It’s been twelve weeks after the first episode of How to become a Memory Champion. Since then you learned how to use the method of loci, to make good associations and to create your Major System. Make sure you read the previous episodes because they contain relevant information to understand this article. Today we will focus on the technique how to memorize a deck of cards – the ultimate memory discipline.

Memorizing Cards

If you have ever watched a top memory athlete memorizing a deck of cards, you probably understand the astonishment about this action. Compared to all of the other championship disciplines you actually see what’s going on: The competitor is rushing through the 52 cards in his or her hands, getting only a glimpse of each of them. After an out-of-the-world short time the stopwatch is being clicked and the athlete goes into some kind of meditation, recalling all the images which have been created a few seconds ago. More and more athletes around the world are able to memorize a deck of cards in five minutes or less. 166 competitors (June 2008) already have proven to do this in an official championship in the lasts years. On top of all this Speed Cards is always the last discipline at a tournament and therefore the most exciting one. Many athletes have taken the lead in this very last round.

The Different Card Systems

Other than the number systems you will most certainly not start with a cluster for your card images. To refresh your memory, a cluster is containing a few information stored in one image. Due to the 52 cards in a poker deck, a 1st-level system is much more elaborate than its little brother for 10 numbers. You’ll need at least 52 pegs to translate each card into a different image. There are many different approaches to create them.

The easiest one I know (as long as you don’t already have a Major System) was created by Steffen Bütow (former German Speed Cards record with 45.82 seconds at the North German Championship in 2003). It categorizes the four colours into four categories and than uses a number-form system to translate the cards. Because it is very intuitive and based on visual associations, you will be able to memorize it in a few hours.

Another approach is by using the Major System (or any other system you used as a 2nd-level number system). You just take those images and use it for the cards, too. By doing that you don’t have to learn any new images. I will explain this approach in detail below.

Then there are a few simple cluster systems like person-object (PO), person-verb (PV) and person-verb-object (PVO). For those you create your first 52 pegs with the system of your choice and then extend it to 104 or even 156 pegs and more with natural associations. The most evolved system for cards was created by the actual World Memory Champion Ben Pridmore and is a true 2nd-level card system.

The 1st-Level System

Although there are several cluster systems for cards I will start with a simple 1st-level system. It is relatively easy to learn. Since we already created a Major System in the last episode we will use it now for cards, too. The advantage is that you don’t have to create and memorize 52 new images. Another benefit is that each time you train either number or cards you also train your images for the other discipline. The downside is that you have a smaller variety in images which probably could influence the clearness of your mental pictures. In my case it doesn’t!

If you look at the logic behind the 52 cards you realize that there are many numbers among them which makes it easy to use the Major System.

Let us assign our Major pegs now to the cards: If you look at the logic behind the 52 cards you realize that there are many numbers among them which makes it easy to use the Major System. The thirteen cards of each colours are divided into the numbers two to nine, the Jack, the Queen, the King and the Ace.

1. We divide the 52 cards into the four colours and sort them. Personally I ordered the four colours like their worth in the German card game “Skat” which is Diamonds, Hearts, Spades and Clubs. But you should order them as you like.
2. If we use the Ace as the number one we have a perfect order from Ace to King regarding the natural numbers for nine of the thirteen cards.
3. There are now different approaches:
   1. We assign the cards logically to our Major pegs. What I did is to use the Diamonds Ace to ten for the numbers 01-10. Now I do a trick: Instead of breaking the great congruence of the numbers by using the digits 11-13 for Jack, Queen and King, I switch now to Hearts. Hence I assign 11-20 with Ace of Hearts to ten of Hearts followed by Spades for 21-30 and Clubs for 31-40. Those first 40 cards are easily allocated and memorized. Each time you see the six of Spades you will remember that Spades is in the 20s and therefore it must be your number 26! Quite easy so far.Now to the tricky part: 41-43 will become the persons of Diamonds, 44-46 the persons of Hearts, 47-49 the persons of Spades and 50-52 the persons of Clubs. Those last 12 cards are not very intuitive and easy to learn, but nevertheless not that difficult after all.
   2. Alternatively you can assign the persons of Hearts to 51-53, the persons of Spades to 61-63 and the persons of Clubs to 71-73.
   3. Another approach would be by assigning all Diamonds to 1-13, all Hearts to 21-33, all Spades to 41-53 and all Clubs to 61-73. You should decide which way makes more sense to you. Maybe you come up with another way of using your Major System. Like everything in memory techniques you should find the way you like best.

Maybe you already realized it by yourself: Your handsome 2nd-level number system had just been reduced to a simple 1st-level card system!

The 1.5-Level System

After you created your 1st-level system and used it a bit you will find out that it is quite an effort to memorize a deck of cards. The reason for this is because of the fact that you don’t use any clusters whatsoever. You just assigned one image for each card. Therefore you need 52 journey points on your elephant path to memorize the whole deck. With numbers you could already memorize 104 digits with the same amount of locations.

A great way to improve your system is by creating a cluster for your cards. An easy solution is the PO (PV, PVO) System. To be perfectly correct it is actually not a proper cluster because you don’t increase the amount of data per image. What you do is to increase the amount of data per story and therefore per location. The first thing you might come up with is to use more than one image on each journey point. But that is very risky because you could forget the correct order. By using 52 persons and 52 objects you will always know that the person comes first and the object comes second. It doesn’t matter in which order you remember them.

