Less L. Memorization Method (2012 Invention)

General Memory Chat
66

My new pb is 2:18. My method has changed a bit for a few cards. I find it better if I always enter odd and even locus the same way. So, the moves or cards that are affected by this change are those where I would use either both top images in a locus or both bottom images. The reason is that when I do this, I enter the next locus in a way that isn’t consistently alternating between the bottom (images 0-49) and the top (images 50-99).

I’m reposting here my method from post 63 on this thread. I will highlight what is changing and underline the changes.

It uses 26 memory castles of 100 images each such as the ones described earlier for the Less L. and Less D. L. methods.
There is one minor change however to the value that give to two of the walls in those memory castles: The wall of the 50s, which is located on the left (from having one’s back against the 0’s grid) and set usually higher in the locus, used to represent royals (from Jack of Diamond-50 to Jack of Spade-59.) Now those cards are re-assigned to the ceiling grid. The ceiling grid used to represent the clubs and now the clubs are located where the 50s used to be. Doing this switch really simplified things and I’ll explain why later in this post.
The principle of selecting two images per memory castles to represent 2 cards continues to be in effect.
I think the best way to explain the method is simply to go over a bunch of examples. A lot of examples are needed to cover the many possible combinations of two cards.
Say I start with a 5 of Clubs. At the start, I’m at my zeros wall and since 5 of Clubs is worth 35 (Less L. method) , I’ll simply hit image number 35 in my locus. Then, say the next card is a 4 or Spades. I’ll hit image 54 because, and this following rule explains why:
On the second image or card of a locus, if you get a spade from a vertical low position 0s 10s 20s 30s (neither ceiling nor floor) then you must hit across the room and high. Image 54 is across the room and high. (If the spade had been the first card, we would have simply hit the floor, or 90s as the 90s grid represent the Less L. Spades)
Now we move to the next locus and we enter by the high wall of the 50s (the same wall type as the second image from the previous locus) Now say the card is a 2 of Spades. Then we will hit image 52 of that wall. That is because the following rule:On the first card of a locus, if you enter by a high vertical wall (40s,50s,60s,70s) and you have a spade card, then you just hit the image on the wall by which you are entering.
Now, say the 2nd card for that locus is 9 of Spades, then you hit image 99 of the locus as in the Less L method. (9 of Spades is worth either 49 or 99) (Do not hit image 49 because from image 52, moving to image 49 would represent a lateral move and lateral moves are reserved for when you get either a club or a diamond card.)
Okay, so now we move to the next locus and we enter by the floor grid. Say the card is a 5 of Diamond. Then you hit, as you would with the Less L. method the image #15 of that locus. (If we were entering by the ceiling grid, we would be hitting image #65 because it is physically closer from the ceiling.) Okay
now say the next card for that same locus is an 8 of Hearts. You would then be hitting image 58 in that locus because of this rule:
On a second card in a locus, if you get a Heart from any vertical wall, then you go either to the wall below or the wall above. So, just above the girds of the 10s is the 50s and so image 58 is picked. Let’s keep going.
Next locus, we now get a King of Diamond (02 or 82-used to be 02 or 52 in Less L) as we enter from the 50s (being the same grid type as the final card from the previous locus) We’ll be hitting image 82, on the ceiling. (Now, had we entered this locus from a lower grid -10s,20s,30s,40s- we would have remained on that same grid and hit the second image of that same grid, much as we did earlier for our 2 of Spades and the upper locus entrance)
Now let’s say the second card in that locus is a Jack of Hearts. We will then image 73. The reason is that whenever the 2 cards of one locus are both royals, clubs or diamonds, you generally go as much as
you can in a straight line within the locus. So, in this case, we have entered from the 50s, hit the ceiling 82 and now bouncing across in a straight line to the grid of the 70s. Since the Jack of Hearts is always a 3 (either 03 or 83 with the modified Less L System) we hit the image 73 and when we’re doing our recall, we’ll know that the 73 represent a jack of hearts because we can see the straight trajectory that was used to reach that image.
This concept of the straight lines remains in effect but only when the ceiling or floor are involved (80s or 90s.)
All of the above is now discontinued. If two faces in a row come up, they will alternate between top and bottom. In the example above, the second Jack of Hearts will simply hit the 03 image of that locus.

