Nutty Mnemonics by Lainey

Nutty Mnemonics by Lainey - September 2026 Scholarship Essay

I have found through years of trial and error that flashcards do very little for me. Rereading notes is boring, and I can’t bring myself to do it. Researching through reading academic articles is fun for me, but only if I’m researching something that I personally like—for example, I recently read a NASA article on the use of remote sensing (things like satellites) for disaster management.
But that NASA article cannot help me with my dual enrollment precalculus exam, and it would take a visit from René Descartes himself to get me to read an article about math.
Instead, I make up mnemonics.
My favorite way to study is to turn information into something strange enough that I cannot forget it. For example, one formula I need to remember in mathematics is A = Pe^rt. I memorized it with the phrase, “All Preachers Eat Raw Turkey.” I came up with this mnemonic because I used to go to Thanksgiving dinners at my church, where there was always turkey. Ironically, the turkey was always fully cooked. Still, for some reason, the mental image of a preacher eating raw turkey was much easier for me to remember than the formula itself.
That is the point of my mnemonics. They do not necessarily make logical sense, and they probably would not be helpful to anyone else. They just need to create a connection that my brain will remember. I use funny phrases, bizarre mental images, and connections to things I have experienced to make information easier to retrieve later.
This strategy works especially well for subjects that do not naturally hold my attention. Instead of forcing myself to memorize information through repetition, I give myself something interesting to connect it to. When I see continuous, compound interest on an exam, I think of “All Preachers Eat Raw Turkey,” and the formula comes back to me.
My study strategy is unconventional, but it has taught me something important about how I learn: I remember things best when I can make them my own. Sometimes that means connecting a complicated concept to something that makes absolutely no sense. It often makes showing my notes to my friends really funny. But I have had all A’s for a long time, even in classes I struggle with, and it is partly due to my nutty mnemonics.