Mnemonics for UPSC.

UPSC Civil Services Exam tests an aspirant for variety of skills. And whether you like it or not, you have to remember considerable amount of stuffs. While some are very good at memorising things owing to various reasons, some really struggle at it. But as said, You gotta do what You gotta do. 

Mnemonis | Image Source : Wikimedia

Mnemonics, as you might be aware is tool to help your memory store large amount of data, which are generally difficult to remember in raw form. Remember the old trick for memorising the Periodic Table. Personally for me, I hate mnemonics. It appears mechanical and sort of spoon feeding. But there is no denying the utility of mnemonics in the vast ocean of UPSC syllabus. 

A simple google search will lead you to several useful mnemonics. For example, ASEAN countries can be remembered by MBBS PTV LIC. As evident, these do not look good or savvy but do make your task easier. Similarly, there are tonnes of other mnemonics, which definitely have the capacity to fetch you couple of marks. 

Our main concern in this post is to try and make the process of learning and memorising organic. While it might appear impossible to consolidate so much data in out tiny brains, we can certainly aim to make the process better suited to our abilities. So here are some of tips which can be tried and tested for suitability by individual aspirants : 

1. Read, Read and Read many times. It might seem to you that you are only and not retaining anything, especially historical facts and timeline, but multiple reading with correct momentum and timing can do wonder. 
2. Try and make your own mnemonics. Self made short tricks are better than using ready made mnemonics. You can always look up to others for guidance but try to be creative enough to make customised mnemonics. No one knows your brain better than you!.
3. Visualise and try to map events with your own life. Your locality and life itself is a link with various historical and geographical events. Imagine You being present in a Congress session or imagine how Gandhi would have actually led the Dandi March. Even when not studying, be active enough to observe things and correlate it with your UPSC syllabus. 

MY Personal Trick : For example, I always had tough times remembering National Parks and Sanctuaries and their locations. So I used to suffix the name of the National Park with its State and would always read the same. For example, Anshi National Park in Karnataka was always AnshiKARN. Pakke Tiger Reserve in Arunachal Pradesh was always PakkeARUN. This drastically reduced my workload. The rule was simple, If I had ever read a National Park, Wildlife Sanctuary or Tiger Reserve, I would read it in the same way as described above and in this way, never have to remember its location.

The above method can be used for almost every thing you want to remember. Simply concatenate the data you want to remember and always read in the same form. For example, If you are having difficulties in recalling who were the Viceroys during the 3 Anglo-Burmese War, remember AmDaDu - Lord Amherst, Lord Dalhousie and Lord Dufferin. 

UPSC Civil Services is a war of attrition, where you need several tools for success. But no tool can be bigger than your hard work and resolve to ace the exam.