Creating a PO System is extremely intuitive and easy to memorize because you use your own natural associations.

Creating that list is extremely intuitive and easy to memorize because you use your own natural associations: If your number 40 (ten of Clubs) is RoSe (object) than your natural association could be Sleeping Beauty (person). If your 23 is NeMo (person) your object could be a submarine. It is so easy that you wont really have to memorize it at all. You just have to come up with your best associations once, write it down and you will realize that it is still there the next time you are recalling it. If it is not popping into your head immediately there might be a better image for you.

Instead of objects you can also use actions (verbs). Some athletes (including myself) are using a PVO System with all three lists. You could go even further and add as many other different lists you want.

The memorization process is slightly different to your normal stories because you will have to combine at least three elements with each other: the person, the object and your location. Make sure you clearly distinguish between all of your persons. Otherwise you will just remember that someone was dancing with a microphone on your bed. Each person should get at least one unique attribute like a huge belly, a beard or a hat. That’s all and you already saved 50% of your locations.

But there is also a downside to this system: As more lists you use, it exponentially reduces your creativity and increases the necessity for a very clear and good story. And that takes precious time which you don’t have in a memory competition. Therefore I would not suggest to go any further as a PVO System. And even this is already very limited because the whole story is defined by the order of the pegs. I already started to train PV instead of PVO (which I was using for about four years) because I like the freedom in creativity. But this is another question of personal interest. If you go for a 1.5-level system you should start with PO (or PV) and slowly upgrade the system to your needs and skill if necessary.

The 2nd-Level System

Ben Pridmore was the first athlete with a true 2nd-level card system. It creates a proper cluster by combining two cards to one image. For doing this you need 52×51=2652 images, which is a massive amount of pegs. And this system is for cards only! Actually I don’t really know how Ben (or Simon Reinhard and Dennis Müller) created and memorized this system. I will ask one of them and report it in an upcoming episode. But you get the point: It is an extremely powerful system and much more evolved than its smaller brothers. Even PVO is in my opinion far less sophisticated.

Nevertheless I would nobody recommend this system except you aim for the memory crown. And even then you can do it with a smaller system. Three times World Memory Champion Andi Bell memorized a deck of cards in 31.16 seconds with a PVO-System (156 pegs). But on the other hand have a look at the two top scores in Speed Cards: Ben Pridmore with 26.28 and Simon Reinhard with 27.36 seconds each of them using a 2nd-level system. I quote chief arbiter Phil Chambers:

Phil Chambers: I believe that technique wins out over natural memory most of the time.

That’s it for today. I hope you found this article useful to create your own system for cards. Please feel free to use the comments for any questions, critic or different point of views. And to give you a little insight in the practical use of your new system, I add Simon Reinhard’s national record in Speed Cards. Watch it, love it, learn it!

Awesome Memory: German Speed Cards Record from Flauwy on Vimeo.

South German Memory Champion Simon Reinhard is memorizing a deck of cards in 27.36 seconds and creates a new German record. See this marvelous accomplishment with your own eyes.

Learn the techniques yourself – it is easy and fun. Everyone can do it!

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In the third episode of How to become a Memory Champion you will learn how to memorize numbers with the Major System. It is a powerful tool which is used by the majority of mental athletes. Since it is based on a phonetic system, you will easily memorize all the images and go on to use it in action. But you must be careful with it: It will blow your mind!

Learning the Major System seems to be a big obstacle for many people. But it is very easy to memorize and a lot of fun to use!

The challenge of numbers

The memory of a human being varies from person to person. Although we all share more or less the same brain-physiology, there are huge differences in the way we all think and remember. Some people are excellent when it comes to memorize digits. They still remember the phone numbers from their friends in primary school. Others however forget the four digits of their cash cards in an instant. I have no actual statistics about that, but I assume that most people have problems with numbers. So why do we forget about digits so easily?

The reason why numbers are so troublesome for many people, is that they are an abstract entity. They characterize an amount of something, but are nothing we can see, hold or feel. We can’t even discribe what they mean. Sure, you can try it for a very low digit. But when it comes to more than ten you will have huge problems. The conclusion for us is, to make numbers more concrete.

How to memorize a number

To manifest a number you have to alter it into something else. It doesn’t really matter into what, as long as you can imagine it. Since we have a decimal system, we need to translate at least ten images for each number. The lists you create out of those objects are called “peg lists“. Once you memorized such a list, you can use it over and over again.

One approach is through the shape of each number. For example: The “two” looks just like a swan. But don’t bother learning such a simple system. Why? At first, you don’t use the power of clusters. That means, putting several informations into one image. To remember a phone number with eight digits, you would also need eight images. Although it helps to remember it, the effort is to big for such a simple task. Second of all, ten images are not enough to have a variety for different stories. Imagine you have to make a story for a number with four “twos”. You would have to put four swans in your mental image. If you want to memorize digits effectevly, you will need a more evolved system. So let’s skip this and go on to the 2-digit-Systems.

