A mnemonic is a memory device that utilizes a pattern of letters, ideas, or associations to help you remember information. For example, when I taught physics, my students often had a hard time remembering the colors of visible light in the proper order (by wavelength). So, I introduced them to my good friend “ROY G BIV.”

ROY G BIV is not an actual person. It’s a mnemonic to help one remember the wavelength-ordered colors of visible light: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet. ROY G BIV helps make the order of these colors easy to recall.

You can use similar mnemonics for the GRE. For many years, students have been taught the basic order of mathematical operations as PEMDAS, which stands for Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction — or, as you may remember it, Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally.

You also may have heard of FANBOYS, the conjunctions For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So. Without mnemonics for these concepts, would so many students be able to quickly commit them to memory?

The great thing about mnemonics is that no one but you has to understand them. For instance, in high school, I couldn’t remember how to solve “catch up and pass” rate questions.

So, I came up with a mnemonic: DDDDR, which stands for Delta Distance Divided by Delta Rate. Have a look at this GRE rate problem, and you’ll see why I still use that mnemonic to help me remember how to solve such problems. Creating your own mnemonics can help you better remember the rules and concepts you learn for the GRE.

That said, while memorization techniques such as mnemonics and visualization are valuable tools for your GRE toolkit, effective learning requires more than just memorizing formulas and concepts. If you want to truly master GRE material, you need to strive for a deeper understanding of the concepts you learn.