Top 10 old-school tricks that still work today | April 5, 2025

Sometimes, newer is not always better; it’s just newer. There are little tips and tricks that have been around for years, sometimes even taught in school, to help people remember facts.

For people who struggle with “Which month has how many days?” or “Is it ie or ei?” the following 10 old-school tips may be of great help to you. Check them out and see if any of these ring a bell.

1. Good battery or bad battery?
Ever find a loose battery in the house and wonder if it’s actually any good? Drop a battery onto a flat, hard surface from one to two cm in the air. If it bounces and falls, it’s a dud. If lands upright, it’s a winner!

2. Finding south.
If you ever get lost and don’t have a compass or smart phone with GPS that works, don’t despair. As long as you have an analog watch and can see the sun, you can figure out the directions. Place the watch flat on your palm with the hour hand pointing to the sun. Find a toothpick or piece of grass and place it across the face of the watch between the hour hand and 12. The end of the toothpick or grass that is closest to the 12 should be pointing due south.

3. Remembering Roman numeral values.
Wile most people know what I, V and X mean in Roman numerals, you get much beyond that, and the letters look like just that — letters. An old-school mnemonic device to help people remember the values goes like this, “My Dear Cat Loves Xtra Vitamins Intensely.” The first letter of each word is a Roman numeral, and they appear in descending order starting with 1,000 and ending with 1 like so:

M (1,000)
D (500)
C (100)
L (50)
X (10)
V (5)
I (1)

4. Multiplying by 11.
An old-school trick for 11s is that multiplying 11 with any number from 1 to 9, gives you an answer that doubles the number that was multiplied.

5. Waxing and waning moon.

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