “who do not even remember whether the dial on their wristwatch has Roman or English numerals. They must have seen their wristwatch hundreds, perhaps thousands of times, yet they do not remember because the conscious intention to remember is missing. They must have seen the traffic signal innumerable times, yet they cannot tell you whether the green signal or the red signal is on the top.”
This brief encounter with the senior memory coach reinforced a very powerful lesson on memory. In order to remember anything, our minds must be fully alert and we must have a clear desire to observe and remember; otherwise, the thing will go totally unnoticed. In the next few pages, you will see a few images called optical illusions. I use these images frequently in my seminars and workshops to highlight how the audience members can fully develop their concentration. Each of these optical illusions is confusing and tricky. There are chances that you may go wrong sometimes, so I want you to enjoy these images and check the answers towards the end of this chapter. Q. (1) In five seconds, how many people can you see in this picture? Q. (2) In five seconds, how many people can you see in this picture?
Q. (3) How many people and how many animals can you see in this picture? Q. (4) A little more practice – how many people can you see in this picture?
Q. (5) What can you see in this picture? Do you see five black pieces of odd shapes? Or, do you see something else? Q. (6) Can you see a face in this picture? Or, do you see a word of the English language?
Q. (7) How many Fs can you see in this sentence? FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS... Q. (8) Can you see a young woman or an old woman in this picture?
Q. (9) Can you see a man or a woman in this picture? Q. (10) Read and observe the following phrase.
Q. (11) Refer to the image on the inside flap of front cover. Say the colours in which the words are written aloud (do not say the words). Q. (12) Is this a flower vase or are two people looking at each other? Q. (13) Is the man looking in front or to the right?
Q. (14) Is the boy sitting and the girl hugging him, or vice versa? Answers and Explanations Now that you have gone through the test, let us check the answers and see how many of the questions you got correct. Answer 1: There are five people in the picture – an old man, an old woman, a man holding dishes, a man playing the guitar and a man in the old man’s ear. There are three people in the picture. An old man’s face is visible, an old man is standing to the left of the face and a woman is on his right
Answer 2: old man is standing to the left of the face and a woman is on his right (some people insist that the woman is holding a small baby in which case it becomes four people). Answer 3: There are four people and animals – two big, bearded men and two bearded men on two donkeys. Answer 4: There are 10 people in the picture – five on the left and five on the right part of the tree. Answer 5: The word “lift” is written. You can see the letters L-I-F-T in white. Answer 6: The word “liar” is written. Answer 7: The letter F occurs six times. Generally, at first glance, people see this letter only three times. We generally tend to miss the letter F in the word “of’. Answer 8: The picture has both a young and an old woman. (The young lady’s ear is the old lady’s eye). Answer 9: Both a man and a woman are there in the picture. On the left, you can see a man blowing a trumpet; and on the right, you can see the silhouette of a woman’s face. Answer 10: The phrase is “A Bird in The The Bush” – “the” appears twice. However, most people read the word “the” only once. Answer 11: In this picture, your left brain tries to read the word and your right brain tries to identify the colour; therefore, there the initial confusion. But after a few attempts, you will crack it! Answer 12: If you focus on the white colour, you will see the flower vase; but if you focus on the black portion, you will see two people looking at each other. Answer 13: As in every optical illusion, the man appears to be looking both in front and to the right at the same time. There is no perfect answer, just enjoy the picture! Answer 14: The boy, reading the newspaper, is sitting and the girl is hugging him. Observe the boy’s thick hands and the girl’s slim hands.
Chapter 3 Myths of Memory Myth: I have a weak memory Reality: There is no strong or weak memory; only trained or untrained memory. Myth: I have a weak brain. Reality: Your brain is the most brilliant invention of nature. Myth: My memory is fading with age. Reality: Memory never fades with age (barring, of course, in extreme old age). What fades with age is the childlike curiosity to learn and explore new things. If you can restore this childlike curiosity, you can easily restore your ability to remember. Myth: Memory can be enhanced with certain kinds of food. Reality: Memory can be enhanced with certain foods, but only to a very limited extent. What can really boost your memory are scientific techniques and principles like the ones mentioned in this book. So, forget the excuses and get ready for action!
