[MEMORY] LINK and ACRONYMS

Because English is my second language, memory to me is more required for every class work as SU even math. When I had anything to memorize, I used to writing the words or sentences about 30 times, which didn't work for me that much since it took so much time if there was a lot. I disliked memorizing, and this behavior made me weak at history and science. On the other hands, I was quite confident in mate because it usually requires calculating rather than memorizing. However, Statistics is different from other math classes. It has a lot of new terms to cover, and I need to understand the questions and concepts before to calculate. Then, I had to find new strategies to do well in my statistics class. This made me chooose Link and Acronyms strategies for the class, MAT 121.

Link system is what we covered in the lecture few days ago. I could be experiencing it due to the assignment, and I'm satisfied with this strategy. As it is named "Link", it is to use a word that is linked an image that it looks like or sounds like. To apply LINK strategy for my statistics class, I, first, selected the words that I needed to remember. The words were discrete random variable, variance, and binomial probability distribution for one section of the chapter. I already know random variable for discrete random variable and probability distribution for binomial probability distribution so that I only needed to remember discrete, variance, and binomial. Second, I created a word that could be pictured that sounded like the abstract word. For example, I did as "Variance" sounds like "Various. For "Discrete", it sounds like "Separate, and, for "Binomial", it sounds like "Bicycle". Lastly, I visualized a somewhat meaningless picture, but it is related and interesting the images. For instance, for discrete, what I did is that the kids sleep in serapate rooms. Additionally, for variance, I did it as various characteristics of people sometimes bring disagreements. Finally, for binomial, I did it as every bicycle has two wheels. The sentences sounded little silly, but they were fun and appealing.

Acronyms are what I selected among the memory strategies since it sounded fascinating to use. They are words created by using the first letters from each item to create a new word. To apply Acronyms strategy for my statistics class, I, first, put the words that I needed to learn in the box as shown the picture below. They were discrete, variance, and binomial, and, for this part, you might notice that I used the same words as I did for Link strategy. Yes, I meant to do this, for I wanted to compare and contrast the two strategies to use same words. After listing the terms that I wanted to remember, I underlined the first letter in each word. For example, for discrete, I decided to use new words from countries names or directions such as North, South, East, and West. I listed words like Europe, Iraq, Chili, East, South, Denmark, Russia, and Turkey, and then underlined them only for the first letter of each word as shown the picture below. Lastly, I arranged the letters in an order that created a word. For example, I put the letters in an order like Denmark, Iraq, South, Chili, Russia, East, Turkey, and Europe to make the word, DISCRETE. To see more easily, I prefer to write them in a vertical arrangement as

Denmark,

Iraq,

South,

Chili,

Russia,

East,

Turkey, and

Europe.

To sum up, the effectiveness of LINK is that it makes me feel that memory is a fun thing to do! I liked the idea to make a sentence that can be pictured for the word. Link system gives me a lesson that memory is not anymore to avoid, but to have fun. Because of LINK, I could save my time from writing the 30 times or any methods I used before. This strategy was also good to create flash cards! I am a kinesthetic learner so that I need something to carry to remember. This was perfect to make the cards as I wrote the term on the blank side, and then wrote the sounds like and the sentences of the creative images on the lined side. I, sometimes, laughed because of my silly sentences, but they attracted me to see them often, which made me remember fast. I could get familiar with the terms both before and after making sentences because I should think of how to make the sentences and I liked the somewhat absurd sentences. The reason why I chose this is that I actually had a chance to be experiencing for the assignment from the CLS class. I also liked the concept of doing this one since I can make flash cards easily from this strategy. I thought I could use this one wise and useful, and actually it was! This strategy works for me a lot!:) The effectiveness of Acronyms is that it makes me think enough about the terms! I thought I could use it very beneficial to remember all the words. The steps of this one required me think and arrange them in an order. Unfortunately, it didn't shorten my time, though. I took longer that what I thought. I should select one specific topic to make new words for the term since it would be harder to remember if I used more than two topics. Even if I used one topic, it was difficult to memorize all of the new words. Personally, I don't want to recommend this strategy to anyone because it took more time and it required me to memorize the new words plus the term. The reason why I chose this is that I thought it was fascinating to use. Relating new words for the first letter sounded great to me. However, when I actually used this one, it didn't work for me that much. It also didn't help me as a kinesthetic learner since making flash cards or carry-on-item was not useful for this strategy.

For my statistics class, MAT 121, I am happy that I already covered all of the words that I didn't know before through this memory chapter, which is grateful for the strategies that I used this week. In my personal opinion, I prefer Link system rather than Acronyms. The reasons for this are that Statistics has a lot of new terms for each section so that I need to try shorten my time to use and I can use flash cards wisely throughout this strategy. Keep up with LINK!

(http://2008.igem.org/wiki/images/c/c2/Pictogram_memory.png)