Here is a preview of the CSET essay formula we coach teacher credential candidates to use. Use the P.I.E. method to crack the code of the CSET.

Here is a quick preview of our winning RICA Essay Formula. For answering essay questions on the RICA there is a formula you need to execute consistently without spending too much time on any one question. You will need to show you can apply your knowledge. The essay questions on the RICA will give you a scenario of a classroom situation. You need to respond by writing your essay in a way that answers the following questions.

Utilize the P.A.S. like the word pass to successfully answer your RICA essay questions. Believe me this works. 1.) P. List the POSITIVES or strengths. 2.) A. ASSESS the needs of the student(s), write a list of the of some dominant needs of these students. 3.) S. Explain the STRATEGY you will use.

Use this method to answer essay questions. Remember, if you offer one good strategy based on a dominant need of the students that will be sufficient. However, don’t just say teach the students S.Q.3R. to promote the reading comprehension of the sixth grade class, describe how you would go about teaching S.Q.3R. so you show you know what this strategy is and how to apply it. The RICA is heavy on testing your ability to apply your knowledge.

Memory techniques - can you improve your memory and remember more with them?

Do you sometimes wish you had a better memory? With memory techniques you can completely change your ability to remember information and improve your memory greatly. Memory techniques are especially useful for students and people who need to remember lots of things every day.

Today memory techniques are very important because there is so much information to remember. By using memory techniques you can remember long numbers, names of people, foreign words, passwords, tasks, meetings, speeches and anything you can think of much better, faster and easier

Using memory techniques to remember information eliminates the need to take notes. They help you make your life organized, to have less confusion and more free time. They aren’t complicated and you can apply them easily to be more effective at remembering information. The best part is that applying them is easier than you think.

Memorize states of America in 20 minutes?

Here you will learn about memory techniques and how to apply them to improve your memory. Memory techniques are really simple and some of them can be learned in less than 10 minutes although it takes some time to practice them. But the more you practice memory techniques, the better your memory will be.

Think of them as a more structured way how you try to remember and arrange information in your mind. You’ll learn that it’s really no rocket science.

I once thought that I will never be able to remember all states of America in alphabetic sequence. I didn’t considered my memory that good. Boy I was wrong! Using one of the memory techniques that I learned from Memory Success course I was able to memorize all states of America in 20 minutes and it was easier that I thought possible.

Are memory techniques brand new?

It’s an interesting fact that ancient Romans used memory techniques. Since they didn’t have any note taking devices they had to rely completely on their memories. Roman orators often delivered lengthy speeches that went for hours and were well prepared. How do you think they could remember them? They used memory techniques to do that.

Memory techniques were also used in middle ages by monks and other saint. In this time memory techniques were considered very mysterious and people that used them were considered sacred.

Then came the late middle ages and everybody that used memory techniques were considered magicians and often burned. All the books about memory techniques were destroyed. Then came the time when memory techniques were forgotten but in the eighteenth century they were again brought back to life by some wise men.

Who is using memory techniques today?

Not everyone uses memory techniques today but they aren’t unknown either. They are used by memory experts to perform memory stunts that seem impossible to people with "ordinary memory". Memory experts rely completely on memory techniques since it is the only way how to remember massive amounts of information instantly.

It’s an interesting fact that the memory expert Harry Lorayne admitted that he once thought he had the worst memory in the world. Things changed when he memorized the New York phone book solely by using memory techniques.

It’s actually a quite sad fact that a rather small percentage of people use memory techniques even though it is so easy to use them to improve their memory many times. An average memory technique can be learned in less than 5 - 10 minutes. It only takes some time to practice it a bit.

Situation when memory techniques can be used

When you go shopping there are list of items that you need to buy. When you have 20 items in your buying list then it is really hard to remember them without taking notes. With memory techniques it is actually quite simple. What you do is associate each item in the list to the previous one.

There is one rule though. These associations you form in your mind should be unrealistic, ridiculous or out of shape. That is because your mind is much better at remembering unusual things than meaningless and vague things that happen every day.

Here’s how you remember a list of items

Let’s pretend that the first 3 items that you need to buy are orange, milk and bread.

