Chapter 17. How To Gain Effective Study Skills

I was sitting on my front porch one day when a couple of the neighbor boys walked up the path. Something was on their minds, and they were talking about how to gain effective study skills. Their teacher had told them to learn the thirteen original states of the Union as their history assignment for the day, and one look at that formidable list had them down. Neither of them, they admitted candidly, was a star pupil as it was, and—well, they wanted to go fishing. If they could only find a way of memoriz­ing those states quickly. . . . They beat around the bush, like Tom Sawyer, for a while, and then one of them came to the point.

"Do you know the thirteen original states?" he asked.

I had to admit I didn't, and his face fell.

"Heck," he said. "Pop said you were a memory expert or something."

"Well," I said, "I don't know them now, but I'd like to learn them. Suppose you run home and get your book, and we'll memorize them together."

"Can you teach us by tomorrow?" they wanted to know.

"I'll teach you this afternoon, and you'll have time to go fishing besides."

They were back with the book in no time. I began by explain­ing the first thirteen key words and the way they were used to hook up images and associations. They mastered these easily, finding them vastly entertaining. Then we went on to work up associations for each state. The boys were bristling with in­terest as they discovered for the first time that memorizing can be fun instead of drudgery.

After they had learned the associations, I had them recite the whole list to me three or four times. Then I closed the book and said, "You fellows recite that list several times between now and class tomorrow. Most important, run over it the last thing before you go to sleep tonight. Now you'd better run along and attend to your fishing."
The next afternoon they returned, glowing. Not only had both recited the states perfectly, but one of them, flushed with self-confidence, had volunteered to reel them off backwards, and his performance had gone off without a hitch.

These two are now using the Mental Filing System in their school work wherever the lesson calls for the memorizing of lists or data. And while neither is at the head of his class, their teachers report a marked improvement in their work.

Here I should like to meet a question which crops up now and then when I recommend teaching this system to school­children. Does information memorized by this method stay in the mind as long as that learned by the old method of endless repetition? Yes, definitely yes. In fact, it is remembered even longer. When we employ special devices to retain certain bits of knowledge, they rarely escape us. Consider how the rhyme "Thirty days hath September" helps us remember instantly the number of days in any month. And if I should suddenly ask you whether it is safe to eat oysters in April, you could tell me immediately.

You may be interested to know just what associations help gaining effective study skills and can be used in memorizing the thirteen original states. Perhaps you will want to try it yourself. Here they are.

THE THIRTEEN ORIGINAL STATES
(in the order of their admission to the Union)

1. Delaware		8. South Carolina
2. Pennsylvania		9. New Hampshire
3. New Jersey		10. Virginia
4. Georgia		11. New York
5. Connecticut		12. North Carolina
6. Mssachusetts		13. Rhode Island
7. Maryland

1. Delaware (alarm clock). The alarm goes off—"Beware! Delia bewarel" See Delia wearing an alarm clock tied around her neck, screaming, "Beware! Beware!" Alarm clocks bobbing up and down in Delaware River.



2. Pennsylvania (trousers). Trousers are pants - Pantsylvania. Clotheslines filled with trousers crowd the halls of the PennsylvaniaStation, and on the Pantsylvania railroad train, trousers blow out of every second window.



3. New Jersey (chair). See your new jerseysweater hang­ing over the back of the chair. A Jerseycow sits on the chair trying to pull the jersey sweater over her head, and her horns tear holes in the jersey on the chair



4. Georgia (table). George Washington, King George of England, and George Bernard Shaw are having a conference around your dining-room table. As each George tries to get across a point he bangs his fist on the table. See a beautiful Georgiapeach eating juicy Georgiapeaches at the table.



5. Connecticut (newspaper). See the front page of a Connecticut newspaper. There's a picture of the ConnecticutYankee at King Arthur's Court cutting the throat of his girl friend Connie. The large letters of the newspaper headline read CONNIE'S NECK IS CUT. You are cutting up the Connecticut newspaper.



6. Massachusetts (automobile). There is a mass of auto­mobiles piled up. A priest is celebrating Mass before a con­gregation   of   automobiles.   The   automobile   is   messy (massy). It has Massachusetts license on it.



7. Maryland (policeman). The big policeman and Mary Pickford are singing a duet, "Maryland, my Maryland." The policeman hits her with his night stick, and Mary lands on the ground.



8. South Carolina (revolving door). The sun is shining through the revolving door making palm trees spring up inside, for the revolving door has gone South. Your Aunt Caroline sits in one of the partitions of the revolving door, mopping her face under the Southern sun.



9. New Hampshire (mailbox). You try to push a new ham into the mailbox, but the little slot hampers you. See the mailbox dripping with grease from the new ham that came from New Hampshire. The grease drips from the mailbox into a new hamper below.



10. Virginia (general-delivery window). The Virgin Queen, Queen Elizabeth, is singing through the general-delivery window. Her song is "Carry me back to old Virginny,'9 and Virginia accompanies her by strumming on the bars of the general-delivery window.



11. New York (sidewalk). This is easy. See the crowd on the New York sidewalks, singing, "The Sidewalks of New York."



12. North Carolina (elevator). The elevator is going up North. The elevator boy is a darkie from North Carolinawho is singing carols while he takes the elevator up North. Everyone on the elevator is waving North Carolinapen­nants.



13. Rhode Island (floor). See an island in the center of the floor. A road runs along the floor right through the island, and thirteen Rhode Island red hens are pecking through the road to get at the floor. A Rhode Island red rooster is crowing in the middle of the floor.

Longer lists, such as the forty-eight states, can be mastered in the same way by using more key words. (Key words up to 100 will be found in the appendix at the end of this section.)

Test yourself in the spaces below to see how well you know the thirteen original states:

1……………………..	8……………………..
2……………………..	9……………………..
3……………………..	10……………………..
4……………………..	11……………………..
5……………………..	12……………………..
6……………………..	13……………………..
7……………………..

On many occasions through his school and college career a student is required to have at his finger tips certain selected groups of facts. We all know only too well how often a question in an examination asks us to "Name five causes of . . ." or "Present, in order, the events leading up to . . ." When you realize that at least half of the average examination questions in physics, chemistry, biology, history, economics, or govern­ment are of this general type—questions asking for lists or groups of facts—you will see at once the enormous value the Mental Filing System can be to the schoolchild or college student.

This use of the System may be made as well by many of us who are long out of school. Many magazine and newspaper articles nowadays are presented in such a form that we can make the Mental Filing System help us remember indefinitely what we read. The informative articles about new develop­ments in industry or medicine, about customs in other coun­tries, or about new departures in warfare give us facts that we can long remember if we take the trouble to file them on our key words.

Note that I do not claim that the Mental Filing System will make you remember everything you read. There is no system on earth that can pretend to do that. But the lessons you have already learned in this book will help you a lot to gain effective study skills. And it will enable you to remember much of what you read in the field of science and history and in current periodicals, for the Mental Filing System helps you remember and assemble facts. Next time you have a copy of The Readers Digest, try seeing how many of the factual articles can become part of your fund of information through the use of our system of key-word association.

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