Chapter 4 Three Golden Rules of Memory All of us have known friends and classmates in high school, who slogged day and night, and yet, got very low marks. We have also known friends who studied for only a few days before the exam, and yet, passed with flying colours. This always made us wonder: why this injustice against those who worked hard? Before I answer this question, let me give you an analogy. There are two friends, John and Ron, who want to reach the top floor of a 15- storey building. John believes that hard work is the key to success. Therefore, he uses the staircase. Ron believes in using technology and prefers the elevator. Who will reach first? Obviously, Ron will reach first. Despite the fact that John did put in effort, he was no match to Ron, who used technology. Even if John and Ron were to race a hundred times, Ron would still emerge the winner every single time. Quite similarly, those students in school who used to get great marks by studying for shorter time periods were (consciously or unconsciously) using some technology of the mind, some sort of science which enabled them to beat those who relied on hard work alone. In this chapter, we will explore some scientific principles of memory. You will learn the three golden rules of memory. Once you tune your mind in sync with the Three Golden Rules, there will be a quantum leap in your memory and you will be able to remember almost anything with utmost ease. The First Golden Rule: Pictures
The first Golden Rule of memory says that in order to remember anything, you must visualize it in the form of pictures. Whatever is in the form of pictures or a video, our brain remembers instantly. There is a reason behind this. Pictures are the de facto language of our subconscious mind. When we think, we see pictures. When we dream, we see pictures. Suppose you dreamt last night that your family had gifted you a Lamborghini car. What will you see in your dream? Will you see the word L-A-M-B-O-R-GH-I-N-I spelt out, or will you actually see the car? Of course, you will see a picture of the Lamborghini. Historians say that since prehistoric times, many millennia before spoken language was invented, human settlements used to communicate by using images. From the cave-paintings of the Stone Age to the drawings on the walls of the Pyramids, archaeologists have discovered that entire stories were communicated through illustrative images. Therefore, it is factually true that our mind is genetically conditioned to remember images. However, there are some crucial factors that you must remember while forming images: Convert the text that you want to remember into pictures in your mind. Even numbers can be converted (as you will see later in the book). Make the mental images huge, multi-coloured and three-dimensional. Liven up the images by adding some animation, emotion and movement to them. The Second Golden Rule: Sense The second Golden Rule of memory says that whatever you want to remember must make sense. I will give you a sentence to illustrate my point. Try to read and understand the sentence given below: Harry gave me a compound made of Sodium and Chlorine mixed in a liquid, which had one molecule of oxygen for every two of hydrogen at a time when the
earth was rotating away from the sun. When you read this sentence, it sounds like mumbo jumbo. However, if I were to simplify this same sentence and re-write it as follows: Harry gave me salt water in the night. This sentence can now be easily memorized. Thus, sense is a very crucial factor for memory. Whatever is alien to your mind, such as a legal maxim, a Spanish quote or a technical description, must all be converted and simplified into something which your brain can easily relate to and visualize. The Third Golden Rule: Special Many years back, I went on a trip to Los Angeles with my friends. We were loitering on the streets of Hollywood, when all of a sudden, we spotted a very famous movie star walk out of a studio. Within seconds, a huge crowd had flocked around him, eagerly seeking an autograph. If you asked me to describe the crowd, I would not be able to do so, because I did not notice the face of even a single person in the crowd. I did not pay attention to them, because they were ordinary people. However, I clearly remember the face of the movie star. I remember the colour of his clothes, his sunglasses, his watch, everything. This memory will be etched in my mind for life, because he was a special person. The human mind always remembers whatever is special, different, unusual or extraordinary. It forgets whatever is trivial, ordinary and routine. If someone asked me what I was doing on June 2 in the year 2009, or on July 5 in the year 2007, I would not be able to answer because I do not remember. However, if someone asked me what I did on my last birthday, I would certainly recall that, because birthdays are special events. Therefore, in order to remember a picture, try to make it extraordinary, special and different from routine. As long as it is funny, absurd, humorous, silly or stupid, it will be easily remembered! We are now equipped with the three Golden Rules of Memory – pictures,
sense and special. In the forthcoming chapters, we will explore many different techniques; but no matter what the technique, these three golden rules will remain the same. We will make pictures; They will make sense; and They will be special.