Okay, now on to the next locus, entering by the grid of the 70s. Let’s say we now have a 3 of clubs. Since a club is a black color we will hit laterally the image that is on a grid either to the immediate left or right depending upon the color of the grid (The concept of the color of the grid comes from the Less L. system where the 10s 20s and 60s 70s are always red girds because you put diamond or hearts cards on those grids whereas the 30s 40s and 50s – and by the way that is why 30s and 80s had to be switched with this new system- are now black as you put the black club or spade cards on those grids. Okay, so right beside the 70s, you have the 60s which are red and the 40s which are black, so we’ll put this first club on image #43 of that locus. Now say the next card is an 8 of Clubs, we have to go in a straight line as much as possible and this means we’ll hit high again and right next gird, the grid of the 50s, image #58.

This changes. We don’t go in a straight line here anymore. Instead, we go to the lower level and hit the black side wall that is adjacent, the 30s. Had the card been a diamond, we would have hit the 10s.

Okay, next locus, entering by the grid of the 50s, say we have an Ace of diamond. We then look laterally to the immediate right or left grid and pick the red one. In this case, it will be the 60s and so we hit image 61. Now the next card for this locus is a 6 of clubs. When there is such a change of suit within a locus, we switch levels as we keep going in a now rather skewed line. A straight line would have gotten us to the 70s but now we hit below the 70s where the 30s are found. This works very well as a 36 is a Less L. 6 of Clubs but that doesn’t always work so neatly.
Now, this always work this way. There are no exception. The club, a black card will always hit the 30s, a black wall in that manner.

We will try something similar but which does not have this neat ending. So we’re entering the next locus by the gird of the 30s. Let’s say we get a 10 of Diamonds, we’ll go to the 20s because it is a red grid and hit image 20. Then we get a 5 of hearts and go straight up on the wall to reach image #65. Now, we enter the next locus by the grid of the 60s.Let’s say we get a 5 of Clubs, we’re going to go to the black adjacent grid, the 50s and hit image 55 and then say we get a 2 of diamonds. Now we need to switch level as we go in a straight line and this means we’re hitting the 0s.
This changes. We now hit the 20s or 22 because the 2 of diamond is red and the 20s is a red wall.
But the zeros are royals under the Less L system and the royals are both black and red.
Now, the royals are black only.
If we prefer to hit the opposite wall of the red 20s instead, that would work just as well and is a viable alternative.
This viable alternative is now my method and I think it is better.
(But had this second card been a King of Hearts instead, we would have hit straight across the room going down one level to hit the grid of the 30s. This moved would have been dictated by this rule:
On the second image or card of a locus, if you get a royal from a vertical high position 40s 50 60 70s (neither ceiling nor floor) then you must hit across the room and low.
Not all moves have been covered here but all the basic principles behind all moves are covered.

67

On Nov. 21, 2015 I discovered that the method I’m using which is part directional and part Less. L. could be effectively turned into a fully directional method and so I have changed my method to a fully directional one.

The reason I used a combination of two methods is that when I entered one of my rooms by the ceiling or the floor, I had no clue as to how to determine where my left or right is from those locations and so the Less L original method applied in those cases. Now I have found that I can use effectively in those cases the last position of the previous card from the previous room to determine a left and a right, and a top and bottom. It is a bit complicated and I won’t go into detailed explanations right now. This is just to say that I’m not longer using the Less L. part that I describe in my directional method.

With my previous method, mix of less l. and directional, I’ve achieved a pb of 2:18 for a perfect deck recall and a worth mentioning time of 2:03 with 2 mistakes, or 1:57 with 4 errors.

When (hopefully not “If”) I achieve a new pb with this new fully directional method, I’ll explain it in more details.

68

I’m looking forward to your unveiling of the directional method!

69

Here it is Graham,

First, since I wasn’t making too much progress with my mix of methods, I decided to experiment to see what would happen if I made it uniformly directional. My first experiment lasted about 30 days before I realized the changes needed to be more significant. Here is how it unfolded:
First, the trouble about the directional method occurs only when you enter by the ceiling or the floor: when you want to hit your image in the bottom cup or top cup of the locus, you just don’t have a left or right. So, to make it fully directional, I simply decided to “remember” where I was coming from before I hit the floor or ceiling. So say I was in the 70s of locus 3 and then move to locus 4 and get to hit an image on the ceiling as my first stop, I will remember the 70s of the previous locus as a sort of a tail that will give me a left or right. So after the image on ceiling of locus 4, say I get a 4 of diamonds, normally with the less l method that would be worth 14 and I’d hit that image. But diamonds, directionally speaking, is a right or left, depending on the color of the landing, so now I will instead hit the image of 24 because the 20s is a red wall and is to the right of the 70s, which I still remember from two hits back!
Okay, so this is the basic principle.

