Incredible Acronyms To Elevate your Memory or (IATEM) ;)

Trick question! They all are!

So.. “What’s an acronym?” I hear you say. Well, we create acronyms to help us remember stuff. It's as simple as that. When we find it tough to remember those maths or english terms, a good old acronym can be a huge help.

An acronym is a technique where we take the first letters of a group of words and put them together to form a single, more memorable word. This is then used as a ‘memory key’ that we can use to remember all of the words locked within. Here are some common examples that you may know!

ASAP- As Soon As Possible

PIN- Personal Identification Number

SCUBA- Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus

LASER- Light Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation

Pretty cool, right? No? How about:

BAE - Before Anyone Else

FOMO - Fear Of Missing Out

TFW - That Feeling When

We know now that we use acronyms far and wide. From scientific laboratories to our DMs (Direct Messages), but how can we use them to their full effect? How can we release their potential to help us with exams? Buckle up, kiddo; we’re going in!

First I’m going to give you some examples of simple, medium and complicated acronyms that we can use in our learning.

Second I’m going to talk you through acronym-making skills and how to form one.

Then, (last but not least) we’re going to make an acronym of our own!

Simple Acronyms Section! (SAS)

ROYGBIV - Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo Violet

DUMTUM - Date, Underline, Miss a line. Title, Underline, Miss a line

WALT - We Are Learning To…

Nice and easy to begin with, these will help you remember simplistic ideas!

Medium Acronyms Section! (MAS)

WAGOLL - What A Good One Looks Like

PEN - Proton Electron Neutron

FANBOYS - (Coordinating conjunctions) For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, and So

BODMAS/BIDMAS - (Maths Order of Operations) Brackets, Indices/Orders, Division Multiplication, Addition, Subtraction

Just a little bit harder now. These are longer or represent trickier ideas, very useful to remember!

Complicated Acronyms Section (CAS)

I SAW A WABUB - (Subordinating Conjunctions) If, Since, As, When, Although, While, After, Before, Until and Because

ISPACE - (Fronted Adverbials) Ing words, Simile, Preposition, Adverb, Conjunction and -Ed words or clauses.

These help us remember BIG ideas. We may have to keep repeating them and reading over and over, but the acronym will really help it stick! Try one out! See if you can focus on one for 5 minutes and recall all the words.

Oh, and here’s a real brain-tester for you!

ON A WHITE BUS -

Only if/Once

Now that,

After/although/as/as long as/as much as/as soon as/as though

Where/Wherever/When/Whenever/Whether/While/Which/Whether or not/Whoever/whereas/Why

How

In case, If, In order that

Though/Than/That

Even though/Even if

Before/Because

Until/Unless

Since/so that

Making Acronyms To Help Studying (MATHS)

Now, down to business. These three simple steps will help you create an acronym of your very own!

1. Assemble the information you want to remember.

1. Check to see if the way that the first letters are, in the order you wrote them, spells anything? Yes? Great! You have your acronym!

No? Okay, well in this step we can look at the first letters of the words. Maybe even write them down on their own.

1. Can you rearrange or exchange words in the information that mean the same thing and make a word/a few words? (PS.(Postage Soon) The more silly or more memorable the better!)

1. Now be sure to test yourself and remember the information using your brand new acronym.

1. Enjoy your marvellous memory!

Over To You And Your Amazing Self! (OTYAYAS)

Now get creating! If you come up with any awesome acronyms yourself, which I know you will, pop them in the comments below so we can share them with our community!