Mnemonic Device

Ally and Tyler both had to take a Presidents Test in AP U.S. History. The test involved knowing each president, the party he was affiliated with, and the years of his presidency. I am proud to say that they both passed (100% being the ONLY passing score - it was an all or nothing deal), And Ally currently holds the record for "fastest successful completion of test". Now Tyler, having a memory that may be photographic, finds mnemonic devices to be a pointless waste of time and totally superfluous. The rest of us might need a little help with rote memorization! The following is a "story" Todd helped Ally come up with last night to remember all the presidents from Lincoln forward:

Lincoln's Johnson Grants Hayes to Garfield The Cat. King Arthur wants to move to Cleveland because Harrison Ford lives in Cleveland on a street called McKinley. Roosevelt High School makes taffy (Taft) that gets stuck in Wilson's teeth and makes them Harding so he has to Coolidge them off at Hoover High School. Roosevelt Rough Riders are Truman whose Eisenhowers are in Kennedy's face. Kennedy's Johnson nicks (Nixon) Ford's golf Carter that runs over Reagan into a Bush. Clinton helps him out of the Bush and pushes Obama in.

To ensure she could figure out the years (if the basic memorization failed), she made up phone numbers. Each number corresponds to the number of years each president served:

848-8848; 404-4134; 444-8404; 444-4848; 264-(12)882; 653-4848; 8-present

Luckily she had already memorized their parties, as I can only imagine what she and Todd might come up with for that! And to argue against Tyler's point, I believe these mnemonic devices do work. They attach some type of meaning, however silly, to a list of facts that may not have a whole lot of meaning as a list in itself. As proof of this theory, I offer the following:

On Old Olympus' Towering Tops A Finn and German Viewed Some Hops.

This is the device taught to me by my Anatomy/Physiology teacher in 1995 to remember the nerves of the brain. I regret to admit that I do not remember the nerves themselves. The device obviously sticks though, as it was also the one SHE was taught in college!