Now after a month of working on this, I noticed that I was not really going any faster but my accuracy, (the number of perfect decks and high scores) had increased markedly. I theorized something and based on the theory, I decided to make a further change to my directional method. So starting about a month later, I decided to do something very directionally special: say my second image in a locus is the 3 of clubs and is located on image 33 of the locus, say locus 7, now normally, I would reappear in my locus 8 and start from the wall of the 30s, but not any more, now instead, I simply juxtapose locus 8 in my mind right next to locus 7, and therefore enter locus 8 by its 10s wall. In a nutshell, this is the principle. Had I been on wall 10 of locus 7, I would have juxtapose locus 8 right next to that wall and would have entered therefore by the 30s of locus 8.

That’s it, and it works for me.

70

Okay, so my new pb is 2:05 min, from a few days ago now.

I have achieved this with a slightly modified version of the fully directional method posted above. I had described these changes not long ago in my blog and so I am now reposting part of it here:

"I have changed my directional method again a few days ago. This change affects all the straight across and straight down and straight down (or up) and across moves. This means only the Hearts, Faces and Spades are affected.

The rational for this change is to make the system more uniform: In the side moves, you hit on the right or left wall depending on the color of the wall. Now this also applies to all the moves where this can apply.

So say you are entering a room from a wall, any wall (except the ceiling and floor) with a Heart, you hit the wall from which you come from or the wall across of you depending upon the color of the wall. If the wall from which you come is red, then you hit the number of that Heart card on that wall but if the wall is black or a figure, then you hit across to the red wall. All facing walls have a different color. The same principle applies to down moves, for the second card in a room. If you are going straight down with heart card on your second move in a locus, that wall has to be a red wall. If it is not, then you head down and across, or what used to be the spade move. The Spade, which used to be always down and across on a second card in a locus is now straight down if the down and across move hits a red wall.

So I’ve now been using this method for about a week and my best time with it is already, 2:39 for a perfect deck. I feel that there are more changes coming to this method too, but it is too early to discuss the changes."

Well, nothing really changed. Since that change, it took me about 40 days of daily practice with it before obtaining this new pb.

I have been training a bit differently lately and one thing which I feel certain has made a positive impact is to modify just about all images that were rooted in the same word. For instance, sweet date, which is 0111, and honey sweet date, which was 4111 had to change. 4111 is now “dans ta tête” a pre MMA photo of two fighters, trying to get in their adversary’s head. As you can see, I’ve also started using French to name my images, where ever it works. I even changed images when the word for the image sounded too much like word for another image. For instance, 0915 pedal became pantalon ( French meaning pants) because pedal and petal 1915 sounded too much the same.

I also think I manage my stress and focus better but I’m not sure how much bearing this has on my new results and so, maybe next time I’ll have a few words about it. Right now, I’m aiming for times about 20 seconded faster than my new pb of 2:05 min.

71

Directional Method, new pb: 1:55. (a couple of weeks old)

Two things are discussed in this post: 1) A slight change to my method 2) Working with the sounds of images.

  1. I have made minor modifications once again to my method. These changes cover moves from locus to the next new locus (in a distant location), and in particular, the moves when the last image hit on a grid that is either a ceiling or floor. The issue here is that not all my warehouse loci of 100 images seemed to aline themselves in a systematic, predictable way.
    Say my first card is a 5 of diamond, I will hit image 15 of locus 0, or the towel to my left, then I get a king of diamond. In the same location, I’ll hit image 82 or the cellphone located on the ceiling. Up to here, there is nothing new. What is new is the next move: So my third card is the 8 of spade. At this point, the East-West alignment of the towel and and the cell phone tells me that the 48 or 8 of spade must hit on image 158 of locus 1, and not on the other possibility, image 148. Once again there is nothing really new in this either as I have explained all this before. What is new is how I go about doing this hit, or the “sense of direction” that I use in my mind to line up my warehouse (locus of 100) 0 to the next warehouse of 100 images. So, when I’m on the phone, at my warehouse or locus 0, and I have to move to locus 158 of the next locus, I imagine I have to look at the 70s wall of locus 0 because behind it you have the 50s wall or grid of locus 1, where I will be hitting image 158. That’s it. The purpose of such visualization move is to order all my locus so that they are all neatly adjacent to one another and that they all appear to be built using the same compass, with all the walls of the 0s and 40s at the south end, and the walls of the 20s and 60s at the north end, etc.
    Interestingly, this appears to create a real path as I move along where my locus are lined up in my imagination or linked in some directional way, a way that obviously will not match their real location.

