Good , Long , Interesting discussion about GMS on some forum …
http://www.stevepavlina.com/forums/personal-effectiveness/4984-school-phenomenal-memory.html
there is also owner of pmemory ruslen as “DarkSide” …
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Having completed the course, I can share my impressions of GMS. There are many pros, and just as many cons. I would say a main advantage of the system is its thoroughness. Many potential snags have been foreseen and are addressed in the course. For example, the alphanumeric system takes a lot of work to learn, but it includes every consonant of the alphabet and for me, preferable to the major system. Using it, one can easily convert any phrase to a password. Here’s one application of the principle. If I register for an account at mnemotechnics.org, I might use the following as my password: 01e0o2e921i97, which is an encoded form of “mnemotechnics”. The consonants are coded to numbers using the GMS system, and the vowels stand as they are.
Another thing I liked about GMS was its database structure, where you link 5 images together, and each image has 3-5 sub-images. That way, you can very quickly create a database of 20-25 loci. Also important is their emphasis on not linking any images to “figurative codes”, which are any images that are used more than once. For example, if I want to memorize American football stats, and I come across the fact that Tom Brady threw for 39 touchdowns during the past season, I would NEVER link my image for Tom Brady (A Tan-colored Bread) with my image for 39 (a bicycle). I don’t know how much emphasis other systems place on this principle, but when I had read Harry Lorayne previously and tried to make his system work, linking different images to the same base image made me greatly confused. I think I’ve seen questions posed about this issue on this forum as well.
Plus I think the Russian doll technique and the return method are interesting innovations and potentially very useful, and the memory training software isn’t bad, either. I’ve seen GMS criticized for focusing solely on the visual aspects of the imagery rather than trying to make images stand out or outrageous. I tend to think it’s actually a plus. When you try to memorize a high volume of material, one of the biggest assets you can have is speed, both of encoding and recall. GMS emphasizes large, colorful, and 3D imagery. Although it takes much more work upfront to develop that skill, it speeds up the encoding and decoding processes down the road. Instead of racking the brain for a creative way to link the images, one simply focuses on seeing them in vivid detail. Much faster, in my opinion.
I would say one important advantage of the course is that it provides plenty of examples and material for practice. Last, GMS is absolutely correct in insisting that concentration and memory are closely linked. This was an important insight for me, and one not emphasized enough in the sources I have read.
As for the cons, I would say most of them stem from Ruslan, the owner of the website. The course was apparently conceived by a Russian named Vladimir Kozarenko, and Ruslan has an arragement to sell the course in English. The 59 PDF lessons are very poorly translated from Russian. Sometimes the lessons are downright obfuscatory and it takes great effort to understand a given sentence. You’d think that with his phenomenal memory, Ruslan would have learned enough English to create a course that isn’t so thoroughly unprofessional in appearance and content. His written English would be considered passable in an advanced ESL class; it is something far less than acceptable for selling a product. For a professional product, he should have hired a translator or an editor to clean up his prose. The forums likewise are filled with clumsy English. A subforum reads, “Why you not our student yet?” or something along those lines. Acceptable for a free forum, unacceptable for a $300 course without any physical products.
Ruslan’s very thin skin, and inability to take criticism with any measure of grace or humility has had a negative impact on the course. He has outright banned paying students,without refund, for perceived criticism against him or the course. His heavy handed approach discourages even constructive criticism from the students of the course. For students who did request refunds, there appears to be a poor track record of them actually receiving one.
You won’t find much criticism on the forum, constructive or otherwise. Ruslan’s attitude is that if students run into any problems, they are at fault, not the course. One illustrative example: he once put up a video on motivation, where for 20 minutes he talked of nothing but a physical training program he’d just undergone. I believe his message was that if he can bear through a torturous physical experience, everyone can persevere through the difficult first 12 lessons without much hassle. While I am sure that his motivation for uploading the video was sound, Ruslan reacted poorly when a student raised questions on the application and the suitability of the video to the course. His responses were dismissive, defensive, and curt, and the video was taken down shortly after.
Many projects that were begun by Ruslan, announced in the forums, have yet to see the light of the day after several years. He has promised long and delivered short on many occasions. As a side note, Ruslan has been involved in some questionable enterprises, including a site called the Magic Pill that promises to solve all one’s problems instantly and permanently. From what I have read, everything from the bidding system (minimum bid of $1000) to the payment method (Western Union wire transfer only, to a person in Ukraine) screams shady to me. Again, not directly related to the course itself, but it may be pertinent information for potential customers of the GMS course. Those who are curious can find out more simply by googling magic pill and Ruslan.
Aside from Ruslan, I would say that a significant criticism of the course itself is the steep learning curve. Relatively few people make it past the first dozen lessons. To the course’s credit, there are now more instructors to help with questions and issues. I suspect there are gentler slopes that will help more people develop these skills.
So after the course, my feelings on it are very mixed. Other than an unsuccessful foray with a Harry Lorayne book, GMS was my first exposure to the art of memory. Knowing what I know now, would I still pay a significant sum ($300) for a rather poorly put together course? It’s a good question. I have clearly benefited from several aspects of it, and the money I spent on the course probably motivated me to get the most out of it. If I hadn’t paid for it, would I have been so persistent about practicing the techniques and mastering the figurative codes? Hard to say for sure, but I lean toward no. And I would say that the skill itself is priceless. I was recently at a function where as an icebreaker game, we had to memorize the names of 15 other people in the room. It became a trivial task with techniques I learned from GMS, and I was a hit for that evening. But more than parlor tricks, I am now learning French much more easily with mnemonics. The logistics of my approach were taken from the course, including the all-important timing. (Further details can be found in my blog entry). Without having to come up with an efficient system from scratch, or having to work through obstacles, the course gave me the tools to memorize with relative ease. I recognize that all or most of the techniques have probably have been described elsewhere. Despite the poor English of the course, I would still say that there’s some value in not having to scour through books and the net for an efficient system.