The different peg systems

The smallest cluster for decimal digits are 100 images for each combination of two numbers. There are two common peg systems to accomplish that. The second most common one is the Dominic system. It was created by eight-times World Memory Champion Dominic O’Brien and is based on persons. This system is great, but (in my personal opinion) not as good as the Major System.

Due to its phonetic basis, the queen under all mnemonic systems is the easiest way to associate images with 100 numbers in a short time. And you have a great alternation in different objects. In the end it doesn’t matter what kind of system you use if you have the same amount of informations stored as images.

The Major System

The Major System is a phonetic technique to “translate” numbers into words. It starts with converting digits into consonant sounds. After that you add vowels before, between and after those letters. The phonetic rules have hooks to remember them very quickly. That helps you to reconstruct the words in the learning phase. After a while you will have strong associations with each number from 00 to 99. It seems like a huge effort to make things easier for your memory. But it isn’t that difficult and in the end you will never have to think about it again. You will just know it.

Another great thing about the Major System is the fact, that it is based on levels. You can improve it by adding a third number to your cluster (3^rd level). That would mean to memorize 1.000 objects, before you can use it (or 900 since you already learned the first 100). But that is nothing you should think about for startes. Actually you are able to get the memory crown even with a 2^nd-level-system. There are only a handful of people using a 3^rd-level-system. And there is a nice alternative: With PVO (person-verb-object) you only need 300 images and your clusters include even six digits. I don’t say one or the other is better. They both have their qualities. But all that is something you first need the basics for. I will come back to the high-end-systems in a future episode of “How to become a Memory Champion”.

The rules: 86 is a fish

The following rules are the basics of the system. You have to memorize them in order to create and reconstruct your pegs. I teached them to dozens of children. They were all able to learn them in about ten minutes. Without an oral explanation, it might take a little bit longer, but you get my point: It is very simple!

Let’s have a look at the rules:

[table id=2 /]

Since I use the slightly different german version of the system, I rely on the great explanation on Wikipedia, to describe it further:

• Each digit maps to a set of similar sounds with similar mouth and tongue positions. The mapping is phonetic, so it is the consonant sounds that matter, not the spelling. Therefore a word like “action” would encode the number 762, not 712; and “ghost” would be 701, while, because the “gh” in “enough” is pronounced like an “f”, the word “enough” encodes the number 28.
• Similarly, double letters are disregarded. The word “missile” is mapped to 305, not 3005. To encode 3005 one would use something like “mossy sail”.
• Often the mapping is compact. “Hindquarters”, for example, translates unambiguously to 2174140, which amounts to 7 digits encoded by 12 letters, and can be easily visualized.

You see, the big fish (86) under the peg systems is quite a powerful technique to memorize numbers.

Create your own list

If you are sticking to the rules above, there are few things you can make wrong. You can even use abstract words like “time” if you have a strong visual association for it like a clock. Stay strictly with the rules in the beginning. It will help you to memorize the words. Later you can jump around and use any words to replace your weaker images. I changed several pegs in my system over time without using the Major System anymore. But to learn the whole pack at once, the rules are a must have.

Another thing to consider is, to exclude words with more than two consonants from your 2^nd-level list. That makes it easier afterwards to expand your system to the 3^rd-level. And you even don’t have to come up with the correct words yourself. There are free programs for that, which help you to find proper images:

• 2Know Mnemonic Software
• Mnemisis
• In German only – a free online Major-Code: Zahlen merken

How to use your Major System

The easiest thing about your Major System is to use it. You already learned how to create your path with the method of loci in the first episode of How to become a Memory Champion. Bring those two systems together and use associations like you learned in the second episode. That is all. You should now be able to remember as many numbers as you like. Just translate the images you remember back to the digits. With the help of your elephant path you will bring them back in the right order.

Do you remember my example with the banana and the table from the second episode? If not, I will repeat it for you: You want to remember the banana and your journey point is the table. In this case the banana would be your word for your 3^rd-level association 922 (BaNaNa). Now you use your imagination to create a little story worth remembering. And it is even easier than to memorize exactly the word banana (like you must in the championship disciplines for words), because it doesn’t matter if you remember one or many – the number stays the same. Ok, you may argue that BaNaNaS should be the number 9220, but you do know if you use a 3rd-level or 4th-level system – so every optional consonant is irrelevant. Let’s have a look at a few possible associations with the banana and the table:

• The table is not made of wood, but out of bananas instead. You better do not stand on it!
• There is a boxing ring on the table, where two bananas fight to the death.
• Why to make it complex? Just take the banana and smash it on the table. Weeks later you will still find parts of the banana all over your place.

That’s it! You are now able to start your training. The actual world record in 5 minute Numbers is 405 digits by Johannes Mallow. He is using a 3^rd-level Major System.

Tell us what system you are using.

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Good results at memory championships depend on doing the right things correctly. However that does not only include knowing basic or even advanced memory techniques and constant training. It is also important to know how to prepare oneself for a contest and how to avoid known mistakes at championships. In this article I will outline common mistakes and discuss how you can handle a championship as a participant to maximize your overall score. This article does not focus on routine training. A few of the mistakes mentioned in the text I have experienced by myself, others I have heard or read by first or second hand. The idea to write this article was born at a dinner table in Cambridge while discussing the recent championship.

