Hello everyone, I’m 20 and I’m from Nicaragua my first language is not English so sorry for any mistake. So I’m really new to the world of mnemonics, I’ve read only two books actually “Moonwalking with Einstein” by Joshua For and “Memory craft” by Lynne Kelly but I haven’t really used the techniques, besides memorising random bunch of words.
In a month or so I have a competition about the book of Revelation and some chapters from other book, this is not the first competition about a Bible book in which I participate, I have even won some and what I usually do is a questionnaire per chapter and then rote memorisation but this time I wanted to try memory techniques! I thought perhaps I should use the journey method, because a virtual memory palace would be to difficult since I’m a complete beginner, and a memory palace to small but I’m not really sure and would love hearing your thoughts and advices,also I think learning it verbatim would be better since it’s kind of poetic and it’s very specific in how some things are described depending the chapter.
@Cicutas, welcome to the forum!
You picked out two excellent books to read. They are some of my favorites also. I started mnemonics many years ago but recently started to memorize scripture and study mnemonic techniques more in depth. All the books I’ve read recommend a rote memorization technique which I will not do since I can use mnemonic techniques and it requires so much review. But it required so much preparation which I’m doing. I like the “journey method” also, and it is feeling much better.
But what is it that you want to remember for the competition? I’ve memorized the order and number of the books. I was able to know 100 scriptures but it required much review. Now I’m concentrating on knowing the themes of each chapter which allows me to have a better foundation for the scriptures themselves.
I hope to help you win this next competition!
Doug
Hi @thinkaboutthebible Thank you for welcoming me! well what I need to learn is kind of abstract 'cause is everything, they will probably make questions like: what are the names of the seven churches? Or what is the song the 24 elders sing? Going verbatim is the best choice I think, because also I am studying an specific version “Reina Valera 1995” (it is in Spanish) and there are things that are different from other versions, some minor words mostly, but if they chose that version I better be careful. The other option would be organize what stuff I should learn verbatim and where it is not so necessary and like you just focus on the themes , I’m not sure which one is more effective. I know that this will require a lot of work and dedication, I know I can study at least 3hrs per day: 2hrs in the early morning and 1hr at night but on weekends I can study more.
I hope you can help me too!
@Cicutas, well, I think I can provide you with what I’ve come up with and see how well you can translate that into Spanish.
I used an extended story for the seven churches in this topic:
I like to take difficult concepts and turn them into visual words (keywords) and then make a story out of them. The other important thing I know is to know the text well by reading it as much as possible. The mnemonic techniques are just tools and they work best when not completely relied on.
I’ll share some more substitute words used for my keywords for the chapters and the story for Revelation with you if you would like. Let me know if you have any questions as we go.
Doug
@Cicutas, did you do well in your competition?
So good to hear that! Praise God! If you had any useful tips for what helped you with mnemonics, I’d love to hear them. Congratulations!