Using memory techniques can get complicated when you want to memorize a lot of different information. Memory godfather Tony Buzan came up with the idea of putting your major system into a matrix and stretching it that way up to 10.000 combinations. Frank Gazerro is making his debut as an author for Memory-Sports.com by writing this article for you.

Many of us use mind mapping as a way to organize our thoughts and plan projects. Google it, and you’ll find a slew of sites praising, teaching, and selling the art of mind mapping.What many don’t realize is that mind mapping was created by Tony Buzan, one of the most prolific writers on memory and accelerated learning.

In his book, Master Your Memory, Buzan outlines his memory system, the Self Enhanced Memory Matrix or Sem Cubed (Sem³). Sem³ is an elaborate peg system allows you to store 10,000 pieces of information in a giant table. It combines the major Major System with a set of 100 Sem³ pegs, each of which is based on a theme.

The 10×10 Grid

It all starts with a 10×10 grid.

Each column represents a block of 1000 numbers divided evenly between 10 cells. Each cell contains 100 numbers, represented by each row. Lets break this down a bit:

• If we look at the cell marked “A”, we see it’s in the 3000′s column and the 200-299 row. Therefore, the “A” cell contains the numbers 3200-3299.
• Next, let’s look at the cell marked “B.” It contains numbers 8500-8599.

Get the idea? Good, let’s move on.

Themes and Pegs

Next, Buzan creates the 100 Sem³ peg words by assigning a theme to each row. Each cell within a row is assigned a peg word reflecting its theme. If the first row (0-99) was given the theme animals each cell would be assigned an animal peg.

Now we can begin to put it all together. Combining the Sem³ grid with the major system allows you can create at least 10,000 unique images on the fly.

Take the number 5025. An image representing this number could be a goat wielding a knife. How did we arrive at that image?

1. Determine the cell that contains the number. In this case, it’s the goat cell, since our number is between 5000 and 5099.
2. Use the Major System to create a word representing the specific number within the cell. In this case, 025 = knife.

To sum it up:

(Goat = Any number between 5000-5099) + (Knife = 25) = 5025

Applying the System

We now have 10,000 unique peg images. To use this system, we simply allocate part of the grid to the information we want to memorize and link our information accordingly.

Let’s say we want to remember some information about each member of the Beatles. We’ll place this information in the 1000-1099 cell, the cat cell. The first four numbers within that cell and their images are as follows:

• 1000: A cat with a hand saw.
• 1001: A cat dressed up as King Tut.
• 1002: A cat acting as Noah building a big ark.
• 1003: A cat mooing like a cow.

Now we include each of the Beatles in this image.

• 1000: A cat performing as a magician and sawing Paul McCartney in half.
• 1001: John Lennon is an explorer who opens King Tut’s tomb only to find a giant cat.
• 1002: Ringo Star is helping Cat-Noah build the ark.
• 1003: George Harrison and a cat are brazing in a field mooing like cows.

We have now assigned each of the four Beatles to a block of numbers in the Sem Cubed grid. Now, we can use the link system to tie more information to each of the Beatles.

• Paul McCartney played bass. If we think of “bass” as the fish: Paul McCartney getting eaten by a giant bass.
• Paul also had a band called Wings. We can chain this information to “bass” by imaging a bass growing wings and flying away.

By using the link system to tie long strings of information to individual locations on the Sem³ grid, the possibilities are limitless. Go give it a try and share your thoughts in the comments!

Editor’s Note

The Sem Cubed is strongly related with the Person-Action-Object (PAO) and the Dominic System. It is also another way of approaching the keyword method which I described as The locked Wardrobe Method.

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Wow, it has been a whole month since my last post on Memory-Sports. Maybe this was some kind of winter depression but although it is still freezing in Berlin, I have got my energy back. Many cool things will come these days for both Memory-Sports and Memory-Masters. But first things first. 63 of you have voted for their current number system. Let’s have a look at your results.

And the winner is…

[poll id="9"]

I already have guessed it and you approved my theory: The Major System is the most popular memory system for numbers. We can speculate why but I think it is more than obvious: It is simply the best system for beginners. Its phonetic basis makes it logical and well structured. It is extremely easy to understand. Hence its simple code it can be reconstructed quickly even if one forgot the peg word. That helps a lot to memorize the entire 100 pegs.

So if you are just thinking about creating your first system, you should read my article about the Major System and go right ahead.

