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.

Read More

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.

Read More