Card deck memorisation - post your times here!

General Memory Chat
41

Hey Richie,

Yeah for sure. So my technique is PAO (but as I may have written somewhere else, some images have just naturally morphed into PAA). I think when I first started all this memory stuff 3 years ago, I was doing PA, but then I competed and Ronnie White set the record (in 2009) for memorizing a deck in 1m27s with PAO. So I was like…damn that’s brilliant. So I started training PAO and that’s what I’ve done ever since.

I tried at one point last year to come up with some semi-Ben systems…adding a 4th card (I tried adding color, and also a second action, and also a natural disaster happening to the scene like a hurricane, earthquake, blizzard) but I never got any faster than 1m30s with those. On top of that, I was still training my old PAO system at the same time and it kept improving, so I was like ■■■■ it…I’m gonna just stick with this method and push through with it. More recently, like in January, I saw a facebook post by Boris saying he did 52 images 52 loci in like 30 seconds, so I tried to see if I simplified my system, would I get any faster? So I trained PA for a while…it was pretty good, but still never got any faster than PAO. I think I got PA down to 50 seconds pretty consistently. But then I started getting more into the 40 second range with PAO, so I let PA go. I think the bottom line is that it doesn’t matter what system you use, you just have to fully commit to it. I think I could have gotten even faster with it but because I was still holding on to the PAO, I never really committed to switching, you know?

Anyways, I’m happy with what I have now… and I have no plans to switch to a Ben system ever. I also have no plans to get below 20 seconds either. I’m pretty confident that the longer I do my training, the faster I’ll get. So once I’m under 30 seconds or so I’ll be happy.

Ok enough about that, more about my images. So at first I started with Dominic’s system. Converting the numbers and suits to letters and figuring out famous people, friends, cartoons with those initials. The summer of 2009, I decided to re-evaluate all my images and decided to go with people who were memorable in my life. So I basically replaced all the Hearts with family members. I would go around asking people, what’s your favorite number. My girlfriend said 9…so i was like PERFECT. 9 OF Hearts (replacing the old image of Nathanial Hawthorne - which who in gods name knows how to imagine Nathanial Hawthorne) became her. Got rid of Brad Pitt (K of Hearts) and replaced him with my dad.

Anyways, so I did that…the Hearts suits become all my family and super close friends. The other suits pretty much remained Dominic style, but I tweaked a few to be more memorable. Some are just the number they represent. For example, 2 of Diamonds is Kobe Bryant (2-D === 2-4, 24 is Kobe’s jersey number), same with 3 of Diamonds and Shaq. 6 of Spades (6-6) is Satan because of 666.

So that’s it…nothing special about my system. What I do think was an important part of me getting faster though, was KNOWING my images the instant I saw the card. In late 2009, I made it a point to spend 1 whole day with each card. It sounds retarded but it helped so much. I would keep the card in my pocket, place it next to me when I showered, ate, ran at the gym, etc. So by the end of the day I knew 2 of Spades was Britney Spears, for example, because she had been with me all day.

42

Thanks for that, Nelson, much appreciated.

I think you have hit the nail on the head in the final paragraph. The method that I use works (and works for many others too) I just need to get better at using it! Perhaps I’ll try taking Britney to work with me for a day :wink:

A further question just occurred to me. This is for everybody, not just Nelson. When I go through the deck to memorise it I think of my first location, flip over the first card onto the desk and then look at the second card to link all three together, then I put that second card down, think of the second location, put down the third card and look at the fourth to make the second image and so on. Do you guys do this too or do you keep all of the cards in your hands and just slide them across from one hand to the other?

43

slide baby ;D, it’s faster as well

44

When I first started flipped one card over at a time. But it’s too slow. I, and most every other fast card memorizer slide the cards through our hands from left to right or right to left. Me personally, I slide through 3 cards and then picture the image. I actually say it in my mind as it constructs itself, then throw it in a room and move on to the next 3.

45

I slide through the cards for the simple reason that if when recalling I get a “blank moment” on a locus, I have at least a little chance of getting a glimpse of what preceded or came after it when I have at some point seen the two together.

46

Nelson, do you have ONE specific route/palace you use EVERY time for a deck of cards and then never use that route for anything else (not when memorizing multiple decks) or does it change. Also do you put the images in entire rooms or do you link them to specific pieces of furniture/items IN the room. Thanks

47

At the moment I have 12 different 17-loci-long journeys set aside for cards. I cycle through these throughout the week to keep them fresh when memorizing.

As for what I use as anchor points, I use more of a general “area” or “space” in a room, never furniture. I think Ronnie White tags his images on pieces of furniture, but not me. Both ways are just as effective, I’m just not into decor that much :stuck_out_tongue:

48

Hey Nelson,

Using the 17 loci approach what happens when you are at the 17th with 1 card left over (3*17=51)? Do you store 1 image at location 18 or do you make a 4 part image at location 17?