1. Before a championship

Pack the stuff you need:

• BASIC WRITING MATERIAL like a pen and some paper to make notes between the events. In one of the first championships I joined one participant did not even had a pen. After borrowing one from another person he was nevertheless able to win that championship. Ensure to bring your own ball point pen without extra lubrication otherwise you might be unable to read some of the numbers.
• OTHER OFFICE EQUIPMENT (if needed) like ruler (in an adequate size!), eraser, crayons or highlighters, pencil and pencil-sharpener and other things like that. A pencil should be blunt to prevent rupture of your papers.
• TIMING DEVICES like a watch or a count up/ down timer. If your timing device has a sound function make sure that you can handle it properly and that you do not disturb other people (especially in the learning phase).
• FOOD AND WATER SUPPLY: Although sometimes championship locations are stuffed with free food you are on the safe side if you bring along your own food. An advantage of this is that you have already planned in advance what you will eat without the danger of being seduced by inadequate food.
• ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT: Think about all the electronic devices you want to use like timing devices and cameras, including batteries, chargers and power adapters.
• Bring your LUCKY STUFF along if you need it and do not forget it on the train! This can be a lucky T-Shirt, a lucky cap (not an advertisement cap), a lucky belt, a lucky stuffed animal or whatsoever.
• Bring the ADDRESS of the venue and a MAP or a navigation device along or take a look at an Internet map. Make sure that you can easily find the location of the championship – this is an easy way to prevent stress and bad luck.

Train every discipline at least once at home:

• LOCI-POINTS: Make sure that you have enough loci-points for every discipline. If you have to use a loci-point twice try to fill it with different content the next time you use it (for example first cards then numbers or the other way round to prevent chaos in your head). You should also plan which loci-points you want to use for which discipline, especially if your pool of loci-points is limited. Side note: loci is the plural for the Latin word locus which is just another word for a location used to memorize items. Read more about the method of loci.
• LONGER DISCIPLINES: A mental marathon is not just an extended short discipline. Doing a marathon usually requires different repetition cycles than shorter disciplines. Without simulating that at least once you are clueless how much repetition cycles you might need and risk scoring zero points in those disciplines. If you want to equal the grandmaster norm with just one shot per year at the world memory championships this is a very important thing to consider.
• DRAW THE LINE: You should be aware that unlike training with some computer software there will be no lines drawn in advance on your learning and recall papers. You have to be prepared for this. That means that you have to choose if you want to draw lines or not. If you do not draw lines you have to be absolutely focused otherwise you might get lost in the forest of digits (especially if they are just ones and zeros). If you draw the lines by yourself you will loose time needed for repetition (compared with an online trial). Therefore it might be a good tactic to try less (binary) digits than at home. In addition to that most people are having trouble drawing lines that are not straight. So if you memorize for example sex digits on a loci-point there will be four digits left in the decimal number discipline with 40 digits in every row. Of course you can memorize the last 4-digits-column separately but if you forget this one column you might get zero points for the whole discipline. Think about how you want to solve this problem in advance!



• LIMITED TRAINING MATERIAL: If your training material is limited (like the abstract images training sheets) you should consider how to optimize your training. In that case it is important when you do your training. Do not be surprised if you encounter new items during a competition and try to adapt your speed and repetition cycles to it.
• SENSE OF TIME: You should develop a good sense of time. Knowing how much time is left can be very important if you want to adapt your strategy while memorizing.
• To SUMMARIZE all that with the words of Ben Pridmore: it is important to train [at least once] at home exactly the same way you will compete in a real championship.
• STOP TRAINING some time before the competition to keep your loci-points fresh for the competition!
• In my opinion SUCCESS IS THE RESULT of a good preparation flavored by a little bit of luck.

Pay attention to physiological needs:

• Do some PHYSICAL SPORT besides your periodical memory training at least once a week! Sport is important to provide your body with oxygen and can build new cells. Although the last round at the world memory championships 2008 between Ben Pridmore and Gunther Karsten was won by Ben I assume that Gunther’s physical sport (and eating) habits are much closer to the ideal than Ben’s. Of course if you have excellent techniques, good memory training habits and lots of talent you can win a championship without paying attention to your physiological needs, especially if the other contestants make other mistakes.
• GET ENOUGH SLEEP before the competition! :sleeping:
• AVOID DRINKING ALCOHOL on the day before the competition! In addition to that restrict your common alcohol use to maximum one or two drinks a day.
• DRINK ENOUGH WATER!
• DO NOT DRINK TOO MUCH WATER! In the one hour disciplines you cannot visit the toilet for at least one hour that should be obvious.



• EAT WISELY! Eat your breakfast otherwise your level of attention might drop rapidly. Do not eat too much and eat the right food. Tony Buzan told me 2007: It is better to waste food than to waste your body. He added that I could eat everything I want after a championship.
• RESTRICT YOUR SUGAR CONSUMPTION especially during competition! Although some memory athletes make world records while eating lots of sugar products this behavior might lead to problems later on. A short term consequence can be that you get tired. Of course you can eat even more sugar but then you might be seriously exhausted on the evening which might be not so good for the next competition day. If you eat lots of sugar on a regular basis this can lead to health problems. However: keep in mind that sweets taste good and enjoy your life! I recommend that you delay sugar consumption to the latest time possible, but in the end you have to find your personal highway to success. World memory champion Ben Pridmore probably would say: as long as you are world champion you can eat any kind of food you like. For championships I recommend pure water along with some fruits and nuts.