You already know that orange is the first item. To remember that you also need to buy milk you form a ridiculous association in your mind where you are peeling an orange and there’s a container of milk (or a cow) inside it. To remember bread you form an association where you are milking a cow and slices of bread instead of milk come out.

Now when you think about orange you instantly remember the ridiculous association you made with it in your mind and that reminds you of milk. When you think about milk you instantly remember the ridiculous association you made with it and it reminds you of bread.

This way you can remember a list of any length. Even when you think about that list a week after you memorized it, you will still remember it because the associations you made in your mind were very strong and you made your mind to actively think about things you tried to remember.

When can you use memory techniques?

What you learned was memory technique for remembering a list of items. There are memory techniques for remembering literally everything. Below are some of the things that you can memorize much faster using memory techniques:

Long and unknown words, appointments, errands, shopping lists, speeches, foreign and english vocabulary, names and faces, long digit numbers, style numbers, prices, telephone numbers, weekly appointments, anniversaries, the Zodiac, historical dates.

You can also remember advanced information like symbols of stock market, music that you have to play, shapes of countries on the map and shapes of any other objects, whether you have done certain things like locked the door, and so much more. Memory techniques can be applied to every memory task.

Discover how to learn a foreign language the easy way

Do you want to talk with people around the world? Are you interested in foreign cultures? Speaking foreign languages is a great thing - only if it wouldn’t be so exhausting and wouldn’t take such a long time to learn them.

Traditionally people have learned foreign languages the hard way. People have learned new foreign words by repetition - by saying the word in their own language and the foreign language time and time and time and time again. It’s boring and takes too much time.

It also limits you to learning certain number of words per day because you can’t overload your mind with too much information without taking a break.

Fortunately you can improve on this tedious way of learning words in foreign languages by using memory techniques. They take the drudgery and hard work away from learning foreign languages and make it more exciting instead.

Eliminate the effort it takes to learn a foreign language

Foreign languages are the ideal subject area for the use of memory techniques. Learning vocabulary is often a matter of associating a meaningless collection of syllables with a word in your own language.

Without memory techniques it takes a lot of effort and time to learn vocabulary but with memory techniques you can remember foreign words in a much easier way.

Not only it is an easier way. It is also more fun and interesting. Learning foreign words with memory techniques is exciting and makes you want to learn more. You are also not limited to the number of words you can learn in one day because you aren’t exerting your mind with them.

The secret technique to remember foreign words

One of the secrets on how to remember words in foreign languages is to substitute the foreign word with an english word or phrase that sounds similar to the foreign word. Then you associate this similar sounding word or phrase to the actual meaning of the word.

Here’s the illustration of this process:

You want to memorize Portuguese word for clam (the delicacy you eat at restaurant). Portuguese word for clam is "amejues", pronounced "ah-mezz-you-iz".

Now picture in your mind a gigantic clam approaching you, all drippy and dirty, and you say to it, "What a mess you is!".

Now each time you will think of a word clam in English you will remember the ridiculous association that you made in your mind and will remember the foreign word.

Eliminate the need for boring repetition

This was just an example. You will need to come up with your own associations for each foreign word that you learn.

By making these association you are making your mind concentrate on the foreign word and that way retaining information much better.

When you apply this memory technique to learn foreign words, you are remembering the word the first time you hear it. This memory technique lets you eliminate the need for constant repetition of the word to make sure that it stays in your mind.

This technique can be applied to any word in any foreign language. There are always words and phrases in English that you can come up with to substitute the pronunciation of the foreign word.

Learn a foreign language in a breeze

You can be very successful with this memory technique and learn hundreds of new words every day. Memory expert Harry Lorayne learned the phone book of New York in a few days with a similar memory technique. He could have learned basics of new foreign language instead of New York phone book.

There are memory techniques that you can apply to quickly learn grammar of foreign language and expressions like "What time is it?" or "How are you?".

With memory techniques you can learn all these expressions the first time you hear them and remember them almost forever. Of course it will seem a little hard to apply these techniques in the beginning but when you practice them, they will become like a second nature to you.