  2. Anyway, this isn’t the most interesting thing I have to say in this post. What is way more interesting, in my opinion, is the continuation or the remarks I have made in my previous post, regarding the modification of my images.

Being, as far as I know, the only person working diligently with a directional system, I found that I encounter a slightly different memory challenge from all others and this gives me a new and unique perspective, or experience. Out of this unique experience, I can get truly unique insights and this is what I am about to try to share with you here.

One question that we all ask ourselves (mnemonics) and for which we often don’t know the answer is why it is that upon attempting to recall what we memorized, we can’t. When we look up the answer we say, “Ho! darn I knew it” but often, the same answer that we failed to recall, we will again and again fail to recall and we still don’t know why. Top mnemonics don’t try and understand why; they just move to trying to use a different image, hoping to get better results. In my opinion, there are no satisfactory answer out there to explain why it is that we know the answer but unfortunately it just doesn’t reach the surface of our minds when we look for it. Now, I think I have found at least part of the answer to this crucial question, if not the whole answer. And I believe I have obtained this unique insight into this question due to my unique experience with my unique method. Let me explain.

I have mentioned in my previous post that I felt it was critical not to use the same root as a handle or word for images. I have come to this conclusion after making the same kinds of mistakes for ages and not noticing the pattern of my mistakes until one day last year, when a sudden suspicion began to arouse my curiosity and I began to pay attention to this particular type of error. When I did began to monitor the level of " I knew it but failure to remember-type of error" I found that it almost always struck with images that had the same kind of word handle to identify it. This was a very happy discovery because it clearly indicated what I needed to do to improve and yes, I have substantially improved since I’ve worked on getting an entirely unique sounding set of handles for all my images.

But more to point, in my opinion, is the question “why is this?” There seems to be a consensus among mnemonics that what matters is the image. In my experience, I too must agree. Images are what matters but clearly for the purpose of recalling the image, the sound of the image does matter, at least the uniqueness of its sound does matter. I have a deep conviction about this, but I understand that this may not be considered important by all mnemonics and that even some top mnemonics could argue against this claim. (If you do decide to argue publicly against it, please state the size of your reservoir of images that you use. Mine is 5000+)

Anyway, I wish to say that with practice, I have gained further insights on the importance of the sound placement. Sound placement, I say? Mnemonics always talk about placing images. I offer the concept or placing sounds which is, to my understanding, a form of heresy in the small words of mnemonics. Maybe I should apologize? I do not mean that images are not placed, I would simply argue that the sound is the vehicle or energy that places them or even that creates them.

Anyway, here is an example of some of the insights I have gained in sound management of images: Say you have the image of a critter in your system and you discover that it is a weak one, one that you often fail to remember. Lots of things could explain this. First, critter is defined as a small animal, which may not immediately bring to mind any specific image. Sounds that can direct you to “this or that” image lack specificity or a clear strong link between the two. So, a top mnemonics may immediately change the image of a critter for that of a crater. It is much harder to think of a crater as “this or that.” The link is therefore instantaneous and solid. Still, the image may fail. Why? Now the answer to this question may be found in the head of the mnemonic. Crater is two syllables, cray-Ter. The last syllable is extremely common, as so many words end in “ter” and are pronounced all the same that the key sound in this image is “cray” Now, for me, given my my french background, “cray” brings to my mind the french word craie, which is chalk. So, let’s say I’m trying to remember crater and my mind, as soon as I say “cray…,” conjures up subconsciously the image of chalk, and only after thinking further a bit, do the crater comes to my mind. Now, you see where I’m heading to? When posting the crater in the journey, it may have no sounds associated with it as my mind has associated the sound without me realizing it to a chalk elsewhere in my mind in an unknown location. So, the process of creating a good handle for an image may be for me to call a crater a guy that makes chalks. That might work well for me as an image linked to its handle. But, if you don’t understand the games your brain plays behind your back and if you don’t catch up to it and work with it, you could have enormous difficulty progressing in this field in my opinion. Especially if your prime interest is to build a large system.

