Learning with laughter

FREE MEMORY TECHNIQUE 1: Learn how to remember a list of ten Rivers 

By the end of this exercise you will be able to remember the following list of ten Rivers:

Severn, Thames, Trent, Aire, Ouse, Wye, Tay, Nene, Clyde, Spey 

Let's get started. Read through the following story and try to imagine it actually happening to you in your mind.

IMAGINE...

It's your seventh birthday. You're wearing a shiny badge with the number seven on it. Suddenly, teams of sports stars gatecrash the party: football teams, cricket teams, rugby teams - there are teams everywhere. You're terrified and need somewhere to hide. Where do you go? You dig a trench, and lie in it - covered by a pile of trench coats. Unfortunately there are so many coats on top of you that you start struggling for air. You're suffocating. All you can think about is air. You struggle to get out from amongst the clothes, but as you emerge you realise that you've accidentally stripped off some of the clothes you were wearing. Now you're standing there in just shoes and a pair of old Y-fronts! Someone hands you a large tray which you stand behind to hide your modesty - until you hear a loud voice shouting 'Nein! Nein!' You see a German man running towards you, horrified that you have his tray. To escape from him you stand on the tray and glide and slide across the floor, getting faster and faster until you take off and blast into outer space.

It's a crazy story, but read it through again and notice how it contains clues to a list of ten rivers:

Severn, Thames, Trent, Aire, Ouse, Wye, Tay, Nene, Clyde, Spey 

This story lets you remember the UK's ten longest rivers in exactly the right order. It includes striking image 'clues' to each word, connected into a chain of events that your brain will remember if you relax and let it happen.

Here are the clues:

- You're seven: SEVERN
- Suddenly you're surrounded by teams: THAMES
- You're hiding in a trench under trench coats: TRENT
- You're gasping for air: AIRE
- You emerge dressed only in shoes: OUSE
- ...and Y-fronts: WYE
- You hide behind a tray: TAY
- A German is angry and shouts 'Nein!': NENE
- To escape you slide and glide: CLYDE
- ...into space: SPEY
All learning can be as efficient and stimulating and powerful as this


FREE TECHNIQUE 2: Remembering a ten digit number 

By the end of this exercise you will be able to remember the following ten digit number in sequence:

1007120152 

Let's get started. Read through the following story and picture it in your mind.

PICTURE THIS ...



You're watching the television news. The door of Number Ten Downing Street opens up and out steps 007, James Bond. He's holding a large calendar: as the camera zooms in on it you can see that the first day of the month in the top left corner is highlighted. Suddenly, from that square on the calendar, playing cards start pouring out onto the street, all fifty-two of them

It's a strange story, but it has a purpose. It's designed to teach you this ten digit number:

1007120152 

Think back through the story. Each moment of it reminds you of a pair of numbers. It starts at Number Ten Downing Street (10). James Bond walks out (shorten his code to 07), holding a calendar of 12 months, on which the first day (01) is highlighted. 52 playing cards spill out... completing the sequence: 1007120152.

I bet you can even recall the digits in reverse order!

So why isn't everything as easy to remember? The answer is: it can be, if you know the secrets.