2. During a championship

• BE EARLY AT THE VENUE! Consider that there might be traffic jams and changes in place you do not know in advance.
• POSTPONE INVENTIONS FOR YOUR TRAINING SESSIONS! It is possible to be better when changing your strategies in competitions in the very last minute. I always do that in the abstract images dicipline. However, in my last memory championship I tried three new inventions – two times my results were much lower than before. One example for a change of strategy could be the change from a sequenced learning strategy to a cherry-picking strategy. Some people can successfully pick the history dates and names and faces which match the least-effort-principle. However think about that it also takes extra time to scan the material which might be better invested by learning a fixed interval. If you hear about new strategies do memorize them or write them down but wait until you are back home to try them.
• CLARIFY HOW MANY POINTS YOU CAN GET! Clarify how many points you can get in each discipline respectively the whole championship in three different scenarios: a most likely case, a worst case and a best case scenario! Decide if you aim for gold, silver or bronze medals (for the whole competition or just some disciplines), if you want to break a national record (even if there are just one or two participants competing that might be fun for some people), if you want to become the best newcomer or beat your own records (like personal bests, training records, overall records et cetera).



• DECIDE YOUR AIMS AND YOUR WILLINGNESS TO TAKE RISKS! Decide what your aims are and adapt your way of handling risks to it! You cannot assume that you will repeat all your training records within a real championship particularly if you have not trained all the disciplines in a row. A top ten memory athlete once said that if you can beat a record once in training you can also do it in a competition. Of course that is correct one could actually add if you were close to a record in training you can achieve that in competition. For example: until now my results in the abstract images discipline were always higher in competitions than during training sessions! Being able to achieve something does not necessarily mean that you will achieve it always. Trying to achieve something in a competition discipline that is above your average performance level contains a high risk potential to fail in that discipline. The top ten memory athlete continued to say that not risking enough is the number one reason to miss a victory. I disagree with that. If you take a look at the world memory championship results from 2007 Ben Pridmore broke a world record but failed in the two cards disciplines. Therefore the new world memory champion was Gunther Karsten who did not break a single world record. 2008 Ben changed his strategy and broke not a single world record but became world memory champion once again. Gunther on the opposite broke two world records but that did not help him to win the world memory championships. Conclusion: Pushing it to the edge is a good way to win a single discipline, to strengthen your confidence, to motivate yourself and to make your opponents insecure but it does not necessarily help to win a championship because of the high risks you have to take.



• USE THE CONCEPT OF EXPECTED VALUE! Taking more risks can ensure a leading position in a single discipline. However if you want to win a championship it is important that you do not fail too often. To maximize your overall scores I would recommend using the statistic concept of expected value (EV) which also could be described by the law of big numbers. Let me explain this with an example. If your record memorizing speed cards is 60 seconds (worth 500 points) with a probability of 10 percent, your medium time is 75 seconds (worth 400 points) with a probability of 50 percent and your safe time is about 150 seconds (worth 200 points) with a probability of about 95 percent you will receive the following expected values: 500 * 0.1 = 50, 400 * 0.5 = 200, 200* 0.95 = 190. In that case you get the highest expected value at 75 seconds with 200 (EV) points in the long run. Of course if you remember all the cards correctly you get 400 championship points for this performance. After you have successfully recalled a card game within that time you can still aim for 60 seconds. Of course if you want to avoid risk you can at first gor for 150 seconds and if you need the points to win you might directly try the 60 seconds. Knowing your expected value does not prevent you from adapting your tactics to the current situation in the competition.



• BE CONFIDENT! On a good day everything is possible even if you are very new to the sport! For example the 17-year old Dennis Mueller accomplished after just 6 months of training to be placed 22 in the world rankings and he still has the chance to become better than anyone else in the sport. Joshua Foer a reporter who wrote about the USA Memory Championships became the winner of this event just one year later and earned a big amount of money afterwards. When I was a pupil I sometimes had problems to remember even tiny pieces of information like seven words in a row. I once even forgot my text when I was rehearsing a play for one week. My text consisted of just three words! After learning basic memory techniques as a student at university I could memorize about 20 to 30 words in five minutes. At that time all world memory champions came from the UK and it seemed impossible for me that anyone not British could win the title of world memory champion. Today Great Britain has to share its role model with Germany. Other Countries like India, China, the USA or even smaller countries like Sweden might follow within the next years. I stayed on my plateau from university studies for about ten years and thought that I had attained about 80 percent of my capabilities. The world memory championships seemed to be very far away. After I heard that there are national and international championships I began to train systematically. Today I have managed to learn 40 words in five minutes within a championship. In training I even managed to learn up to 70 words without a single flaw which could qualify me for a top ten position in that discipline if could replicate that in a championship in the near future. By now I think that at least half of my potential is still uncovered. 2009 I will probably enter the world memory championships for the first time to compete with the best memorizers of the world. I doubt that I ever can be a world memory champion, but with respect to my moderate performance in the past I am very satisfied with what I have achieved until now. Having trained successfully many persons in memory techniques by myself I learned that anyone can be far better than one can believe at the beginning.
• THINK FASTER! Try to activate your “turbo boost” of thinking. Nutrition including water, fresh air during the competition breaks and motivation can help to achieve this.
• THINK SLOWLY! Take the time you need to learn anything correctly. In a competition it is much more important to learn with the speed you can master than just trying to mimic the speed of better participants. Pushing it over the edge will probably not help you to get the points you do expect but will reduce the amount of points you get even more. If you encounter an item which seems to be impossible to learn try to calm down and use your creativity to search for new associations.
• HIGHLIGHT ITEMS! Avoid looking at items you already have perfectly mastered to memorize! If you definitely know that you have learned something correctly you do not necessarily have to repeat it again. Try to highlight these items (at least in your head) to prevent looking at them again. Highlighting stuff can also be important if you have decided to skip specific items.