Chapter 5 The Mnemonic System No book on memory can be complete without a discussion on mnemonics. It is by far the most common and the most popular method to remember a given set of words in a particular order. We are all familiar with mnemonics, ever since our primary school days. Here, we will discuss two kinds of mnemonics, namely word mnemonics and sentence mnemonics. We first begin with word mnemonics. In this method, you simply form a word to remember a group of objects. A very common example is the word VIBGYOR. Each letter of this word helps us remember the colours of the rainbow in the following order: V – Violet I – Indigo B – Blue G – Green Y – Yellow O – Orange R – Red Another example of word mnemonics is the word BODMAS used in mathematics. The letters explain the sequence in which mathematical operations are to be performed: B – Bracket
O – Operation D – Division M – Multiplication A – Addition S – Subtraction These were examples of word mnemonics. However, forming a word mnemonic is not always easy and possible. Let me give you an example. Let us suppose I want to remember the nine planets in our solar system. (Recent research by Western Scientists insists there are only eight planets in our solar system. In any case, we will study both of the options, eight planets and nine planets). We know that the planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Now, if I were to take the first letters of each of the nine words, I will have something like this: MVEMJSUNP Now, the term MVEMJSUNP can neither be pronounced nor remembered. Thus, a word mnemonic will not work in such cases. So, we resort to what is called as a sentence mnemonic. We will make a sentence that will help us remember each of the underlined words. Many of you must have already studied this in primary school. Our sentence is: My Very Educated Mother Just Showed Us Nine Planets. Remembering this simple sentence helps us remember all the nine planets in order. In case you want to remember only the first eight planets (ignoring Pluto), simply remember this sentence: My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nachos At times, sentence mnemonics can also be used to remember numerical data. For example, if you want to remember the value of pi up to four decimal places, you simply remember the following sentence:
Yes, I know a number. The word “yes” has 3 characters and the words “I know a number” have 1, 4, 1 and 6 characters, respectively. Therefore, the approximate value of pi up to four decimal places is 3.1416. You can form a variety of mnemonics with words, sentences and random phrases to remember any given subject matter. Here are a few examples: Homes for the five great lakes: Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior The order of taxonomy: Kids Prefer Cheese Over Fresh Green Spinach. (Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species) Rice for instructions on treating a sprain: R – Rest the injured area. I – Ice the sprain. C – Compress with a wrap/bandage. E – Elevate the injured area. Private Tim Hall for the essential amino acids: (Phenylalanine, Valine, Threonine, Tryptophan, Isoleucine, Methionine, Histidine, Arginine, Leucine, Lysine) The bones of the wrist: Some Lawyers Try Petitions That They Cannot Handle. (Scaphoid, Lunate, Triquetral, Pisiform, Trapezium, Trapezoid, Capitate, Hamate) Although mnemonics is a good technique to remember small lists of words, people often rely on it to remember long answers, speeches, schedules, appointments and so on. This sometimes leads to more confusion than clarity, because they often remember the letter of the alphabet in the mnemonic, but are unable to remember the full word. Therefore, we will end our discussion on
mnemonics here and look at some other, superior techniques of memory which you can use.
Chapter 6 The Link System The human mind is designed in such a way that it can remember hundreds of random things at the same time. However, it needs some connectivity, some sort of link between these random objects to remember them effectively. Suppose you are visiting Dubai for the first time and you are staying at a hotel called Landmark Plaza, which is situated in the highly populated and dense area called Deira. After having checked in, you now want to go for a small walk by the creek. However, you are afraid that you might get lost on your way back to the hotel. What does your mind do in this situation? It resorts to its survival instincts and instantly starts locating various spots and landmarks on the road to guide you back to your hotel. It will mentally form a pathway, such as “Take a left from the Starbucks store, then a right from McDonalds; as soon as you reach the crossing, walk ahead two blocks and you will see the hotel to your right.” I will now give you 20 words. My promise to you is that you will be able to remember all the 20 words in less than two minutes! Moreover, you will be able to remember them in the exact order in which they appear. I have randomly selected the words and they bear absolutely no relation to each other. Here is the list: 1. Doctor 2. Aeroplane 3. Orange juice 4. Australia
5. Kite 6. Swimming pool 7. Octopus 8. Diamond 9. Blood 10. Cello tape 11. Camera 12. Newspaper 13. President 14. Helicopter 15. Mountain 16. Parachute 17. Desert 18. iPhone 19. Mercedes 20. Flowers Read the list once again, all the way from “Doctor” to “Flowers” and try to familiarize yourself with the words. Next, try your own method to remember all the 20 words. The reason for my insistence on trying your own method is that it will help you compare how you perform when you have a technique, vis-á-vis how you perform when you don’t have one. Now close your eyes for a minute and ponder on how long it took you to
remember the list. You will be surprised to know that you simply cannot remember all the words, no matter how hard you try. This is exactly where the link system comes to our rescue. In the next few minutes, not only will you be able to remember all the 20 words given above, you will be able to remember them in exactly the same order in which they are given. Here’s how the technique works. You link the first word to the second, the second word to the third, the third word to the fourth and so on, until it forms a logical story which can be remembered. Here’s how I would do it. We will take blocks of five words at a time and link them in a logical manner. 1. Doctor 2. Aeroplane 3. Orange juice 4. Australia 5. Kite The logical link is as follows: One day, a doctor sits in an aeroplane. In the aeroplane, a beautiful air-hostess gives him a glass of orange juice. After drinking the orange juice, he lands in Australia. In Australia, he starts flying a kite.