It makes me a little bit nostalgic when I think back to the year 2003 when I started with my Major System. I was in the German military service and I never left the barracks without my 100 flashcards in my pocket. It made this time much more enjoyable!

Who are the “Others”?

This question is not only interesting for fans of the TV series “Lost”. Obviously there are 22% of the votes for mysterious other number systems. I anticipated that there might be a few using others than the ones named in the poll but 22% is astonishing. Where are these votes coming from? Is this the unknown Chinese system every western memory athlete wants to know about? Or do we  see a rise of creativity in new and more effective systems to beat a certain Englishman sooner or later? Please write some comments if you have voted for “others”. This might get very interesting. (nerd)

PO & PVO – Here are the Hybrids

19% have voted for the Dominic or the very similar PO System. This means they use 200 peg words to memorize a number with a person and an action. Let it be a faithful Tiger Woods giving away roses or a CIA agent loosening his belt – these systems are full of surprises. Although they are less creative because you cannot decide what Tiger Woods does, 10,000 combinations (100×100) can be most interesting and so much more diversified than a “nose” popping up a dozen times when training for Speed Numbers. 8% (including me) are even going one step further and add 100 objects to their system. With PVO you have incredibly ONE MILLION combinations. Sometimes I have to be careful not to laugh out loud in a memory competition because of the silly image I just created.

Big Daddies

The following numbers proof the growing seriousness of memory athletes: 13% are using a 1,000 peg word triple Major System for memorizing numbers. And 6% go with Ben’s system which is also using 1,000 pegs with the capacity for ambitious (or should I say “crazy”?) upgrades for binary numbers and cards. If you don’t know how much work it is to create and memorize such a big daddy, let me tell you that: : I failed to do it for about seventeen million times due to motivation lost. @

Conclusion

The sport is growing! When I started in 2003 Gunther Karsten has probably been the only person in the world with a triple Major System. Nowadays some people simply skip the double systems and go straight for 1,000 images. Nevertheless there is still the largest fan base with the double Major System. We can only speculate when this will change.

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It’s been quite a while since my last episode of How to become a Memory Champion. The last time I introduced you to the disciplines where you have to memorize random words. Today we will have a look at the discipline Historic/Future Dates.

It has nothing to do with history

You are very good with history? You have hundres or thousands of dates already in your head? This is marvelous, but it  wont help you at all. The dates you have to remember in a memory competition are all fake. Otherwise you could probably win this discipline without even looking at the dates presented to you – because you already learned them. Therefor you will get fictional dates with random years from 1000-2099. There will be no day or month to memorize  – only the year is of interest.

• Historical Dates: 5 minutes memorization / 10 minutes recall
  • World Record: 110.5 dates by Johannes Mallow

The Rules

Memorizing Period

• 110 different historic/future dates, with 40 dates on a page will be given (you can ask for more).
• The historic/future dates are between the years 1000 and 2099.
• All historic/future dates are fictitious or general (e.g. Peace Treaty signed).
• The length of the event text is between 1 and 10 words.
• Statistically the whole range of years will be used and no year (and no event) will be presented twice.
• The 4-digit number of the historic/future years are on the left side of the event and the events are written down under each other.

Recall Period

• Contestants will be given 3 sheets of Recall Paper with 40 historic/future event texts written on each.
• The historic/future event texts are in a different order from that of the memorizing phase.
• Contestants must now write down the correct year in front of the event texts.

Scoring

• A point is awarded for every correctly assigned year. All 4 digits of the year written down must be correct. Half a mark is deducted for an incorrectly assigned year.
• Only one 4-digit year can be written down in front of the event.
• The points are added up (max. 110 points).
• In the case of tied winning scores, the winner will be decided by counting the mistakes (incorrectly assigned dates) of the contestant – the contestant with less incorrectly assigned dates is the winner.

Tutorial by Jennifer Goddard

How to Memorize Dates

This is actually relativly easy because you don’t need any journeys. You only have to asscoiate your number-pegs from your major system (or whatever system you use for numbers) and associate it with the action of the date. There are now several ways to do so.

1st-level Dates

Since your major system is providing you with pegs for every two-digit combinations you have to memorize two pegs together with the action of the date.

For example:

1320 – Dinosaurs are getting cloned

You could now take your pegs for the numbers 13 (team) and 20 (nose) and associate them with a dinosaur: A soccer team is jumping on the nose of a T-Rex.

This is a very simple method to connect the date with the action. If you have a ready number system you could jump right now into action.

