Any Tips on Remembering References?

I have more difficulty remembering references than the verse itself. Any tips?

One thing I found that helps me is learning the reference as part of the verse, so to say. For Bible Bee, we have to remember which references go with which verse/s, and I found that as I began working on a new verse, if I learn the reference with the verse in the beginning and not add it later, I remember it better. :) Hope that helps some!

Great tip…thank you

Sometimes it helps to make weird connections between the reference numbers and the verse. For example, Psalm 11:4-7 starts off by talking about heaven. I noticed that both seven and eleven rhyme with heaven, and that helped me to connect the reference to the right verse. It doesn't matter how strange the connection is as long as it (sort of) makes sense to you.

Wow, that is massively creative…thanks…

Your welcome. I can't claim complete credit for the idea however. I'm not a very creative person. I saw some lectures on memorizing numbers that had similar tips.

This is one thing that will get easier the more you read and memorize Scripture. The first two times that I qualified for Bible Bee Nationals, I had a LOT of trouble with it, but last year, it was very rare for me to get references mixed up.

One thing that helps is to look at the first word in the passage. For example, the first word of John 4:44 is "for". Since 4/for is in the reference and is the first word of the passage, it's pretty easy to remember how the passage starts.

Another thing that helps is to associate the passage with something that is not in the Bible. Romans 6:22-23 says "the fruit you get", which is kinda like "the fruit yogurt", so whenever I recited Romans 6:22-23 I pictured a container of strawberry yogurt. The other day, I was memorizing John 21:18, and Jesus told Peter that when he was old someone would carry him where he didn't want to go. I don't know if you've seen Mom's Night Out or not, but in it, there's a little girl who says, "He's taking us to his house, and we don't want to go", which is kind of like what Jesus said Peter would feel like. This helps me to remember the reference and verse.

Scripture songs are also great for helping you to remember Scripture. Memorizing in different places is another great thing that will help you to keep references straight.

^Sorry that this was so long. Maybe it will help someone :)^

That's basically what I do. The stranger it is, the easier it is to remember!

Exactly!

Kurt, good to see you on here. A few thoughts. 1) Scripture songs, as someone mentioned, are great when the reference is a part. If it is not a part of the song, maybe you can creatively add the reference to the song when you sing it. 2) Simply being in the habit of quoting the reference before and after verses you know can go a long way towards remembering the references. 3) When learning or reviewing the references for a lot of verses, I like to print out a sheet with the references and just the first 5 words of each verse, so I can make sure I master the references and the start of each verse, before mastering the actual verses.

Hope some of these help and trust you are doing well in your life and ministry.

Reposting from Introduce Yourselves thread:
Pretty new to memverse, but what works for me is to always practice memorizing reference and verse(s) together. Memorizing works best for me through paper flashcards: front - reference, back -verse. The memverse memorizing tool sort of works for me, I learn the verse pretty fast, but I find it doesn't seem to stick very well, for some reason! So mostly I stick with my paper flashcards to learn the references and verses.

Then I get onto memverse to review what I've memorized and keep count. I go to my "review" tab, and go through 50 references to help me review, then finish all of the new verses that I need to review.

So far, this has helped me, but I don't have too many verses yet either! Anyhow, hope this is helpful.

Another tip: Reading verses before and after the verses I'm memorizing helps provide a context. It helps me anchor the references in my mind with the verses.

Some great ideas, sister.
Something else I have been incorporating into my Memverse review sessions: When I have struggled with trying to remember a particular verse, I will make a note of it and then go to the Learn / Learn option (see the option at the top of your Memverse window, between "Home" and "Review" . . . highlight "Learn" and select "Learn" . . . not "Practice"). I will type in the verse reference. Then click on the green start arrow, and work through the 10 levels of it dropping a word or more per level until eventually all of the words are dropped and I have to remember the whole verse. A really amazing tool I absolutely love (once I discovered it!). Hope some of you might also be blessed by it.

Thanks for sharing, AKS. I've tried the Learn/Learn strategy, but somehow, the verses I learn that way just don't seem to have sticking power in my mind. Not sure what's off there for me, but it is still nice to have as an option for longer, denses verses for me. I'm sure it may work better for other members. It's good to have a toolbox of different ideas since what works for each person is likely to be different.

I forgot to mention that another thing I do too, to further reinforce my memory, is to keep practicing back up to getting 100% whenever I get a reference incorrect. (So I plan for an extra cushion of time, in case I need it.)
Speaking of which, has anyone noticed if the memverse reference system is always accurate in its answers? Sometimes it will glitch out (give no "correct" reference back; ie, "- - - -" is listed as the correct reference answer) and my score goes down; sometimes, I'm not sure if the reference answer is incorrect?

We bbers make sure we always say the referance at the beginning and end when we're working on a passage which works well if you memorize like me where i read the passage aloud thousands of times

Hey lil'biblegal,

I do say the reference at the beginning, then follow it with the verse, but I like your idea of repeating the reference after memorizing the verse for additional reinforcement!

I don't know much about bible-bee-ers…do you guys all follow a set strategy to memorize, or does each person have their own way of memorizing? how exactly do you memorize a verse? chapter? book?

I am also a Bible Bee-er, and yes, most everyone in bible bee uses different strategies to memorize. I have heard people who just say it over and over and over. Sometimes they make up songs. Sometimes they write or type it over and over and over. I personally just say one phrase of it until I think I can remember it, then go to the next one. When I can say that phrase very easily, I try to say the first phrase with it. it might not be the best strategy in the world, but it works for me!
I haven't memorized a book before, but I have memorized chapters. They are hardly different from any other passage, just longer.
The number one best strategy for almost everybody is to say your passage or review it extremely frequently. Our family says our bible bee passages every day. Some do once a week. It just depends on what you have to do to remember it.
And yes, lil'biblegal is absolutely right! In Bible Bee, if you are quoting for judges, you are required to say the reference before and after, or you will get counted off for it.
Hope this answered your questions!

Yes, it does, thanks! I memorize much like you do, and it has worked so far.
Makes sense that reviewing the verses a lot helps the most. Don't you guys memorize a lot of verses all at once? Do you all have a large set of verses that you will put into sets/chapters/books that you then review in rotation to make sure you get to review them all of them often? Have you found that memorizing a lot of verses, makes it harder to keep them all under a "good" (frequent enough) review?
Memverse has their algorithm, but I wonder if I will get enough of a review through the algorithm to keep all of the verses well-memorized. I've noticed that when I've fallen off on my memorizing, I find I can forget the verses very fast too (yikes!)…usually not the older ones that have been practiced a lot more often because of having been memorized earlier, but the newer ones and the ones where I discover maybe the memory is just not as solid for whatever reason.

I see, if you all are quoting for the Bible Bee judges, you must say the reference before and after the verse. I find that in practicing that technique while I'm memorizing (which for me is adding it after I finish memorizing the verse; a bit repetitive, but especially useful if memorizing a set of verses/chapter), it does seem to help me better link the reference to the verse.