I just memorized the 44 American Presidents as a journey to a local MMA event. Now I want to incorporate their term dates. I’ve committed 0-9 into people, but how would one incorporate this into my already existing loci. Or should I have done this in the beginning.
I guess I should have mentioned I’m very new to this. I’ve read Foer’s book and have two more on the way (Dominic O’Brien).
Since all of the dates are between 1700s and 2000s, you could drop the initial “1” from each date.
George Washington 1789-1797 could be reduced to 789-797 or, even 89-97 if you think you can remember the century for all the Presidents without mnemonic images.
( I’m looking this up in Wikipedia, because I haven’t memorized it yet. 
)
Then take your images for the numbers and attach them to George Washington. It’s going to be easier if you have images for double or triple digits.
For example, James Monroe 1817 to 1825. In my system, 17 is a military attack dog and 25 is a nightingale. Take your image for Monroe, or his visual image, and have the images interact in some way. Maybe an attack dog is jumping out of his eyes and viciously gobbling up a nightingale.
Or if you memorized Monroe by using an image of Marylyn Monroe, you could have your images jumping out from under her dress.
The weirder the images, the more memorable.
Thanks. So far I’ve committed 0-9 into images of people whose names rhyme with the number. I guess I’ll have to continue on to 100 in order to make a compatible system. Example: Zero-hero (For me: Christopher Hitchens) 2 = Shue (Elizabeth Shue), etc.
But if I stick with my method, I’ll have to come up for a three person action for any of the dates. I can forget the “1,” because they were all from the 1700’s to present.
Would I then revisit my story and install the images into the scenario? Have you ever done this?
Thanks, Todd
I did the same thing with a memory journey around the campus I work at. I just did the Presidents the first time and then went back and added their term dates. I decided to use the Major method to create images. And as Josh said, you really don’t need to worry about centuries. So, for Washington ('89-'97), I used a “fab pig,” which in my mind is a pig with a Beatle’s haircut and George is chasing it around the site. Another example would be Calvin Coolidge ('23-'29) was a “gnome nap.” So, I picture Silent Cal taking a nap with a gnome.
You could also go with the Dominic system and used the different actions and objects for the two-digit dates and attach that to the president. Whatever works.
Now, what would be really cool is learning the Vice-Presidents. . .
-cvstuart
Yes… It will be easier if you create images for all the numbers between 00 and 99. Many people also have images for all numbers between 000 and 999.
Three common systems for generating images are the Major System, the Dominic System, and the Ben System.
Depending on how you memorized the presidents, you could plan ahead and leave space for memorizing additional information later:
I think it would be great to create presentation slides with an image of each president (one per slide), and then we could upload it here. If we use the images of the actual presidents along a journey, them their body parts could be used to store information. For example, put images for the dates of their presidency on their heads, dates of their birth and death on their left shoulders, etc. (Keeping its systematic…)
Very cool work. You guys should definitely consider posting your strategy in the mnemotechnics wiki page on memorizing us presidents: https://artofmemory.com/wiki/Memorizing_US_Presidents/
I’ve attached portraits of all 44 Presidents. All of them are public domain images from Wikipedia. I’ll try to put them into presentation slides tomorrow, unless someone beats me to it.
I would like to make one with portraits of the vice presidents too.
I had forgotten about the page in the memory wiki. The page will be great when we’re done.
Here are the presentation slides in PDF format: US Presidents Slides
My idea is to memorize the information on the slides, and then attach more information like vice presidents, political parties, etc.
The Presidents themselves can then serve as memory pegs for US history information.
Memory Challenge: Memorize the 44 US Presidents with Dates in Office
Thank you very much for the slideshow. I am actually working on a slideshow for my numbers from 00-99. I’m using people for my visual clues. For example: 2=Elizabeth Shue 20=Plenty (Dolly Parton). I’m up to forty, but I seem to be having a tough time. I intend to then use the number representations in my presidential journey.
I’m going to try the major system for the rest.
hello. I am new to this forum and just happened to memorize the 44 presidents last night before finding this forum. i used the “major system” (I think as I am learning the names of the various techniques).
1 = tie, 2 = noah, 3 = ma, etc. then linked to presidents e.g., washington wearing a tie, noah with Adam (John Adams) in boat, my MA hanging out at Thomas Jefferson elementary school, etc. It worked fine, but I didn’t attach to a memory palace. Should I do that if I am going to add more info? Also, can someone explain the PAO system over what I did above? Thanks.
Just joined and made the same experience a couple of years ago to memorize 44 presidents.
You can find all the details in :
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1609111192/ref=redir_mdp_mobile?ref_=cm_cr_pr_product_top
This is an awesome approach for memorizing the term dates. Love it.
I’m working on Anki 2 flashcards for all the data about the presidents (VPs, dates lived, political parties, etc.). I’ll upload the deck here soon.
I ended up just using one 2-digit number for each president:
George Washington: 89 (just remember that the Revolution was in 1776, and you’ll know the century)
John Adams: 97
Thomas Jefferson: 01
James Madison: 09
Even though it leaves multiple images, it shouldn’t be difficult to know what the century is:
Thomas Jefferson: 01
Theodore Roosevelt: 01
1800s and 1900s.
Josh have gotten around to uploading to Anki?
I also believe in just using the last two digits, not just for presidents but for most historical dates because it requires me to have at least some basic background knowledge about what I’m trying to learn besides simply a date, and of course by removing the centuries it makes it easier to create mental images. For example, knowing that 01 for Teddy can only be 1901, not 1801 or 2001, and Garfield 1881 not 1781 or 1981, doesn’t require that much knowledge about US history.
What I have done differently than you is I memorize the end date, not the start date, and to find the start date I just use the previous president’s end date. I assume you do the same for the end date.
Sorry, I got buried in work before finishing. I’ll try to finish that soon.
I memorized just the start dates, and that tells me the end date of the previous president. Example: '61 is attached to Abraham Lincoln and '65 is attached to Andrew Johnson, so I know that Lincoln was 1861-1865. Buchanan is at the 15th location, and Lincoln is right after him, so I can quickly recall that Lincoln was the 16th president.
I haven’t been able to finish the Anki deck, but if anyone wants to help, I’ve attached a copy. It’s Anki 2 format and includes the portraits.
The source of the information is on this page:
If anyone adds more information, please upload a copy.
Thanks!
(Right-click and “save links as”.)