The downside of this method are for once that you have three elements to connect with each other.  And secondly you will have many stories with your pegs from 10-20 because all dates start with these eleven numbers.

1.5-level dates – conditions

To reduce the repetition of your pegs you can come up with something to get rid of the first digit. I you look at the rules you realize that ten out of eleven dates are starting with the digit 1. Therfore it will be enough to memorize only the last three digits. With a 1st-level major system decoding only two digits this will be difficult so you have to differentiate between the 11 different centuries. This can be achieved with several ways:

• Give them different states (a nose made out of jelly, stone or metall) each representing another century
• Different colors, smells, sounds
• Add one of eleven locations to each association (does it happen in the stadium, the bus or on top of a skyscrper?)

I worked with such a system for quite a while. It is not that easy but it works and it is much faster than making 1st-level connections.

For example:

1058 – King Charlie learns to fly

The King gets wings made out of jelly and flies over a stream of lava (58).

1158 – King Charlie learns to fly

The King gets wings out of stone and flies over a stream of lava. He looks now like a gargoyle.

1.5-level dates – overlapping

Nowadays I use another method: You also get rid of the first digit. Then you take the digit number two and three and recall the peg for this number. Next you take the digit number three again and also number four and recall that peg. Now you combine these two. If you are having a Person-Action system it is even better. The great plus of this way is that you can reconstruct one number if you remember the other one.

For example:

1170 – The pope is uniting all religions to a new super christianity

I take now the 17 (duck) and the 70 (kiss): A duck is kissing the pope.

If it is a date in the year 20xx I will simply use a special peg created only for this porpuse which could be anything you like. It will become very hard to forget the dates that way.

2nd-level dates

Like no other discipline in memory sports it pays of big to use a triple system for Historic Dates. Like I wrote above it helps alot to just get rid of the first digit because in most cases it is the same. So if you are able to bring the last three digits in only one peg you have an massive advantage in speed and clarity of your images.

For example:

1174 – Aliens are landing on earth

Simply take your peg for 174 (tiger) and associate it with the aliens: The aliens are riding on tigers.

Normally I don’t suggest a system to anybody but in this case I am very certain that a triple system is by far the best way to get great scores in this discipline.

Training is everything

Like all memory disciplines you have to train this one. It might be frustrating in the beginning when you compare your results to the world record. But you have to realize that Johannes Mallow is using a triple system and put a lot of effort into his training. I’d like to suggest you to train with Memocamp because the date function is excellent. There is an English version available now!

Historical Dates on Memocamp

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Each memory athlete has to learn and train one to several memory systems. In most cases they have at least 100 peg words using methods like the Major System, the Dominic System or the Ben System. If they are really ambitious they go for even bigger systems with up to thousands of pegs. A great software to support memorizing those pegs would be the free Mnemosyne Flashcard Program.

Recently I stumbled upon this beautiful program watching a tutorial video from my associate Charles Cave. He is writing with me for our website Memory-Masters.com and has his own memory blog Building a Master Memory.

The Features

• Efficient scheduling algorithm, so you don’t waste time on things you know well
• Support for languages using different scripts through unicode
• Support for pictures, sounds and html formatting
• Can be integrated with LaTeX to display mathematical formulas
• Support for three-sided cards, e.g. foreign words where you are interested in written form, pronunciation and translation
• Can be run from a USB key
• Can display some basis statistical info on your learning process
• Keeps a detailed record of your entire learning process for analysis
• Your cards can be organised in categories, which can be activated and disactivated to control your learning process
• Clean, deceptively simple user interface, yet fully customisable for advanced users through configuration files and plugins
• Available in several languages
• Support for a large number of import and export formats (text, XML, Supermemo, Memaid, …)

Why this program is so amazing

1. First of all it is free!
2. Whatever you memorize you have to repeat in certain intervals. More often in the beginning and less frequently over time. The ideal repetition is after an hour, a day, a week, two weeks, a month, two months, half a year, a year, two years and so on. Doing this you will most certainly remember your stuff forever. This program will schedule your learning in exactly this way.
3. Motivate yourself by saving learning time. Only repeat what’s really necessary.
4. You can create nearly every thinkable flashcard with this tool.
5. Use the over hundred free learning sets and learn cool and interesting stuff on the fly.

Watch the tutorial

I think I made my point. If you are still not convinced have a look at Charles screencast. He will demonstrate a few features.

