Master of Memory: Accelerated learning, education, memorization - MMem 0351: How to memorize a deck of cards, for beginners

Episode Date: July 13, 2015

Kevin asks about memorizing a deck of cards. I explain a basic process that has worked for many beginning mnemonists. What do you want to learn? Leave your question at http://MasterOfMemory.com/. Music credit: Maurice Ravel’s String Quartet, 2nd movement, performed by the US Army Band.

Master of Memory 351. Welcome to Master of Memory. I'm Timothy, and I'm here to answer your accelerated learning questions every day and to inspire and empower you to learn anything you want to learn faster than ever. Kevin submitted a written question at masterofmemory.com slash question. Kevin says, my goal is to be able to memorize a deck of cards. I understand how a memory palace works, but I'm having difficulty pegging the different cards. How can I advance from here?

So Kevin, the basic way to peg your cards so that you can actually place them in your memory palace is to associate them with things that are much more memorable than simple playing cards. If you have an eight of clubs sitting in one room and an ace of spades sitting in another room and then a 3 of clubs in another room, you might be able to remember that. But if you add any more after that point, it's very likely that you're gonna start mixing things up because you have the different suits and the different numbers and they're very abstract. It's hard to keep them straight unless you make them much more vivid and memorable in some way. So what you should

do is think about the things that are memorable. So if you aren't necessarily going to remember which playing card is in each room in your house, assuming you use your house as a memory palace, what would you be likely to remember if you saw it in each of the different rooms in your house? They might be friends of yours, they might be animals. You'd probably remember if there was a tiger in your living room and a parakeet in your bedroom. That's pretty memorable. And then your different friends. You might be able to remember which one is in each different room. So the next step is to take those cards and turn them into things that are memorable. So maybe every time you see a heart, you know it's an animal,

and in particular, the ace of hearts is a tiger. And every time you see a spade, it's one of your friends, and in particular, the eight of spades is your friend Austin. Take maybe one of the suits, that's 13 cards, or just 10 cards scattered throughout the deck, and learn those really well. Just choose the things that are assigned to them and learn them really well. Now these cards could be based on your number system if you have perhaps a major based a number system so that 87 is the 8 of clubs. That's how I do it anyway. So the 8 of clubs is the same character as my 87 just because clubs are K in my system but that's a little more advanced. You don't have to do that, it's just easier if you can leverage your number

system if you already have a bunch of numbers associated with characters. But next you can place these cards all throughout your house simply by imagining that the people or the objects that you've associated with the cards are throughout your house. Again I recommend just starting with 10 or so, and just experimenting with those. Make sure that you can remember them really well by using several journeys, by mixing them up several times, and memorizing them several times to make sure that the images of those are strong. Then add the rest of the cards, about five at a time, and mix them in until you have the whole deck really well memorized so that any card quickly triggers a particular character, animal, object,

or something like that, and you can always remember those cards from those animals, objects, etc. when they're placed in a memory palace. For everyone listening, what do you want to learn? The world's knowledge can be yours. Leave your learning request at masterofmemory.com slash question, and I'll want to learn? The world's knowledge can be yours. Leave your learning request at masterofmemory.com slash question, and I'll talk to you again soon.