72

The minimum requirement for this method is smaller than what you say. It is 26 locations with 100 images. 2 cards per location. Because I never wanted to have 104 images per location, I use a special technique for memorising 2 cards, such as simply repeating the previous card. Since there are no 2 cards the same, I then know it is one of the 2 special cards when there is a repeat.

73

About a month ago, I decided to revert to my Less L. system but with some important changes. The changes mean that the Less L. and directional method are now combined. The benefit of this is that even if my last card is wrong, the next one which depend on it (in the directional method) will not be affected. To combine the Less L. system with the directional system, I realized that I simply had to do the following:

  1. Put all the Diamonds on the left walls, both the high and low walls of the locus.
  2. Put all the Hearts on the front facing walls, both on the high and low walls of the locus
  3. Put all the Clubs on the right walls, both on the high and low walls of the locus

For the back wall, I haven’t changed it, the bottom is still the Royals and the upper wall is still the Spades. The ceiling and floor are still Royals and Spades respectively. I could have put all the Spades (or Royals) on the back walls too but since I’m already used with the variation, I’ve decided to keep it that way.

When you move between loci using this method, you realize that it has the feel of a directional method. I believe that the greater simplicity of this method will help me go faster.

So far, in the single month that I have used it or so, my pb with it is 2:22 for a perfect deck.
But interestingly, my fastest time with no card recall, just moving through the loci using only the cards’ suit value, is 38 seconds which is a new true pb for me. I had expected that I would go faster but I’m pleasantly surprised that I’m already there with this exercise.

Also, I have modified the way I memorize the King of Spades, for which I have no specific numbers (along with the Queen of Spades.) I used to just skip the locus when the King of Spades occurred but I found this unsatisfactory over time. So now, what I do is I still skip the next locus and in the following loci I hit the same image as the previous card and then I hit the card value of the following card. Both these 2 cards are hit in the same upper or lower section. The way I know which card is first is by analyzing which card is the same as the previous one. That one is first and indicate the King of Spades. It’s a bit tricky but I’m starting to get used to it and I already find it much more satisfactory.

74

The above method (post 73) has worked well and I recently broke my pb with it twice it and it now stands at 1:49.

Because it worked so well so fast (relatively speaking for me, of course), I’ve decided to complete the modification of my method by having/using both my back walls for spades, and the floor and ceiling for figures. In addition to this change, I have made another one which is perhaps more significant has I have never made such a change before: In post #9, I explained how I distributed my images in a locus. I have decided this distribution could be improved by changing it. After 9 years having the segue cow in my lower back area (O7s), she now moves to the floor along with all other 0s images. I now believe that this location will work better for two reason, the first is that the 0s usually start at the floor; that is why we have the expression “ground zero.” The other reason I’ll explain a little further down.

The images that were on the floor, the (90s) are now sent up to the ceiling. Nine being a top number, it makes much more sense to have it up there. The 80s which were on the ceiling move to the upper back section and the 40s which were on the upper back are now in the lower back where the segue cow and other 0s images used to be. Now the other reason why I like this better is that I find that connecting between loci is much easier as I can easily imagine going from 99 the top of the loci to 101 the bottom of the next loci. I do think this could help with speed and visualization of the loci on top of one another.

I’ve been training this method for 3 days now and this morning I got a 3:01 with 5 mistakes, by far my best so far with it. It does look like it will work fine although I still have some small doubts. Right or wrong, this is how it’s going to be for the next little while.

Finally, I’d like to restate that the method to memorize the King of Spade as outlined in post 73 above is still very satisfactory. I’m not feeling any need to improve upon it.

75

I have achieved a new pb this morning, although it isn’t for a complete deck without errors. It’s just my fastest ratio of good cards per seconds: 49 good cards in 99 seconds.

Shortly after posting the above post (Dec. 23, 2016), I abandoned the idea of moving my images around, the cow (and other 0s images) to the floor and the floor images to the ceiling, etc. I found that it was simply too hard to do. The images are too ingrained in the loci. Nevertheless, I would recommend the set up suggested in that earlier post for anyone wishing to start doing it. I have however fully completed the change of designating all back wall images as spades and all ceiling and floor images as Royals. It definitely took me longer than anticipated to get back to my former times, like 3 months or so. But I still feel sure that this will take me farther in the long run.

Right now, all my last 15 morning decks were achieved in under 2 minutes and with an average recall of over 40 good cards. This is quite a big change for me, to see all my training results in my notes starting with a “1”, knowing that there is no going back to the the “2”, (at least not in the near future.) Some people get there in months, I got there in a decade.