To the download page

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In the previous episodes of How to become a Memory Champion you learned all about the basic techniques of a memory athlete. Step by step I showed you the method of loci, creating good associations and learning the systems for numbers, cards and binaries. If you have followed my lead you should now be prepared for your first introduction into memory championships. We will start with two of the easier disciplines: Speed Words (regularly called “5 Minutes Words”) and Random Words.

Foreword

Memorizing Words is probably the first discipline in memory sports you ever had contact with. Maybe it has been the typical shopping list (which personally I’ve never used and also never heard of anybody who did – but this is another story), keywords for a speech or an exam or to learn a long poem. Anyhow you will have realized that this discipline is extremely intuitive and easy to do. There is nothing easier for a student of mental improvement than memorizing a list of 20 words. But it can become extremely difficult, too. It is a huge difference if you are learning a small shopping list without any pressure of time or if you are memorizing as many words as fast as possible in a memory championship. So let’s prepare you for your first discipline.

Speed Words and Random Words

In each memory championship following the national or international standard by the World Memory Sports Council there will be the discipline 5 Minutes Words (I call it Speed Words). The competitors have five minutes to memorize random words. After the memorization period their sheets will be collected by the arbiters and the 10 Minutes recall starts. This discipline was introduced to the sport in 2006 to help shorten a normal memory competition. The second discipline of this category is Random Words. It has been the standard for all championships until 2006. Nowadays it is only used for the two big fishes: The German Memory Open and of course the World Memory Championship. The only difference between those two disciplines is the time of memorization and recall: In Random Words the competitors have a 15 Minutes memorization period and a 30 Minutes recall period.

• Speed Words: 5 minutes memorization / 10 minutes recall
  • World Record: 109 words by Katie Kermode
• Random Words: 15 minutes memorization / 30 minutes recall
  • World Record: 280 words by Boris Konrad

The Rules

For both Speed Words and Random Words the rules are the same (except the time, the amount of presented words and the championship points):

Memorizing Period

1. Each competitor gets memorizing sheets with 100 generally known words on each paper. The words are ordered in columns of 20 with five columns on each page.
2. Contestants must start at the first word of column 1 and remember as many of the words as possible in order.

Recall Period

1. Contestants may write down the list of words on the Recall Papers provided.
2. If a contestant wishes to use his/her own Recall Papers, these must be approved by the adjudicator before the competition.
3. Each word must be clearly numbered and the start and finish of each column of words easily identifiable.

Scoring

1. A point is awarded for every word in a complete column where all 20 words are correctly spelt.
2. One mistake (including any gaps) in a column of 20 words gives a score of 10 for that column (20/2).
3. Two or more mistakes (including any gaps) in a column of 20 words scores 0 for that column.
4. The contestant may use upper or lower case letters.
5. For the final column only: If the final column is partially complete, a point is awarded for each word if every one is correctly spelt. One mistake (including any gaps) in the partial column means the points awarded will equal half the number of words recalled. Two or more mistakes (including any gaps) will score 0 for the column.
6. *If a word has been clearly memorized, but has been spelled in an incorrect way, no points are given for this word. It will not, however, cancel other words in a column. For example, if somebody writes ‘rythm’ instead of ‘rhythm’, no points will be given for this word, and, if all other words in the column are correct, full marks minus one will be given for that column (e.g. 19).
7. If there is both one memory mistake in a column and a spelling mistake, than first the maximal points given for the column will be halved and than a point for the wrong spelled word will be subtracted (e.g. max 20 points, divided by 2 gives 10 points, minus one is 9.) [The different order leads to 9.5 points]
8. The points for each line will be added up. If a non integer result is obtained, it will be rounded up (72.5 points => 73 points).
9. In the case of tied winning scores, the winner will be decided by looking at the extra columns the contestant tried to recall but for which he/she got 0 points. For every correctly positioned word there will be given 1 decision point. The contestant with more of those decision points is the winner.

*This rule has been introduced to limit the complications that may arise from spelling ambiguities, mistakes in translations, dyslexia, and handicaps for foreigners etc.

How to Memorize Words

Actually you already learned what it takes to memorize words. Use your elephant path and associate your locations with the words. There are several ways to do that:

One word per location

The upside of this technique is a quick association with an absolutely clear order. You will not have problems to put the words back into their original positions as long as you remember your images. The downside is a massive amount of locations. Trying to break the world record in Random Words would cost you at least 281 journey points.

