Peg Words Tutorial PART FIVE

2.5 • An Advanced Example

Well, practice the peg word system and try memorizing some things. You'll be amazed! For a more advanced example, here's a slightly longer explanation of the list of countries and capitals that I mentioned in the last section that I had memorized. My list looks like this:

   1. Canada, Ottawa
   2. USA, Washington
   3. Mexico, Mexico City
   4. Belize, Belmopan
   5. Guatemala, Guatemala
   6. El Salvador, San Salvador
   7. Honduras, Tegucigalpa
   :     :            :
 222. Cook Islands, Avarua
 223. French Polynesia, Papeete
 224. Pitcairn Island, Adamstown

So I've memorized 224 countries and capitals, and by number, too! Of course, the numbers I assigned myself, but they are still useful because 1) when going through the list to practice recalling countries and capitals, I'm sure not to skip any, and 2) I assigned numbers so that two countries that are next to each other in the list are also usually touching each other on a map (this gives me an approximate geography).

For 100-109, I used 00 to 09. For 110-125, I invented my own peg words with bizarre associations. For example, 110 reminds me of Michigan's 110th state representative district and a prominent politician which sounds similar to the word "trash", so 110 is trash. It was an experiment and it took a long time to memorize those peg words, but I have them now. For 126-199, I appended my entries for 26-99 with additional information, like this:

   26. Grenada, St. George's + Nigeria, Lagos
   27. Barbados, Bridgetown + Cameroon, Yaounde
   28. St. Vincent & The Grenadines, Kingstown + Equatorial Guinea, Malabo
   29. St. Lucia, Castries + Sao Tome & Principe, Sao Tome
    :       :        :             :             :

For 200-209, I appended to 00-09, and for 210-224, I appended to 110-124. Of course, there are probably many other ways to do this... if you're interested in memorizing countries and capitals, try to think of the way that works best for you! Have fun!