The top fifteen mnemonic devices ( study tips)

Here are a collection of top mnemonic devices either found online or often used to help students in their memorizing process. These are excellent tools for students who want to remember important facts.

The best mnemonics are the original ones you created yourselves as they are more easily memorized as you made them. But if you have no time to make your own, use those which are popularly used throughout the world.

1. ROY G BIV

Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet.
This device helps students remember the order of the colors in a rainbow.

In Malay language, there are varieties such as this one,

Mek Jah kidnaps her boss in Uganda.
Merah Jingga Kuning Hijau Biru Indigo Ungu

Each of the words first letter refers to the order of the colors in a rainbow as well. Some of the popular mnemonics can be quite horrendous to some people. You can create your own in Malay if you want to as well but make it an easy one to memorize.

2. Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally

Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction.
This mnemonic allows us to remember the Order of Operations in math.

3. Every Good Boy Does Fine / FACE

This mnemonic is used in musical notation to help students remember those treble clef notes on the lines (E, G, B, D, F) and those on the spaces (F, A, C, E).

4. My Very Elegant Mother Just Served Us Nine Pickles

Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto
Here we have an easy way to remember the order of the planets from the sun out. The only thing to remember here is that every 248 years, Neptune becomes the furthest planet for 20 years.

Similarly, you can create a phrase, which may sound ridiculous, to remember a sequence of items, such as the phrase above which is used to remember the planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto.

It is best to associate the phrase to something you know very well!

5. King Philip Cuts Open Five Green Snakes

Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species

This is only one of innumerable mnemonics used to remember the order of Taxonomy for biology.

6. Thirty days hath September, ...

This mnemonic can be used to help remember the number of days each month:  

Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November;
All the rest have thirty-one
Excepting February alone:
Which hath but twenty-eight, in fine,
Till leap year gives it twenty-nine.

Another easier way is to count look at your knuckles from your little finger towards your thumbs. The one that rises up like a wave crest is for the month with 31 days whereas the one which looked like a trough, refer to those months with days lesser than 31 days. The only month which has 28 days is February and for leap year it is 29 days - leap years happened every four years

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7. SOHCAHTOA

A way of remembering how to compute the sine, cosine, and tangent of an angle.
SOH stands for Sine equals Opposite over Hypotenuse.
CAH stands for Cosine equals Adjacent over Hypotenuse.
TOA stands for Tangent equals Opposite over Adjacent.

8. HOMES

Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior
An easy way to remember the five Great Lakes.

9. OIL RIG

Oxidation It Loses (electrons)
Reduction It Gains (electrons)

This will help students in Chemistry remember these two terms.

10. In 1492 Columbus Sailed the Ocean Blue

One that has been said by students for more years that can be remembered. This helps students remember when Christopher Columbus made his first voyage to the New World.

11. Periodic Tables

Long lists of things to remember (like the Periodic Table of the elements for instance) go really well put to music. I can still sing the Periodic Table, because I set it to the song, "One little, two little, three little Indians" "Hydrogen, Helium, Lithium, Beryllium" So if you have to memorize all the states and capitols, sing them to your favorite tune. You'll be surprised how many years later you can still remember them.

Period 1-2 (Elements 1-10):

Happy Henry Lithely Began Baking Cakes, Not Omitting Four Necessities

H He Li Be B C N O F Ne

(hydrogen. helium, lithium, beryllium, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine, neon)

Period 2-3: (Elements 11-18):

Naval Magistrates Always Signal Per Siren, Claiming Adequacy

Na Mg Al Si P S Cl A

(sodium, magnesium, aluminium, silicon, phosphorus, sulphur, chlorine, argon)

Period 3-4:

(Elements 19-27): Kindly Cannibals Scare Timid Visitors, Cruelly Menacing Feeble Communist

K Ca Sc Ti V Cr Mn Fe Co

(potassium, calcium, scandium, titanium, vanadium, chromium, manganese, iron, cobalt)


(Elements 28-36): Nitwits Cuddling Zany Gabbling Geese Astride Several British Kangaroos

Ni Cu Zn Ga Ge As Se Br Kr
(nickel, copper, zinc, gallium, germanium, arsenic, selenium, bromine, krypton)

12. My Enormous Penguin Bounces Pretty High

"My Enormous Penguin Bounces Pretty High" to remember the series of alkanes : Methane, Ethane, Propane, Butane, Pentane, Hexane

13. We guarantee certainty, clearly referring to this light mnemonic

Remember this phrase and when you want to know the speed of light, count the letters in each word of the sentence. For example the first digit is 2, the letter in  the word "We" is 2 referring to this first digit of the light speed.

We guarantee certainty, clearly referring to this light mnemonic
299,792,458 m/sec

14.The Strong Man’s Triceps Explode

Here is a phrase to help you remember the order of the earth’s atmospheres:
The Strong Man’s Triceps Explode
This stands for: Troposphere, Stratosphere, Mesosphere, Thermosphere, Exosphere.

15. Camels Often Sit Down Carefully. Perhaps Their Joints Creak. Possibly Early Oiling Might Prevent Premature Rheumatism

Here is a great mnemonic to teach you the geological ages:
Camels Often Sit Down Carefully. Perhaps Their Joints Creak. Possibly Early Oiling Might Prevent Premature Rheumatism
Which stands for: Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, Permian, Triassic, Jurrasic, Cretaceous, Pliocene, Eocene, Oligocene, Myocene, Pileocene, Pleistocene, Recent.