Two (or more) words per location

This is a commonly used technique. Create an image out of two words and your location. You will need 50% less journey points. Also it is a matter of fact that the images will strengthen each other. In most cases it makes a perfect story. The downside however is the omnipresent chance of mixing up the order of these two words. To avoid it you have to follow certain rules. Very popular is to concentrate where you place the words in the mental picture: The first image is on top and/or on the left side. The second one is on the bottom and/or on the ride side. Rules like these will help you to establish a save recall. Make up your own if those don’t fit you. Using more than two images is possible but increases the chance of mixing them up. Be careful if you want to go this path young padawan.

Repetition

I think that nearly everybody is repeating the words at least once – even in Speed Words. In Random words you should repeat them twice to stabilize your pictures. Since each word will be unique and probably a first time appearance since you train this discipline, you will struggle with less security than with numbers and cards. Try to make a quick recall of your pictures instead of just reading them again. Improve your images if necessary.

Common Mistakes

Regarding the strict rules of this discipline it is very important to make no mistakes at all. Here are the most common ones which will cost you many points:

• Plural/singular: Make sure that you don’t mess this up in your images. The difference between “tree” and “trees” will cost you half a row. Try to focus on the appropriate amount in your pictures and you will be fine.
• Spelling: There are several ways to spell a word with slightly changes i.e.” jump” and “jumping”. Although this will also change its meaning in most cases it is still difficult to remember because the general sense stays the same. This also depends on your language. I am not completely certain but I think it happens far more often in German than in English. You should use mental helps to difference between them. For my example above you could imagine that you are “jumping” yourself instead of telling your journey point to “jump”. Come up with a good idea and you will avoid this common mistake.
• Synonyms: This is a bad one. Since we are using images to improve our memory ability, our brain can trick us in the recall. We will just remember the picture of an item but it might have several names i.e. “ship” and “boat”. You should always be aware of this fact and concentrate in the first place to avoid confusion in your recall. You could break down the word into its elements. For example a manufactory will easily be confused with factory. But if you think about Manchester United (Manu) working in a factory it will help to remember the difference.
• Abstract words: Very often you will be confronted with abstract words. In order to memorize them using your journey points you will have to transform them into some kind of stereotype image. The verb “invent” could be memorized as a glowing bulb. But you also could end up in recall with a similar association like “idea”. Sometimes it is enough to make clear that the bulb doesn’t mean “idea”.  But quite often you don’t have the time to look for similar associations in the first place and just use what pops into your mind. Therefore you have to be very carefully and precise with your images. A glowing bulb maybe wouldn’t be the best idea in this case, would it?

Instruction video

Third level arbiter Jennifer Goddard created a tutorial video for Speed Words. It will help you further to understand this discipline better.

In memory of Mareen Blaß

This article is dedicated to Mareen Blaß. Since 2005 she has been a memory athlete. She ranked 144^th in the world when she passed away. Her fondly character will be remembered in our hearts.

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In the fifth episode of How to become a Memory Champion you will be introduced to binary digits. Understand the logic behind ones and zeros and learn how to memorize them. With that knowledge you can enter another main discipline in a memory championship.

The binary code

Since Speed Binary is part of all national and international memory championships, memorizing binary digits is an essential skill for all memory athletes. For the German Open and the World Memory Championship additionally there is the discipline 30 minutes Binary.

But what actually is a binary number? Wikipedia writes:

The binary numeral system, or base-2 number system represents numeric values using two symbols, usually 0 and 1. More specifically, the usual base-2 system is a positional notation with a radix of 2. Owing to its straightforward implementation in digital electronic circuitry using logic gates, the binary system is used internally by all modern computers.

In the end each binary number represents a decimal equivalent. We use this fact to translate the binaries into decimals. We already learned how to memorize decimal digits with the Major System. This is as easy as taking candy from a baby. Hence binary digits aren’t anything to be scared off in a memory competition. In fact it is an astonishingly motivating because of the pure amount of data each athlete is memorizing within one single image.

This is how you translate the binary code into the Major code:

• 000 = 0 = S
• 001 = 1 = T
• 010 = 2 = N
• 011 = 3 = M
• 100 = 4 = R
• 101 = 5 = L
• 110 = 6 = J
• 111 = 7 = K

It isn’t really hard to memorize even without a mental help. But if you still struggle with the translation you should be aware of the following rule:

The first binary digit will be multiplied by 4. The second will be multiplied by 2. The third will be multiplied by 1. If you add all three results you get your decimal number.

