Dear Folks, I was editing my Navy stories this evening and when I read through the one about going through Instructor Training School, I remembered a leason I learned from our instructor that I've never forgotten. It had to do with how to pass a test. It consisted of remembering nine diferent images and a matter of association with the subject you're studying. The nine images are: 1. Alarm clock--the first thing you see when you wake up. 2. Putting on your two-legged pair of pants. 3. Sitting on a three-legged stool while you put your shoes and socks on. 4. Sitting at a four-legged table in the kitchen. 5. Reading the five-cent morning newspaper. 6. Getting into your six-cylinder car and driving to work. 7. The figure the traffic cop makes when he holds out his right arm to guide you through a crossing. 8. The figure eight that the revolving doors to your office building make. 9. The shape of the door knob to your office. Keeping that sequence of images in mind ask someone to write down nine different objects on a piece of paper and assign numbers to each one. Then have him read them off to you in random order. With each numbered object picture the object and the number assigned. After you've committed them to memory in a matter of seconds, surprise him with repeating them in numerical order. For instance: 1. grasshopper (picture a grasshopper sitting on top of your alarm clock) 2. car (draping your pants across the roof of your car) 3. garage (storing your three-legged stool in your garage) 4. basket (sitting a basket on your kitchen table) 5. broom (sweeping up the newspaper from your floor) 6. mother-in-law (driving your mother-in-law to the store--or over a clif!!) 7. stapler (the traffic cop using a stapler to point you in the right direction) 8. computer (trying to haul your desk top computer through the revolving door) 9. tennis racket (trying to hang your tennis racket on your door knob) I got through many a test by using that method and it was so easy. I taught it to my niece Deb and she even used it to get her truck driving license. Such as a possible question: What are the three most important things to keep in mind when coming to a stop? Let's say that the answer was (1) take your foot off the gas pedal, (2) apply the brakes and (3) let the truck come to a complete stop. In that case Deb was have those three things memorized as (1) picturing a gas pedal on top of her alarm clock, (2) discovering the brakes in her pair of pants and (3) picturing her truck on top of her stool. It worked for Deb who was born in 1956 while I was attending Instructor Training School and as you can tell, I still remember it. Actually it's a fun thing to try out on your friends. vee