49

Hey Richie…I don’t even look at the last card. I can figure it out when I’m putting the deck together afterwards (physically or mentally) because it’s always the one left over. Even if there are a few cards I’m not sure about, I can ALWAYS tell at least which is the one I never saw in the deck (the last one).

50

Ah, I see. The last card is memorable simply because it hasn’t been linked with any other cards.

And, of course, if you are rearranging a second deck I suppose it is pretty obvious which is the last one. Doh! Should have thought of that :smiley:

51

Ok, thank you I do exactly what you do, I just can’t get the sub 1 minute mark, I have 10 routes set aside for cards but I don’t cylce through them though but will start now! Great tip

52

Hey LBos11, I remember having a hard time breaking the 1 minute mark too. It was a totally mental thing, I think. I’m guessing you’ve been able to improve your times pretty easily up to 1 minute. So why would 1 second mean anything now that it’s near 1 minute you know? It’s gotta be a mental thing.

Maybe try just going through the deck a few times a day without memorizing (just constructing the images). I was able to get my time for that below 30 seconds. That definitely helped my speed. Another tip, the last 3 cards (forget about that 52nd card), I don’t memorize them either really. I just say it in my mind (the image) as I slap down on the timer. Once I hit the timer, THEN I memorize the image. Does that make sense? That might shave a second or 2 off.

YOURE SO CLOSE!!!

53

In my opinion: Be careful with the “dont-look-at-the-last-cards” approach. At least at competitions. It costed me more than one deck in the last years.

But besides that I totally agree with Nelson: I also had this plateaus, which pointed out to be mental barriers, not abilites. I think when I finally got under one minute, the next attempts were all faster and I quickly got down to 50s or so. Next barrier then was 45s. Then 40s. They get closer :wink: But when you broke it once, you can usually repeat that.

54

Thanks Nelson and Boris really good advice I will definitely apply it and let you know when I get to that sub 1 minute mark!

55

Holy deck memorisation Batman he’s done it! :smiley:

I can hardly believe it. All this time obsessing over getting below 5 minutes and then I obliterate it and get under 4 minutes - must just have been a mental block.

What I did was to focus this last week on really getting to know the card images. I’ve constantly recited them in my mind on the way to and from work and even on my lunchtime walks. I also recorded the details into an MP3 file (*), put that on my phone, and played it between my recitations. Then, when I did my memorisation (about 10 minutes ago) I followed the advice from you guys and thumbed through the deck in my hands rather than turning the cards over on the desk.

For me that’s target achieved - for now. I’ll still practice but I think I’ll devote some more of my time to memorising some other stuff :slight_smile: Keep posting your times guys - I will be back with a new target and I will keep updating the table.

  • I used a text-to-voice program for this as, for some reason, I don’t really like listening to my own voice (weird isn’t it? I expect everybody else to listen to it :smiley: ). The program is called DSpeech and can be found here : Dimio Software I may well use it for other projects too.
56

Hey Richie, that’s brilliant! I’ve been not making much progress lol, hectic schedule and all. I was wondering how do you practice every day? Much thanks and awesome time!!

57

Hey sleightly,

Thanks. Haven’t stopped grinning yet. I don’t think my wife really appreciates my fascination - when I told her I got a patronising “Well done. I’m very pleased for you.” and a pat on the back. :smiley:

Well, I’ve practiced very little actual timed deck memorisation for the last week (once only before today, just to try out the approach of thumbing through the cards).

Pretty much all of my effort has been directed towards trying to eliminate those delays that you get when you look at some cards compared to the ones where you instantly just know what they are. Nelson suggested in one of his posts that this was key. I didn’t manage to eliminate them (otherwise the time would have been really quick!) but I did greatly reduce them. The approach I took to this was as outlined above (reciting, and listening to MP3, multiple times every day).

One other thing that I did this time but haven’t done before. Immediately before my memorisation run I very quickly (as quick as I possibly could) traced through my chosen journey a couple of times without placing any cards, just to make sure there were no delays there either. Not sure how much this helped but I was looking for every edge I could get to break through 5 minutes :wink:

58

Shouldn’t 52*51=2652 be enough, or does the marathon event involve multiple decks shuffled together?

59

My best time is 34.64 seconds. I have two images for three cards. I memorize those 35 images with 17 loci since I lay down 2 images on each loci, besides I always memorize the last card but without loci.

60

Hi Benoît,

Great time! How long have you been training with card decks?

So, you have 2 images for each set of 3 cards and you then place those image sets at 17 loci (plus 1 extra). Would you give an example of the images that you use? For example, what 2 images would you use to recall : Ace of Spades, King of Clubs, and 9 of Hearts?