Brain booster: Remember historical dates with ease

Late Renowned German Philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer had rightly said, “History does not belong to us; we belong to it.” Indeed History is not difficult to learn, but a great pleasure if remembered properly.

Memorizing dates is very essential for history chapters, for remembering loved ones or friends’ birthdays and for many other reasons. Many times, students do find it difficult to memorize strings of numbers and clusters of dates. By creating vivid and powerful associations with the dates, however, you’ll have a better chance of remembering them.

Here are four ways to remember dates effortlessly:

1. Have a Strong Association: One has to learn to create strong and clear images to associate with a date; it is easier to remember it. James Hargreaves invented the SPINNING JENNY in 1764; one can remember the year 1764 which is 42 square. Also, consider making associations that are funny, unique or simply ridiculous.
   
2. Simplifying the date: Sometimes, memorizing dates can be as simple as leaving off the first two digits. If you are studying a particular time event, you already know in which century the events took place.
   
3. Use your body parts: You can create very powerful associations by actively using your body parts when trying to memorize dates. Create hand motions to learn along with some particular dates and events, and also singing out dates can help.
   
4. Concentrate and Focus on the dates you need to learn: We often forget a lot of what we are studying, so it is very important to be completely focused when studying dates. When remembering valuable information, complete concentration is the way to go. When you come across a date you need to learn, take a moment and carefully write it out, thinking “I need to remember this” as you do.

Apart from the above; write the dates in chronological order and time and again go through it. I failed in Maths until the 9th grade, but always go the most grades in History as I really enjoyed the subject.

About the writer: Minoo Jokhi is a Mathemagician cum Memory Development Trainer based in Mumbai, India. He trains people of all ages right from 4 to 80 years of age and shows them how to increase their Memory-Power and once and for all shatter the myth that memory is neither good nor bad but in reality, is trained or untrained. Readers can contact him via email on [email protected] or follow him on http://www.minoojokhi.in/