We continue our link with the next five words: 6. Swimming pool 7. Octopus 8. Diamond 9. Blood 10. Cello tape The kite falls in a swimming pool. Inside the swimming pool is an octopus. The octopus gifts him a very tight diamond ring. While wearing the tight diamond ring, blood starts flowing from his finger. To stop the blood flow, he uses cello tape.
We now move to the next five words: 11. Camera 12. Newspaper 13. President 14. Helicopter 15. Mountain Someone clicks his photo using a camera And publishes it in a newspaper, Which is read by the President, Who instantly takes off in his helicopter. Unfortunately, the helicopter collides with a mountain. Now to the last five words on the list: 16. Parachute 17. Desert 18. iPhone 19. Mercedes 20. Flowers
President escapes in his parachute And lands in an arid desert. With no help available in the desert, he uses his iPhone to call his wife. His wife arrives in a Mercedes And gifts him flowers! That was an interesting story that we just created. Did you notice how we formed a link using each word, until it became a chain that we could remember? This is how you can remember long answers from your textbook, your shopping list, your work-for-today charts in office and almost anything that is in the form of a list. Moreover, the story need not be logical or grammatically accurate. Even if it is silly, humorous or outright stupid, you will still be able to recollect the words.
We will revise the story once again before we go ahead and test ourselves. So, here is the complete story: One day, a doctor sits in an aeroplane. In the aeroplane, a beautiful air-hostess gives him a glass of orange juice. After drinking the orange juice, he lands in Australia. In Australia, he starts flying a kite. The kite falls in a swimming pool. Inside the swimming pool is an octopus. The octopus gifts him a very tight diamond ring. While wearing the tight diamond ring, blood starts flowing from his finger. To stop the blood flow, he uses cello tape. Someone clicks his photo using a camera And publishes it in a newspaper, Which is read by the President, Who instantly takes off in his helicopter. Unfortunately, the helicopter collides with a mountain. The President escapes in his parachute And lands in an arid desert. With no help available in the desert, he uses his iPhone to call his wife. His wife arrives in a Mercedes
And gifts him flowers! Now close your eyes and try to revise all the 20 words. If you have got all the words correct, and that too in the same order, then you must congratulate yourself, for it is no small achievement! So, you see how you were able to remember an entire list of 20 words in your mind. Next, I am going to bombard you with another 20 words. Your challenge is to remember all of them by yourself. If possible, try to create your own story. Here’s the list: 1. Elephant 2. Ship 3. Pizza 4. Pepsi 5. London 6. Dinosaur 7. Boxing 8. Fracture 9. Michael Jackson 10. Medicine 11. Sea 12. Mermaid 13. Shampoo
14. Sparrow 15. Radio 16. News 17. India 18. Cricket 19. Pakistan 20. Trophy I insist that you make your own story. If needed, read the entire list once again. You have two options now: If you are feeling confident, close the book and try to revise all the 20 words. If you are not feeling confident, you may take help from the story that I have given below to help you remember better.
This is how I would have done it: One day an elephant Gets in a ship, Has some pizza, Drinks some Pepsi, Arrives in London, Meets a dinosaur. They start boxing. The elephant gets a fracture. Michael Jackson comes to help him He gives him some medicine. The medicine falls in the sea. In the sea is a mermaid. She has shampoo on her hair. From the shampoo, a sparrow appears.
It is listening to the radio. On the radio there is news. That the national team of India, In a cricket match, Defeated Pakistan And won the trophy! My suggestion is that you read the whole list a couple of times. Next, close your eyes and try to recollect all the words. In all probability, you will get the whole list correctly. We will now see an example of how the list system can be used specifically by students. I will take a sample answer from an Economics textbook and we will try to memorize all the points. According to the Economics textbook, in order to start a factory, we need the following 12 elements. Here’s the list: 1. Raw material 2. Energy 3. Transport 4. Land 5. Market 6. Workers 7. Road 8. Water
9. Telephone 10. Building 11. Money 12. Government support Now that you are pretty well versed with this system, we will cut the theory and jump straight into action. Here is how I would link the twelve points: One day I ate raw material. It gave me a lot of energy. I took my transport truck And started speeding my way through the beautiful landscape. On reaching the marketplace, I accidentally crashed into the workers. They collapsed on the road. I quickly got down and sprinkled some water on their faces. Then I rushed to the nearest telephone booth And quickly called up the hospital building. The doctor asked me to either pay money in advance for treating the workers, Or go to the government for support.