So in sum, I would neither recommend this course to others, nor discourage them from it. However, I hope my description can help other people make their own decisions.
One last thing. I think a forum like this is really great, where people can freely exchange ideas and experiences without commercial interest. I’m positive that when enough people put their heads together, there will be even better innovations.
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Excellent encapsulation of what is good and bad about the Phenomenal Memory course. Very objective in your look at the “school”. I am a current student, but am very ambivalent about the course. It is a shame, because the website has the potential to be outstanding, but I agree with you that the main con is the seeming inability of Ruslan to interact constructively with his paying customers. Regardless of his demeanor, much of the info and exercises are good. I’ll continue with it and try to get what useful information I can for my money.
Thanks for a very constructive post.
It doesn’t sound like much fun studying the GMS course! - sounds more like torture! 
plus you are paying $300 for the priviledge!!
You can obtain memory systems that are much easier to use (and free!) from a brief browse of your library or on google plus they are a lot of fun to implement and use.
“I would NEVER link my image for Tom Brady (A Tan-colored Bread) with my image for 39 (a bicycle).”
I don’t understand why you wouldnt link information together when trying to memorise stats? Mybe Dayman can elucidate? To me that is the whole purpose of memorising information.
Thanks MemMan for the comments. I’m not sure where you are in the course, but the first 12 lessons are definitely the hardest, maybe unreasonably so. I thought the pacing of the entire course leaves something to be desired. I felt that way especially during the first 12 lessons, and during the language and password courses. The password course could have been distilled down to 2 lessons and not have lost anything.
Jimbo1, the Tom Brady example was simply used to illustrate that in GMS, peg words (figurative codes) are never linked to each other. If I wanted to remember another stat about Tom Brady, I’d end up with two images where a Tan-colored Bread would be connected to two different images. In one, I’d have a bread linked to a bicycle, and in another, a bread linked to a jar. If I were to memorize repeated stats about Tom Brady, I’d eventually be confused. To avoid such confusion, GMS instructs to link pegwords in isolation.
Dayman,
I’m actually only on lesson 11. I am learning quite a bit and I’m sorry if I gave the wrong impression to others that I’m not. It’s really not “torture”, but those first lessons aren’t what I would call fun either. I agree they could have spaced the lessons out a bit better; those first ones do have one heck of a learning curve 
I understand that the development of the new skill set can be tiring at times so I want to withhold any final judgements till I complete the training (which at my snail’s pace might be a while).
The other instructors and fellow classmates I’ve come across have been fairly helpful, but I can’t shake my initial impressions that the course could have been done more professionally by a native English speaker.
Jimbo1: Fortunately I was able to come across a promo code a while back to purchase the course for 200 ) . I know that price is still steep, but any money saved is good.
Even though GMS has multiple cons. I still believe, it is one of the best system for students out there. God knows how much it will make your live easier. Past the first 12 lessons, it becomes extremely interesting and rewarding at the same time. You won’t problably be able to compete with ease in WMC, but it gives you the keys to learn almost everything you want to learn. Ruslan in my opinion is the main drawback of this course. This guy keeps saying understanding is a clear organization of visual images in the brain. But sometimes you read his course and it doesn’t ring a single image.
Forget about his new program, he has been talking for ages. It will not be released anytime soon. He is not open and clairvoyant enough. He is not open to progress.
And the price is rediculous. The benefit are tremendous when you are done with course for sure, but it is just insane to see what you have to pay.
You give a list of negatives:
- GMS has multiple cons.
- You won’t problably be able to compete with ease in WMC
- Ruslan is the main drawback of this course.
- The price is rediculous.
Please make me understand your motivation for believing this system is the best for students.
borixkte, your review of pmemory is great and I want to buy it but when I go to their site it asks me to log in. Do you know how I can buy it? Could you possibly get me in because you are a client?
Rich,
Don’t hold your breath. That user apparently hasn’t read or posted anything here for six years. Seems they came on to post a single message and then never returned.
Bob
That site appears to be offline.
If you want a quick self-study course in the meantime, I put together an outline for a free online memory course. Spend about one day on each step, and ask any questions you have in the forum. The average response time is just a few hours.
After you go through that material, post in the forum about something that you want to memorize, and we can point you towards the next steps.
Do you have an FB account or maybe an email?
I love discussing this GMS Method with you.
Thank you.
@Kinma why won’t you be able to compete in the WMC as well?
The course is freely available on the internet. All the talk about the author’s personality and his thoughts on criticism is irrelevant, it was a long time ago.
It takes 1.5 months to learn on my own, and the results are increasing day by day. An excellent base for practice.
But later I realized that some things could be learned faster (image codes).
I can give the course 7-8/10 objectively.
Although I am not particularly interested in personalities here, I don’t remember who Ruslan is. There is Vladimir Kozarenko, the author, who has made a compilation of the techniques and put them in order. It’s great that you have participated in events, but it’s the dust of time. There is no such thing now, only as leftovers.
And don’t buy the videos. It’s like learning boxing from a cassette tape 
Andeee, I want to point out that after mastering GMS I went into mnemosport. And I don’t have any problems with memorisation for sport. So you get a complete skill, not a handful of tools.
Yay, necroposting.
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Could you help me find it?
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