I Love a Good Mnemonic, Don’t You?

Last year my son needed to memorize about 50 countries and their capitals for a geography quiz.  He was upset, thinking there was no way he’d ever be able to remember them.  I spent that evening going through all of them, coming up with mnemonics for as many of them as I could.

He got a very high grade on that quiz.  He became a mnemonic believer.

From https://literaryterms.net/mnemonic/: A mnemonic, also known as a memory aid, is a tool that helps you remember an idea or phrase with a pattern of letters, numbers, or relatable associations. Mnemonic devices include special rhymes and poems, acronyms, images, songs, outlines, and other tools. Mnemonic (pronounced ni-mon-ik) is derived from the Greek phrase mimnēskesthai meaning to “remember.”

This week my daughter’s Chemistry grade sank to a 79, with a quiz on polyatomic ions and their chargers (don’t ask me, I don’t know) looming today, for which she felt ill-prepared. Last night I had her show me the list of 16 PAICs (as I’m going to call them in this post).  Within a couple minutes I realized I could easily come up with mnemonics for almost all of them.

Hydroxide is OH-1.  Hydrox cookies are made in Ohio and aren’t that good, so they lose a point (I don’t know if they are made in Ohio, but it worked for that mnemonic so that’s what I went with).

Ammonium is NH4+1.  New Hampshire smells like ammonia but is “for” a positive person.

There were four PAICs that used Cl0 and ended with a 1, 2, 3 or 4.

Hypochlorite Cl01.  Hypo is slow and only gets a 1

Chlorite Cl02 is a bit faster and gets 2

Chlorate Cl03 accelerates to number 3

Perchlorate Cl04 = (Hy)Per is fast so it gets a 4

You see? It’s not hard.  CG protested the entire time.  “Stop it, mother.  I don’t want to learn this way,” but I kept on going.  Even CootieBoy chimed in saying he got a good grade on his geography test thanks to our use of mnemonics.

CG said her quiz would involve going either way – either seeing the term, such as “permanganate” and having to write the formula (MnO4-1), or seeing the formula and having to know the PAIC name. What’s weird is that she confessed that she could see any formula and immediately know the name of it, but writing out the formulas was difficult to remember.  How is that possible?

Once we went through them all, I wrote out my own quiz, alternating between terms and formulas.  She got 14 out of 16 right, AND the two she missed she only missed because she didn’t write the entire formula.  Not that she wrote it incorrectly, she just didn’t finish because she rushed.

I’ll be sure to report back when her grade is announced.  I predict it will be very high, and she has mnemonics (and her mother) to thank for it!

Oh, and did I mention that I failed Chemistry in high school?  Twice?  Wish I knew about mnemonics then!  I might have at least gotten a D!