Maybe you need to remember different dates for that history test, or you need to give a presentation without looking at note cards. Either way, everyone needs to memorize something at some point. Remembering the finer points of a subject can be difficult, especially if it doesn’t come easy to you. Here are some of the best ways to memorize something.

1. Make it rhyme

Via PhotoSpin
Via PhotoSpin

There’s a reason why it’s so easy to remember the words of Taylor Swift’s newest song, but nearly impossible to remember that complicated statistics formula. Our brains are programmed to recognize and remember patterns. David Rubin, cognitive scientist and author, performed an experiment and found that, after listening to a ballad, college students were more likely to remember the rhyming words than the non-rhyming words. So to help remember an important fact, try making it rhyme: “In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue.”