• CHECK YOUR ANSWERS FOR PLAUSIBILITY! In the longer card disciplines for example there should be 13 cards of every color on your recall paper – if not you definitely know that there is at least one mistake left to correct. To have enough time left to check the answers you have to answer fast.
• TAKE CHAMPIONSHIPS SERIOUSLY! Taking championships seriously means for example to organize your recall deck in speed cards before the recall phase and to switch off your mobile phone and other sources of sound during the learning phase.
• RELAX! You should take a championship serious but a championship is also a social event, so use the time to get to communicate with people and enjoy the ride. If you learn playing cards in the speed cards discipline it is better to stop the time quiet and safe in 30 seconds than to finish after 27 seconds while smashing your cards with loud noise on the table risking to let them fall on the floor. Whatever may happen how unsatisfied your may are – never loose your countenance! After all nobody is perfect – unless your name is “Nobody”!
• CHECK YOUR GRADING! If you do wonder why your scores are so low you might recheck the grading of your answer sheets. Most of the times grading will be correct but sometimes even correctors make mistakes.

3. After a championship:

• CONGRATULATE THE WINNER and thank all the people who organized and conducted the championship! Very often most of these people sit unnoticed in another room and work voluntary the whole day for example as a corrector to make it possible that you can participate in a well organized championship.



• ENJOY THE EVENING with old and new buddies! NOW you can drink some alcohol though it is still allowed to drink orange juice. If you order drinks for your buddies make sure you do not forget what they want. NOW you have the possibility to eat whatever you want (as long as you can afford it). If you decide to sing in a karaoke bar make sure you choose a song in the right key for your voice. Try to find your way home (in case you drank too much call a cab.) This is the time to impress your buddies for example with detailed knowledge about birthday dates of their family members. Never reveal your free time memorizing tricks – other memory athletes might get disappointed if they understand how simple it can be to memorize some things.
• ANALYZE THE CHAMPIONSHIP! Analyze the results of the championship including the experiences you have made, revise your strategy, train and try to get more points (or even win) at your next championship. If you already are a world memory champion always remember: the world is not enough!
• SHARE YOUR INSIGHTS AND FOLLOW YOUR OWN ADVICE! Last but not least: if you have analyzed, experienced, read, listen, said or written some insights on how to handle a championship – share your insights with your team mates and try to follow at least some of your own advice.

Comment this article!

Other readers will benefit much more from this article if you improve it by making a comment on it. This implies to discuss my suggestions, to expand the list of dispositions and common mistakes and to share your experience. No matter if people can memorize very well or very poorly – they can always learn from each other.

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It is time for the second chapter of How to become a Memory Champion. The last time we spoke about the method of loci, with which we created an Elephant Path. Today we will talk about how to use it and create a story worth remembering. It is all about the right associations. Learn what you should do and what you should leave out.

Step 1: Imagine it, Hear it, Feel it!

It is the most valuable lesson in memory sports: Imagine your stories before your inner eye. You have to SEE your stories become alive. It is a huge beginners mistake to create a story to remember but not visualizing it. When I started with memory techniques, I just spoke the words of the story in my mind, but I lacked figuring it out in all its details. This process doesn’t necessarily need a lot of time. But you have to be there yourself if you create any kind of tale for memory purposes in your mind.

For example, Einstein credited his discovery of special relativity to a mental visualization strategy of “sitting on the end of a ray of light”, and many people as part of decision-making talk to themselves in their heads.

Some people prefer to use other sensory channels. Although I just used four different visual words to describe this task, you can also try to hear or feel what’s happening in your story. Try out what’s working best for you. If I remember correctly, former German Junior Champion Katharina Bunk used a card system with auditory associations. Since she memorized a deck of cards in 45.8 seconds, it seems pretty affective for her. You can also combine all the different channels to get a great overall sense for your story. By the way:

The other two senses, gustatory (taste) and olfactory (smell), which are closely associated, often seem to be less significant in general mental processing, and are often considered jointly as one.

Quotes: Wikipedia

Step 2: Think out of the box!