Examples:

• 011 = 4 x 0 + 2 x 1 + 1 x 1 = 3
• 101 = 4 x 1 + 2 x 0 + 1 x 1 = 5

We don’t bring the binaries to four digits because this way they fit perfectly into our Major System as you will see in the next passage.

1^st-level Binary System

With all the techniques we already learned in the previous episodes of How to become a Memory Champion, it is fair enough to call the simplest adaption of the Major System the 1^st-level for binary systems. It is very easy and powerful.

Just take six binary digits and put them together to one Major peg:

• 001 (T) + 011 (M) = Team
• 010 (N) + 111 (K) = Nike
• 111 (K) + 000 (S) = Kiss

Pretty easy, right? As you can see I skipped the part where I translate the binaries into decimals. That is not necessary if you learn the consonants from the beginning. With a little training you will be able to “read” the binaries like letters. The next steps are already familiar: Associate your pegs with your locations by following the elephant rules.

To memorize a 300-binary-digit this way you need 50 images.

1.5-level Binary System

Remember the improved cluster-systems for numbers and cards like PVO (person-verb-object). You can easily adopt them for binaries as well. Actually this system feels even more powerful with the binaries because you will encode eighteen (18) digits in one single image. I will use my personal system to give you an example:

• 20 = nose (PVO: Pinocchio – sneezing – nose)
• 27 = Nike (PVO: Michael Jordan – jumping – Nike shoe)
• 30 = mouse (PVO: Mickey Mouse – hugging – Ferris Wheel)
• 010 000 010 111 011 000 – Pinocchio jumps over a Ferris Wheel

In an adult memory competition each row always contains 30 binary digits. Therefore it could make sense to you to try memorizing a whole row on one single location. I do that by using a variation of my system: PVOPV for example contains 30 digits. But that is something you should decide for yourself. Maybe it doesn’t fit your preferences for mental images. Or maybe it simply slows you down.

To memorize a 306-binary-digit this way you need only 17 images.

2^nd-level Binary System

The next step on the binary evolution is the 3^rd-level Major System. Create a peg list of 1.000 images and you are ready to go for nine binaries in one single non-clustered image. This might not sound as promising as eighteen digits within a clustered image. But actually it is easier and quicker to memorize (if you know your 3^rd-level number system as good as your PVO). It seems like a whole lot of effort to create and learn such a system (and it most certainly is). But if you take a look at the best memorizers in the binary disciplines you will find athletes with such (or even a better system) on top of the rankings.

One image could look like this:

• 001 (T) + 111 (G)  + 100 (R) = Tiger

To see this beautiful and catchy tiger, it feels like a waste of time using a PVO-system. But on the other hand it is an awful lot of work. Decide for yourself whether or not you are willingly to go this way.

To memorize a 306-binary-digit this way you need 34 images.

3^rd-level Binary: The Ben System

The World Memory Champion Ben Pridmore went one step further with his system. He is allocating three different letters (or sounds) to binaries. Ten digits combined produce one single image. Although it is just one digit more than a 2^nd-level system it is probably far more powerful. Regarding the fact that each row includes 30 binary digits one can put three images together on one location to memorize a whole row.

His code is based on the Major System and looks like this:

First consonant (first four digits)

• 0000 = s
• 0001 = t
• 0010 = n
• 0011 = m
• 0100 = r
• 0101 = l
• 0110 = g/j
• 0111 = k
• 1000 = f
• 1001 = b
• 1010 = p
• 1011 = d
• 1100 = h
• 1101 = sk/sn/sm
• 1110 = st/sp
• 1111 = sh/sl/sw

Vowel (next three digits)

• 000 = `oo’ as in `you’
• 001 = `a’ as in `cat’
• 010 = ‘e’ as in ‘pet’
• 011 = ‘i’ as in ‘kitten’
• 100 = ‘o’ as in ‘tom’
• 101 = ‘u’ as in ‘puss’
• 110 = `A’ as in `hay’
• 111 = `E’ as in `bee’

Second consonant (final three digits)

• 000 = s
• 001 = t
• 010 = n
• 011 = m
• 100 = r
• 101 = l
• 110 = g
• 111 = k

To memorize a 300-binary-digit this way you need 30 images.

Conclusion

Speed Binary is a great discipline in memory sports. It isn’t any more difficult than numbers or cards but for outsiders it seems to be impossible. Soon we can expect that athletes are taking the obstacle of 1.000 digits in only five minutes. If you want to jump into action right now you should check out the binary training on Memocamp.

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