There is another change that I have made in the way I position my images on the ceiling but without a diagram, its just too hard to explain. Maybe on my next post, I’ll expand a bit more on this.

After all these years of calling my method the Less L. method, I’ve gotten to believe that there is a better term or tittle that could be used to describe this method: the Echo, or the Scan or even the Radar method. That’s because I don’t really believe anymore that my method is about doing it with Less Links. What is truly unique about this method is that you just look in various directions, like a scan and when you do, the image that you refreshed earlier just pops back up, in my mind. It’s a bit like using a radar in your own brain.

In light of this, I am considering ditching this thread and starting a new one using the new name. But that will be for when I get my next pb.

76

Congratulations! :slight_smile:
I haven’t experimented with the system, but I like the idea.

77

As of this morning my new pb is 97 seconds. This chops off about 10 % from my previous mark.

I think that a new training approach made the difference here more so than any advance in the technique itself.

Still, there is something new with the technique that I have begun training recently. I’ll try and describe it using my morning deck: 9 of clubs, (39) immediately looking on my right wall and not being quite sure what was there, I just sounded the mp sound in my head and moved to the next card 8 of clubs, now this is straight up on the same side wall and I saw immediately the “caveau” and noticed how close this was with the first card that I hadn’t seen too well and hoped that this would perhaps save the first card (and that worked) then I got the jack of Spade, (an 89 located on the roof.) But now this next card is in the next locus but instead of moving in my head to that next locus, I stay at this same locus and head for the roof there, as if it were my third card in that locus and once there, I see not the object of my locus 0 but rather the object of my locus 1, which is the DVP, (a major highway in Toronto) so by seeing that high way, I find that I’m automatically transported to my locus 1 on the ceiling without really spending any mental energy in the move.

If, instead of the Jack of Spade, I would have had an 8 of diamond, then caveau’s back side would have contained the hot lovers and locus 1 would have appeared east of locus 0.

If the card had been a 5 of clubs, then I would have put locus 1 west of locus 0 and zipped straight across to it (or I remain in the same location but the entire locus 0 moves eastward until locus 1 arrives, and I enter by the 5th image on the top east wall there which would have been the diet scale.

If the third card had been an 8 of hearts or spades, then I would have headed right from the caveau’s ( it could be left too, this is a systematic arbitrary rule ) to the upper wall of the same 0 locus, if the card is the 8 of heart, I just go to the the spot where the 68 of locus 0 is present but visualise the image of locus 1 there, and I’m automatically transported to that locus, but if it is the 8 of Spade, I visualise locus 1 north of locus 0 and simply enter through the upper back wall, with the trophee image.

Also, for the last 4 cards, I usually only take note of their rank and store this in my short term memory quickly (ex:7298). If none of the ranks repeat themselves, then the correct suit can be deduced for all of them because it’s the only one that is left when all the other cards are assigned.

So, as far as method development is concerned, this is what’s most new and interesting. Hopefully, my next pb won’t take another 10 months, but I’ll gladly take a 10% improvement every 10 months for sure. I have experienced worse than that in the past…

I have now entered the “elite 2 digits club” at speed cards with a new unique method. I’m not too sure what my next goal is with this though.

78

Just a quick update here: I like to post when I have a new pb and I don’t have that right now and will likely not have one in the near future because I train at speeds that are always way far too fast for me to have any realistic chance of getting a perfect deck. Nevertheless, I am making steady progress with my method.

My latest top score was a 29 correct cards out of 52 attempted in 53 seconds last week. It was my first time getting over half a deck right in under a minute. So it is a milestone. I had slept 2 hours more than usual that day!

As far as technical improvement with the method, I would say that yes, there is a method of moving within the loci that I am training that is new. It’s like sliding a transparency on a wall (the imaginary transparency is a 0-9 in a circular patern) along the walls as I move. Sometimes, as this transparency moves, it is best to leave it on one side of the walls. Say you have first a diamond card on the diamond side and say the next card is a club, well, I still go up with the imaginary transparency along the diamond walls (both on the same side) and I reach the club wall, which is located across the room by going through the second diamond wall without seeing any diamond image and exiting outside on what would be the next room’s club wall but I think of it as the same room in which I was, so that 2 images always get marked per room. It is kind of cool developing moves like that and I believe it will help me when I gain the ability to move fast with it. Right now, I am not going bellow 2 minutes with this technique even without visualizing the images, but I feel sure this is important and will help me significantly once I get good at it. There are other kinds of interesting moves but I will cover that in future posts.

