Remembering Cisco Logging Levels:

Remembering lists can be dry and difficult; I like to use the journey method and take myself on a journey through a list.   Once I have the headings down I can then "tag" on the additonal knowledge, it's a bit like making a framework to build on.

Here is an example I used to remember the Cisco logging levels, if your studying for the troubleshooting exam this one should be burned into your head!

The error levels:

0 – Emergencies  - There was an emergency

1 – Alerts – You alerted the police

2 – Critical Conditions – A man was in a critical condition

3 – Errors – This was an error he was fine

4 – Warnings – you got a warning for wasting police time

5 – Notification – They sent you a notification of it

6 – Information – It contained information

7 – Debug – the man was only suffering from debug that everyone else has.

This then simply becomes:

There was an Emergency, you Alerted the police! A man in Critical Condition, however this was an Error, you received a Warning from the police for wasting their time.  A Notification arrived that contained Information that he just had Debug that everyone else had.

After studying the art of "remembering" there are some useful things you can do to help yourself, the more ridiculous or funny you make your journey the more likely you are to remember it.  Visualise your journey as if it was actually something you did, these reinforce the memory and help your mind retain it.

Apparently this phenomenon is related to the way our memories evolved from the Cave man days where things would be remembered in the form of a journey and drawn on cave walls, our minds are still wired to work that way!

The whole area of how we remember and the techniques used to improve memory can make for fascinating reading.   If you want to learn more google for "the link system".