Study Skills: Mnemonic Devices A La Gossip Girl

Lumping hundreds of years of a region or country's history into a semester is probably the single greatest failure of modern educational institutions. It's hard enough to remember everyone's name in one recitation, let alone the date of every Ottoman Sultan or Spanish king (especially seven Fernandos and five Felipes later). Add to this the daunting of important years and the multitude of seemingly-pointless JSTOR articles to be read, and even the most minor History exam suddenly becomes an immeasurable burden.

Or so I thought, until I came up with an earth-shattering study technique that made life so much more enjoyable.

Even if you haven't been reading this blog compulsively (and why the hell not?), you've likely picked up on the fact that most of us are huge Gossip Girl fans. Mondays at 8 p.m. are a sacred time during which we open our hearts to the Upper East Side in hopes that this week's episode will focus entirely on a shirtless Chuck Bass. Unfortunately, I will have to skip my favorite hour of the week in order to study for midterms.

And in the middle of lamenting my fate, it hit me. The power politics of 20th-century Europe were almost as dramatic as the Serena/Blair struggle. What if I framed history as an episode of my favorite show?

Take, for example, the Schlieffen Plan. Military history has never been my strong suit. But when I rephrased it, suddenly, I became much more interested.

"You'd better hurry up, R. G's hurrying to knock F from her throne while you're getting your act together. And when F is out of the way, there won't be anyone to distract G from coming after you."

Or maybe you're more interested in The Great Game? "Look out: looks like B's finally fed up with R's rising popularity. The battle to win over the Middle East Side is on, and little A looks like the next casualty."

So far, I've managed to reduce much of the Cold War to a bitter struggle between two former friends over the new hot guy in school (which might be giving the Third World too much credit) and turn World War I into a rivalry between cliques to be the most popular group in the school. Although I've had some issues keeping my alphabet straight--in Asia alone, "I" could represent Israel, Iran, Iraq, India, and Indonesia--I'd have to say it's been a pretty productive method. Provided, of course, I don't let my mind drift and allow images of Chuck or Nate to distract me from the task at hand.