*MEDICAL MNEMONICS





http://www.primenet.com/~gwa/med.ed/mnemonics.txt





*HEAT TRANSFER 



 Conduction - imagine a line of passengers on a bus being asked to move 

 down by the CONDUCTOR, each passenger causing the next 

 to bustle along (analogy for the movement/vibration of atoms

 that is passed along and causing heat to be 

 transferred) 



 Convection - consider VECTOR, a disease-carrying insect, e.g. mosquitos,

 which travels in swarms (very much like the movement of 

 convection currents)



 Radiation  - heat radiation is form of RADIATION (mental notion of 

 nuclear fallout or the sun's radiation) and thus travels 

 in waves undetected until they fall upon another body





*STALAGMITES AND STALACTITES



This is my favourite mnemonic (taught to me by my the headmaster of my 

junior school) - it's by far the most memorable (I was 7 when he taught 

me):



"When the mites go up, the tites (tights) come down." - in order to 

remember that stalagmites grow upwards from the cave floor and stalactites 

hang down from the roof.





*ELEPHANTS



Indian elephants have lIttle ears, African elephants have lArge ears

(completely true)





*SPELLING



embaRRaSSed - Rolls Royce Silver Shadow



aCCoMModate - Can Cooks Make Mince?



stationEry  - consists of papEr and pEns



stationAry  - stAnding still



deSert      - not much of anything here, not even of the letter "s"



deSSert     - Sweet and Sugary



hyper-      - Ancient Greek for "over" or "above", e.g. hyperactive, 

 hypermarket, hyperbole, hypersensitive, hyperspace, hypertension



hypo-       - Ancient Greek for "under" or "beneath", hypothermia, 

 hypodermic, hypoglycaemia, hypothesis





*CLOCKS (only to relevant to European countries)



GMT -> BST - clocks go forward an hour (in Spring), since they are eager 

 for the Summer



BST -> GMT - clocks go back an hour (Autumn/Fall), since they are shying 

 away from the bitter chill of the Winter





*BIOLOGY



These are the seven characteristics of a living organism



R3GFEC - Respond, Respire, Reproduce, Grow, Feed, Excrete, have Cells



(sounds like a droid - R2D2 - being a child of the Star Wars generation, 

I'd be glad to hear of any other Star Wars related mnemonics)





*** MEMORY TIPS ***



"Image is the key to memory"  Dominic O'Brien, world memory champion



Make your mnemonics MEMORABLE and VIVID/GRAPHIC (the wilder, the better)



Make your mnemonics ENJOYABLE or AMUSING



Don't be prudish - use whatever images/expressions that help you to remember



Try to use all your senses - use sight, touch, sound, smell and taste 

(the last three are very important for they are the less-used senses)







If I thinks of any other mnemonics/memory techniques, I'll let you know.

Please do the same for me. 

 



P.S. Although mnemonics tend to work better if you have devised them 

yourself, it is still interesting and thought-provoking to see other 

people's mnemonics.  And, after all, if you are exceedingly lazy (like 

me), it is better to use other people's mnemonics than none at all.