Read the story as if a live movie is being played in your mind, one picture appearing after another. See yourself in action eating the raw material, getting energy and driving the transport truck, all the way until the doctor asks you to pay the money in advance or go to the government for support. Next, revise the list a couple of times, close the book and try to see how many points you recall. If you got all 12 points correct, then you need to honestly feel proud of yourself. It’s a great achievement for a beginner! The advantage of this system is that when you are answering your question paper in the exam, the whole story will flash in your mind and all the points will appear one by one in a logical manner. This style of learning is far superior and will produce much better results, rather than just mugging up the points randomly, as most students do. Happy learning! How to Remember Speeches or Long Answers The technique for remembering a speech is the same as remembering a long extract or a long answer from any book. You will now see how the link method is a very powerful technique for remembering speeches. I will also give you some tips on giving a fantastic speech.
Prerequisites Giving a speech to an audience is not everybody’s cup of tea. Apart from the fact that many people have stage fear or audience fright, many others have an inherent phobia of looking embarrassed or making a fool of themselves in case they forget their speech. Imagine a situation where you are addressing an audience, and you are suddenly tongue-tied for want of words! Being a professional trainer, I have to regularly address huge gatherings of people, where I train them on a variety of topics. I have also been fortunate to share the stage with many other speakers and dignitaries at different symposiums and conferences. In general, I have observed that there are two kinds of speakers – those who look at a paper and deliver a readymade speech word for word (exactly as written) and those who speak for hours at length, interacting with the audience (without looking at any readymade speech), recalling every sentence from their memory with ease. We shall look at the pros and cons of both approaches. (A) Readymade Speeches It must be noted here that if you deliver your speech word for word, exactly as written on paper, then there are zero chances of you forgetting the speech. So, the paper acts as an assurance of sorts. However, since your entire attention must be on the paper all the time, you are restricted in the way you interact with your audience. ADVANTAGES You will not forget the speech while delivering it. You will not omit any part of the speech or make impromptu statements that may be irresponsible. You do not have to waste time in drafting a speech. Someone else can
draft it for you and you can simply deliver it on stage. DISADVANTAGES You cannot move around the stage; thus, your body posture becomes rigid. Your entire focus is on the paper, so you cannot observe the reactions, expressions and emotions of the audience. You appear to be in your own world, disconnected from the audience. There is no possibility of making the speech interactive. Only one-way communication is possible. If the paper is lost or misplaced, you are doomed! Generally, politicians, heads of states, businessmen and celebrities, who do not have the time to draft a speech themselves, resort to readymade speeches. They ask their secretary or personal assistant to prepare a speech and they simply deliver it to the audience. They do not care if the audience is entertained or inspired by their words, as their sole purpose is only to deliver a specific message with precise words. If you are new to the world of public speaking, you must resort to readymade speeches. However, once you get used to it, you must move to the next level and prefer giving interactive speeches. (b) Interactive Speeches Interactive speakers are more dynamic in their approach. Because they are not confined to a paper, they can move around the stage, take questions from the audience and even afford to create some instant humour out of the situation.
Simply put, they are more lively and interactive. ADVANTAGES You have the flexibility to move around the stage and interact with the audience. You can use gestures and expressions and invite questions from the audience. DISADVANTAGES There is a possibility of forgetting your speech. Because your speech is not reviewed by an expert, you may utter something irresponsible or factually incorrect. As can be seen from these boxes, both the readymade speech approach and the interactive speech approach have their own pros and cons. Some speakers use a combination of both approaches, by using PowerPoint presentations in their speech. Thus, instead of looking at the paper and reciting the speech, they refer to the presentation screen and read out the points to the audience. This gives them the freedom to look at the points of the speech and interact with the audience at the same time. Smart strategy, I would say. Memory Secret We will now discuss the secret of remembering a given speech. Over the years, I have realized that if I memorize speeches word for word, then my delivery becomes very mechanical. I am simply reduced to a robot who speaks without using his mind. On the other hand, if I don’t memorize the exact speech, but just