Let’s assume your first station in your path is the kitchen table. Your goal is to memorize random words. This is one of the easiest disciplines in a memory championship, because you don’t need anything else than your ready Elephant Path (or Journey, how most of the English speaking athletes call it) and your creativity. The first word you have to memorize is the word “banana“.

What would be your first thought for a possible association? I guess you would imagine putting the banana on the table. I can assure you, that this idea is definitely the worst you could come up with.  If you are going to memorize dozens of words this way, in most of the cases you wouldn’t remember much. You would just recall, that something was lying on the table. But why is that? Why can’t we remember that story?

The answer is trivial: because it is boring! It never made its way to the long-term memory. Since our brain is getting millions of data every second, it has to filter everything by relevance. If something seems irrelevant, our mind wont keep that information (some neuroscientist believe that we keep every single data we ever experienced, but even so, we can’t remember it at will). Although we made the first step and defined the location to look for the information in the little universe in our head by using a path, we still can’t remember.

But it is easy to change that lack of relevance: we just use our creativity!

So let’s come back to the banana and the table: What can we do instead of simply putting it on the table?

1. We eat the banana and put a forth of the peel under each leg. Now we can use the table like a Skateboard and slide through the room.
2. We coat the table surface with the mushed banana. It feels great now!
3. We turn the table and use the banana like a pistol – “We going straight – to – the Wild Wild West”.
4. What would King Louie do? He would build a throne out of the giant banana – right on the table. That way he can be higher than his fellow apes.

But careful: Be sure you just use ONE banana in your story. Otherwise you would remember the word “bananas” – and that would be wrong in a championship!

Step 3: Use your emotions!

Try to think about your past life: What events do you recall first? How clearly can you remember them? You will recognize, that the best memories in your head are always full of emotions, like birthdays, Christmas, your first day in school, your first kiss, marriage, the birth of your children. If you are asking any person about what they did on the 11th of September 2001, they can tell you every detail about it – but they have no idea what they did the day before.

So what you should do is, to fill your stories with emotions. Be happy or sorry for any living creature in your invented tales. Feel empathic for everything what’s happening in your mind as long as you are memorizing data.

Step 4: I like to move it, move it

Do you remember, what we did with the table, after we put the banana peel under the legs? I guess you do – and not just because we thought out of the box. The fact that there was a certain movement in the story, increased its relevance dramatically. I can assure you, that all the images I create include any kind of animation. Especially my numbers are full of motion because I use a Person-Verb-Object-System. But I will come back to that in another episode of How to become a Memory Champion.

Step 5: EXAGERATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One of the greatest tools when creating an image is to hyperbolize it. It will jack up your stories a lot. One thing I do with most of my images is to increase or decrease the size dramatically. Why should I remember an elephant on my sofa with its real dimensions? It would probably kind of difficult to imagine, because the elephant is far too big for the couch. But if you shrink it to the size of a puppy, it will be adorable and funny. You can’t forget it anymore.

Step 6: :devil: Use sexual fantasies! :devil:

I don’t think, that I have to explain it to you, but just for the integrity I do: There is no stronger impulse in a human being than sex! Even survival often comes after that biggest of instincts. So we can and will use that drive to push our memories on to a new level. If you are too conservative to take that chance of improving your memory, you will miss a huge chance. My advise: bite the bullet. You have nothing to loose, because it is your own mind and nobody can criticize you about it.

And if you don’t tell, nobody will ever know… :angel:

Step 7: Colourize it!

Well, your brain is always cheering out loud, when it comes to beautiful colours. What do you remember more: A gray and cloudy day in fall or a sunny day on a flower field? It speaks for itself. Use it for your images. You don’t have to dye every single association you are creating – that would probably overdo it. But especially if you are creating your paths and systems (for numbers, cards, abstract images), you should use many colours to help yourself establishing a proper image in your mind. It will also help you afterwards to recall your images, because a colourful story is more interesting.

Step 8: Repeat, repeat, repeat…

Actually, this last step falls out of the previous advises. Repetition is less necessary for the perfect association but hugely important for any kind of memory. In memory sports, a rollback of the images you just created can stabilize your stories dramatically. But it is a twisted sword: If you are going for an enormous amount of data in a short time, you probably wont have enough time to repeat. In that case you will have to trust your associations you did only once. But most of the athletes are repeating their images at least once. Some memory athletes like MemoryXL-President Boris Konrad are iterating their images several time. That means, that he is relying more on repetition, than on the perfect association (correct me if I am wrong, Boris). His old world record of 106 words in 5 minutes (recently broken by Katie Kermode with 109 words) speaks for the effectiveness of this method.

So you see, there is a lot of improvement you can do with your associations. If you are using these advices and combine them with your own preferences and experience, soon you will become one of us – a Memory Athlete!

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This is the first part of your guide to become a memory like an elephant. Over the next weeks, Memory-Sports.com will give you an insight in the amazing techniques of all mental athletes. You will learn how to memorize numbers, cards, names and words and discover the fascinating world of Memory Sports.

The Method of Loci

It is as old as ancient democracy: The method of loci, used by Greek and Roman senators to hold their intoxicating speeches in front of the senate. It was proscribed to use any kind of notes, so they were using this brilliant technique to jack up their memory. Rhetorical geniuses like Cicero went through their palaces, gardens and any other kind of locations (Latin: loci) and memorized  the order of every single object in their paths.

