text: semester exams-some ways to study? hey, i need some extra ways to help information stick in my brain for semester exams. there is a lot of information that i'm afraid i'll forget or will get mixed up with something else. have you tried mnemonics? it is a technique to improve memory, and it works great when you have to remember a lot of information. just to give you an example, say you are studying the various parts of a cell and their functions:  mitochondria: site of aerobic respiration in eukaryotic cells it is a membrane bound organelle found in greater numbers in cells with high energy demands such as muscle. made up of internal folds called cristae it is a double membraned organelle.  lysosome:  organelle which contains powerful digestive enzymes which are sometimes used in "cell suicide".  when energy flow to the membrane from the mitochondria is interrupted, the lysosome membrane ruptures releasing its contents resulting in the destruction of the cell. found in protozoans, sperm and egg, thyroid cells, and leukocytes.  now, how will you remember their functions? mnemonics means you associate words together to help you remember, or make up a silly/funny sentence that helps you or make up short forms.   my examples:  mitochondria - mighty (sounds similar) - energy so these are related to producing energy  lysosome - last days! (based on the sounds again, l and s) - suicide! so this is related to the destruction of the cell  here's more detail: mnemonic techniques are more specific memory aids. many are based on the general memory strategies that were presented earlier. although it can be easiest to remember those things that you understand well, sometimes you must rely on rote memory. the following techniques can be used to facilitate such memorization. acronyms. you form acronyms by using each first letter from a group of words to form a new word. this is particularly useful when remembering words in a specified order. acronyms are very common in ordinary language and in many fields. some examples of common acronyms include nba (national basketball associations), scuba (self contained underwater breathing apparatus), btus (british thermal units), and laser (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation). what other common acronyms can you think of? the memory techniques in this section, for example, can be rearranged to form the acronym "scram" (sentences/acrostics, chunking, rhymes & songs, acronyms, and method of loci).  let us suppose that you have to memorize the names of four kinds of fossils for your geology class: 1) actual remains, 2) petrified, 3) imprint, and 4) molds or casts. take the first letter of each item you are trying to remember: apim. then, arrange the letters so that the acronym resembles a word you are familiar with: paim or imap.  sentences/acrostics. like acronyms, you use the first letter of each word you are trying to remember. instead of making a new word, though, you use the letters to make a sentence. here are some examples:  my dear aunt sally (mathematical order of operations: multiply and divide before you add and subtract)  kings phil came over for the genes special (kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, species)