In HSC PDHPE there is lots of information that you need to memorise, one of the best ways to do this is to put it in a story. Storytelling is a long lost art and before the masses learnt to read and write, everything was committed to memory and they often learnt things by putting it in a story.

There are some helpful rules to put it in a story, that helps make the information more memorable.

  1. Make the story crazy! The crazier and more out there the story, the more raunchy and stinky the more likely you are to remember it.
  2. Keep the story short! You want to save time in regurgitating the information, so use a short, yet ridiculous story.
  3. Create a mental picture of the story! Visualise the story happening, even use the items to memorise as details of the scene if you like.
  4. Most importantly make the story mean something to you! It needs to be connected to other information.

Check out the Ted X Talk below on memorisation. This is how people memorise for competition, and how you could get ahead for HSC PDHPE (and other) exams.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6PoUg7jXsA[/embedyt]

In the video, Joshua talks about “elaborative encoding” comparing the guy with the name Baker and the guy who is a baker, and stating that people remember the baker over Baker 🙂 (the job more than the name). This is because we attach the baker to more of our memory than Baker. So, making the story memorable means it needs to connect to other memories.

Now take something like the 5 action areas of the Ottawa Charter – Building healthy public policy, Creating supportive environments, Strengthening community action, Developing personal skills, Re-orientating health care services toward prevention of illness and promotion of health -and let’s put it into a story.

Let’s visualise Kevin Rudd, he is on TV (Public) and he has a mangled up Michelle Bridges (Healthy) that he is taping together (Building). While he is taping her together Kevin is talking about a change in policy that he wants to bring in, which will reduce environmental emissions. Kevin grabs a spear that he uses to support Michelle’s arm as he tapes it on. As he tapes it on, Michelle’s arm bursts to life (Action) and suddenly grows muscles (Strengthening) like Ronnie Coleman. You suddenly notice that Kevin has been putting Michelle together in a church (Community) and wonder why he is there?

The TV suddenly changes to a breaking story about a Cambodian football player who has just won the Golden Boot at the world cup. The story explains how the Cambodian spent years kicking a ball around on the street, before he made his first team and eventually developed his (Personal) skills to the point he could represent his country at the world cup. The player’s name is Orien (Re-Orienting) and he has taken the opportunity of winning the Golden Boot to volunteer to help (services) address the Malaria issue (health) in developing countries.

This story contains meaning for me, but may not work for you. Come up with a story (personally I think mine is a bit long) and use it to remember content that requires memorisation. With anything that requires memorisation, remember to put it in a story and make it fun.