To remember a speech, they broke it into peaces and created symbols for every single part. Then they put those symbols into the different loci . To recall them they visualized the path and went from one station to another, where they remembered the symbols and translated them back into the speech. According to Cicero in “De Oratore”, the method of loci was invented by the Greek poet Simonides about 500 BC.

Quote Wikipedia:

Cicero (De oratore, ii. 86) tells the story of the end of Simonides relations with the Scopadae. His patron, Scopas, reproached him at a banquet for devoting too much space to a praise of Castor and Pollux in an ode celebrating Scopas’ victory in a chariot-race. Scopas refused to pay all the fee and told Simonides to apply to the twin gods for the remainder. Shortly afterwards, Simonides was told that two young men wished to speak to him; after he had left the banqueting room, the roof fell in and crushed Scopas and his guests (XXV. c. Simonides). During the excavation of the rubble, Simonides was called upon to identify each guest killed. He managed to do so by correlating their identities to their positions at the table before his departure.

What Simonides did is easy to reproduce, since remembering a route from A to B in its detail has once been part of the survival strategy of mankind. You can try it yourself: Close your eyes and remember the objects in your room. You will know exactly where your bed, your sofa, your table and your computer are. Imagine to go outside your room – can you see the corridor and the other rooms? Can you even leave the house and wander through your garden? Maybe you can jump to your workplace and see your office. You just discovered the method of loci!

The Power of the Elephant Path

Why is the method of loci so powerful?

1. On one hand it is using your natural memory for locations. Even if you have the feeling to easily loose orientation, you still are able to remember your own room in its detail.
2. On the other hand it provides a logical order. You just have to walk through your room clockwise or counterclockwise and all the objects will be in a specific order.

I will call each route we create with this method an “elephant path” (or just “path”). It is a track created by animal footfalls and represents the most easily navigated way between an origin and a destination. Each time it is used, it becomes stronger and grows wider. A memory athlete is using his paths over and over again, too. And since the elephant is also a symbol for a strong memory, it seems like a perfect name for the easiest way to a better memory.

A beautiful harmony, don’t you think?

Step 1 – Pick your Location

To use this technique and become a memory athlete, you have to choose your first location. It can be anywhere you like but you should pick the one you know best for your first elephant path. That could be your room, your flat, your house or your workspace. If you like, you can also create an imaginary path. But it is harder to memorize in the beginning, so I advise you to choose a real location first. A memory athlete creates several paths for championships. But for starters one should be fine.

Step 2 – Define the Way-Points

If you picked your first location, you have to define all the objects you want to use as way-points in your elephant path. They will be the stations you have to pass, each time you are memorizing any kind of information with it. The number of way-points will determine the length of your route – and therewith the amount of information you can store on it. You can have ten stations or a thousand. One single room can easily include twenty way-points. I suggest that your first elephant path should have about fifty stations. If you stick to some rules, your path will become more efficiently. But those rules are just a guideline – you can break them whenever you like. Since every person got a different mind and different affinities, you probably have to bend the rules to make them match your personality. By the way: This regards every single aspect in memory techniques!

• Do imagine your way-points in every detail
• Pick the way-points you first think of – they are in most cases the best
• Keep a certain order of the way you walk your path (i.e. clockwise)
• Use noticeable way-points every 10 steps to create proper segments
• Don’t make your way-points to small (i.e. a pencil)
• Don’t make your way-points to big (i.e. a house)
• Don’t make them to close together
• Don’t make them to far away from each other
• Don’t use similar way-points in the same path

Step 3 – Memorize your Path

Don’t be afraid of memorizing your path – it is as easy as taking candy from a baby!

Since you already know the location and you’ve finished defining the way-points, it will be very easy to memorize your new elephant path. Just try to recall it in your imagination. If you miss a few points, try to imagine yourself walking through your path and count each and every single way-point on it. Do that repeatedly and you will strengthen your path each time. After a while you can increase your speed dramatically: With a well trained path you wont need longer than a split second for each way-point. This process is quick and natural.

Step 4 – Use it!

With your new elephant path you are able to associate information like words with every way-point. It will help you to remember the correct order and can easily be used over and over again for different purposes. This is because you are naturally forgetting your associations after a while, if you are not recapitulate them again. This happens in a short period of time and depends on your memory. Some brilliant memory athletes will remember their images for up to two weeks without repeating them. Personally I have the mindset to never recall my associations a second time after training or a championship. I don’t need the information any more so I can let my brain forget it. That sounds counterproductive but it helps a lot to use my paths as soon as possibly again (in my case about a day). If you are looking to memorize something for the rest of your life, a simple path wont probably be enough, because you could not use it again for other information. There are different methods to do so, like Mind-Maps or the Self Enhanced Memory Matrix (SEM³) by Tony Buzan or the Wardrobe System by Dr. Ullrich Voigt.

If you are asking yourself, how the whole association thing works, be patient – I will soon describe it to you. In the meantime play around and get ready with your first path.

Thanks to Smashing Magazine for their perfect timing to give away free hand drawn illustrations. I was just looking for an elephant.

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