Full Moon ritual tomorrow...

[trystinn]

While I have completed my essays due tomorrow (well Saturday, actually), I haven't finished the memorization we were assigned. I am simply horrible at memorizing things, which is odd for someone like myself who seems to retain what they read pretty well - just not verbatim. Yet, ironicly, I still have poems from elementary school rattling around in my head, including the "Innkeeper's Tale" and way too much Shel Silverstein! Perhaps my head is full.

So far, I've been using the break down method, i.e. memorize it in blocks, while including the block above as you go onto the block below. This is painful, but the only way I know to memorize anything that works, other than making audio recordings to play and respond to - which worked wonders when memorizing CM rituals like the LBRP.

Anyone else deal with a student with these issues or themselves? Any suggestions, tricks of the trade, etc.?

Comments

[rimrunner.livejournal.com]

I do the block method myself. Sometimes, if it doesn't have to be exactly word for word (festival shrine speeches, for instance, or in a different context, library research classes), I'll deliberately make alterations as I'm speaking so that I have to pay close attention to what I'm saying. If I remember what I'm trying to get across, it helps me to remember the actual text.

For songs, stories, and rituals, where there tends to be a lot of repetition, I'll make note of where the repetitive passages occur and use them as benchmarks. Folktales and the like tend to have repetitive passages for just this reason: it makes them easier to remember.