Mnemonics

Mnemonics are concepts, pictures, or comparisons that help you link new information to things you already know-- a sort of mental short cut.

I never really learned to study in high school, so I've had to learn fast in college. I end up using some pretty weird mnemonics-- for my architecture midterm I ended up memorizing the name of the map of the palace at Pylos by the fact that the way the mountains angled around it made it look like it was being eaten by PacMan.

... well, it does, a little, doesn't it? I've also set facts to the tunes of songs, a device that works really well for me since I have a pretty good memory for song lyrics, and memorized the dates of certain works of art by finding shapes in the picture that resembled the numbers of the date.