Remember Anything

Let’s say you’re in nursing school, and you’re going to have to memorize the 12 cranial nerve pairs. What you’d consider an easy mnemonic is going to depend on what you find easy to remember. Just Googling I found several mnemonics for the cranial nerves, some of which made me snicker. Now, that’s something that would jog my memory; I like funny stuff.

I won’t steal that person’s mnemonic here, but my own creation might be, “Obsessed omniscient olfactory twitch, touching and feeling viscous glossy Valvoline, senses heightened.” So, the cranial nerves are the oculomotor nerve, the optic nerve, the olfactory nerve, the trochlear nerve, the trigeminal nerve, the abducens nerve, the facial nerve, the vestibulocochlear nerve, the glossopharyngeal nerve, the vagus nerve, the spinal accessory nerve, and the hypoglossal nerve.

Use mnemonics in a way that’s meaningful to you. Something that absolutely makes sense to someone else may not to make sense to you because it’s not based upon your personal experiences or particular learning quirks.

Mnemonics can make rote-learning fun. Okay, so maybe you don’t go around memorizing lists of things just because it’s “fun,” but sometimes you have to; it’s a good idea to make it more enjoyable, because you are going to have better luck remembering what you have to. So go on, break out that imagination of yours and the next boring list of facts or numbers you have to memorize, and get cracking on those mnemonics.

Other Places Talking about Cranial Nerve Mnemonics:

• Mnemonics for Cranial Nerves at All Nurses Forum
• Cranial Nerve Mnemonics At Thinking Nurses Blog
• Cranial Nerves At The University of Washington
• What Nerve! Honing Your Skills in Cranial Nerve Assessment

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