Advanced Peg Word Example

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.
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.

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 and so on…

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!