Right now, I am most satisfied with my relatively new technique of setting goals or time targets. I set my goals based on the knowledge of my top average correct card per second rate. For me, this rate was recently about 0,420 correct card per second. So, I aim then for a lower correct card per second rate, or about 0,350 and to achieve this lower rate, I simply go faster which makes my scores often dive. As a result, I find it easier to force myself to go faster and faster while keeping the same reasonable rate of correct cards per seconds. Like my next main goal should be to get an 18 to 22 correct cards in under 50 seconds. That’s what I am working on.

Another thing that is new and interesting is that if my morning training score is rather bad, I will have a second attempt during the day, (not roo late, when I still feel quite ready to achieve a great score) and I will keep only my best score of the day to include in the sum for my daily average. I find that doing this stimulating; it helps to ensure that each day, I do at least one decent score. And I feel that this is important for the morale.

That’s it for now.

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An image is worth a 1000 words and so I take advantage of the new ability to upload photos on this forum to describe how my 100 images are spread out in my rooms containing these images.

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What do the zeros represent?

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Here is the layout for two boxes and the one where you see my hand represent the upper numbers because it is the upper box where the numbers in the center (or box bottom) of the box are viewed on the ceiling of the locus. If you look at that photo,with my hand in it, the 0 on the left flap represent 50, on the right flap, 70, and 40 for the 0 of the flap I hide with my hand. The 0 that is a bit in the shade is a 60. The 0 for the ceiling does not appear but it is still there, you just imagine it and it is worth 80.
The bottom box runs similarly (circling around) and represents the rest of the numbers, with the 90s at the bottom of the box. If I had to do it again, I would put the 0-9 on the floor and then continue in a spiralling way from the left flap for the 10-19. Changing that now would not be worthwhile for me, but I think it is more natural to imagine the 0-9 on the floor and 90-99 on the ceiling.

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Thanks, the 3D model is interesting.

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Hello mnemonists,
I have been keeping up with this method for all of last year or so but without really attempting to beat my personal best.

Instead, I tried to always go faster without going too far down crashing with my ratio of good cards well memorized per second of memorisation. I was steadily able to go faster until the 45 second mark. Then, I thought I should give it two reads to try and get a perfect deck as my pb is in the 90s seconds range. Well, that did not bring much success so I decided to try to go back to aiming for perfect decks again. For about a month, my results weren’t too good and I thought I had lost skill but then steady perfect decks started appearing about half the time that I did it under 3 minutes. That is so far the only clear sign of personal improvement over last year for me. Credit for thtis improvement goes to all the tiny improvements that I made to my memory castles over the year.

My approach to training may also have improved. Anyway, right now with my more frequent attempts at speeds in my personal best zone, new pbs may come soon.

The technical aspect of the method has not changed, except perhaps for viewing the cards behind me always as if the numbers are mirror images of themeslves. There is definitely still room for improvement and that keeps me motivated.

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My new pb is 88 seconds with this Less. L. method.

That’s a big jump forward from my previous pb of 97 seconds.

I think what helped me get there this time around hasn’t got anything to do with the method itself but rather it’s just about a general improvement in the training method:

I now divide my page (a regular 33 line page with just one result per line) of results in three. For the first part of the month, my focus is to try and get as long as I can a series of perfect scores in under a time that I feel is relatively easy for me. Right now, that’s the sub 3 minutes mark for me. After about 13 days, of this, I switch my aim: I put on more speed pressure, still aiming to get a perfect deck but it simply isn’t a goal any more to have a series of perfect decks. What’s important is that the speed goes up significantly from the easy pace I started with. If I do still get lots of perfect decks, and I usually do, then -for the last part of the month or page- I stop caring about doing a perfect deck and simply concentrate on getting times at my pb level or better.
I am starting to suspect that this more varied practice is better than simply always trying to beat your pb at every attempt. So, that’s my tip for now. For whatever it is worth.

Ho one more thing. I built a stand where my recall cards wait to be picked up during the the recall, and I think this is a worthwhile addition. I think any way or method that can help you save fraction of seconds during your recall is the way to go and a stand that makes it easy to get your card promptly does just that. I put up a photo of it in this thread:

A lined mat where to lay down the cards also seems to me to be helpful.

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