w hatyou can do.

Instead of struggling to learn and retain one or tw o form ulas a day,you w illfind
yourself m em orizing m uch,m uch m ore.E very tim e you learn m ath in
conjunction w ith the m em ory techniques taughtto you in this book,you w ill
gain m ore know ledge of m ath.Y our im agination w illalso getstronger,w hich
leads to a w hole hostof other benefits.

Itpleases m e im m ensely to help people m em orize num bers and m athem atical
equations.I'm alw ays delighted w hen people w rite to m e w ith stories of success.
I receive thank you notes alm ostevery day as readers of m y books describe to
m e how easily they m em orized som etim es very difficultinform ation.

T hese achievem ents are thrilling to m e,thrilling for the people w ho use the
techniques and they w illthrillyou also.

T his edition of H ow T o M em orize N um bers,E quations & Sim ple A rithm etic is
for you.W hether you are an adult,teenager or som eone w orking w ith young
students,you w illbenefitfrom this book.

A nyone w ho struggles w ith learning,retaining and using num bers and form ulas
stands to gain a greatdeal.I have designed this book so thatas soon as you
understand the core m em ory m ethod,you can sitw ith a m ath textbook and
m em orize.A nyw here and atany tim e you can recallany rule thatyou w ish
easily and accurately.Perm anently.

I have w ritten this book for those m ath students w ho have the burning desire to
learn a form ula once and recallitw ithin m inutes,if notseconds,of having
learned it,and to do so w ithoutfrustration of any kind.

T hree obstacles stand betw een you and m em orizing num bers,form ulas and
arithm etic.T he belief that:

1. Y ou don'tneed a dedicated m em orization strategy for m em orizing num bers

and form ulas.

2. M em orization strategies w on'tw ork for you.

3. M em orization strategies are too m uch w ork.

L et's exam ine each of these beliefs.

The Belief That You Don't Need A Dedicated Memorization Strategy For
Memorizing Numbers and Formulas

A lthough repetition is alw ays im portantw hen itcom es to learning,itis a sham e

thatso m any people w ind up relying on rote learning.I calllearning by rote the
"bluntforce ham m er" of education.W hy? B ecause itis exactly like pounding
your eyes and brain w ith a ham m er.T his is especially painfulto see w hen there
are w ays to use your naturalim agination,w ays w hich expand your ability to
learn and m em orize as you m em orize and learn.

W orse,people w ho use rote learning are usually deluding them selves.W e have
allexperienced the fantasy thatrepeatedly looking atindex cards w illputthe
inform ation into long-term m em ory.H ow ever,only rarely does this painful
activity rew ard you w ith perm anentow nership of those num bers and form ulas.

T he factis thatrepetition w ithoutm aking a m em orable connection w ith the

m aterialdoesn'tw ork – notin m y experience,and notin the experience of the
thousands of people w ho have read m y M agnetic M em ory M ethod books and
taken m y video courses.

L ooking back atm y ow n studentexperiences,I'm shocked thatm y schools did

notteach dedicated m em orization skills.Instead of sitting through long classes
based upon the repetition of one or tw o m ath exercises,I could have been using
an alternative.W ith a dedicated m em orization strategy,I could have been
m em orizing dozens of im portantm ath concepts per day.

The Belief That Memorization Strategies Won't Work For You

People often tellm e thatthe m em ory techniques I teach w illnotw ork for them .I
alw ays confidently respond w ith a sim ple truth:

N otonly w illthese techniques w ork if you follow the exercises,these techniques

w illliterally blow you aw ay.

E specially w hen you see how quickly your m ath skills develop.
T ry outthe m em ory techniques taughtin this book for yourself and you w ill
m arvelatthe progress you'llm ake.G uaranteed.

The Belief That Memorization Strategies Are Too Much Work

Y ou w illneed betw een 1-2 hours to setup the fullM em ory Palace system taught
in this book and another 2-3 hours to really getthe hang of the m ethod.A fter
that,it's justa m atter of picking up speed.T he steps are easy and fun.T he bonus
is you can m em orize num bers and form ulas as you are learning the M agnetic
M em ory M ethod.

A s soon as you've understood the principles of m ath m em orization and have

started w orking w ith the m ethod taughtin this book,you w illbe m em orizing
new m ath rules by the dozens – allw ith consistentspeed and accuracy.T he best
partis thatthis m ethod w illserve you for life and can be extended to
m em orizing justaboutany inform ation you could ever w ant.

I have a suggestion for you before you turn the page and startyour journey
tow ard advanced m em orization skills.B elieve in the pow er of your m ind.

W hen I started using m em ory techniques,for exam ple,I constantly told m yself
thatthe language,or subjectm atter I w as learning atthe tim e,w as too difficult
and thatm y brain w as illequipped.I acted as if I had been born w ith a poor
m em ory.T his notonly pushed the inform ation to be learned aw ay from m e,it
also eroded m y confidence and m ade things m uch m ore difficultthan they
needed to be.

Don't be like this.

T he ability to m em orize num bers and m ath rules and putthem to use w ith near-
100% accuracy opened the w orld's doors for m e,and itw illdo the sam e for you.

M oreover,w hen w e consider the im portance of m ath in society,itis thatm uch

m ore im portantthatw e do notbelittle ourselves.Y our m ind is pow erful.B y
developing a positive m entalattitude and learning the M agnetic M em ory
M ethod your efforts w illbe easy,fun and dem onstrate to you the pow erful
abilities of your ow n m ind every single day for the restof your life.

M ath rem ains a "language" spoken allaround the w orld.T his m eans thatthose
w ith solid m ath skills can experience so m uch m ore in their careers.

W ith advanced m ath skills,you'llqualify for better jobs.Y ou'llhave m ore

opportunities in the fields of science,com puting and engineering.If you are a
businessperson,you w illengage in m eetings and m eetpotentialclients and
partners w ith the ease and efficiency of num ber m astery thatm arks allgreat
entrepreneurs.A nd,there are m any m ore benefits too.

Y ou w illlove adapting the M agnetic M em ory M ethod for m em orizing num bers
and form ulas to your individuallearning style,and you'llenjoy m assive success
as a result.

G ive m e 5 hours of your tim e (or less) as you teach yourself how to use this
m ethod.In return,I w illgive you the techniques and abilities you'llneed to
m em orize allthe m ath form ulas you have ever dream ed possible and experience
m assive boosts in num ber and m ath "fluency" as a result.
How To Learn & Memorize Math,
Numbers, Equations, & Simple
Arithmetic

By Anthony Metivier, PhD

www.magneticmemorymethod.com
5= l
6= ch,jor sh
7= k
8= f or v
9= p

Putting the sounds together involves inserting a vow el.T o m em orize a sim ple
num ber like "22," you could insert"u" to m ake the w ord "nun," or if you're
fam iliar w ith Indian bread,you could use "nan."

T o take a longer exam ple,"anim al" could help you recallthe num ber "235"
because n = 2,m =3 and l=5.
B utis this enough?

N otreally.

W hatw e need is to take these im ages and m ake them large,bright,vibrant,

strange,bursting w ith color and energized w ith action.

For exam ple,im agine needing to m em orize "22235."

W e already have "nun" (22) and w e already have "anim al" (235),so let's add
zany action by having the nun attack the lion.
If the num ber w ere 23522,you could justreverse the im age.N ow the lion is
attacking the nun.
B y m aking sure thatthe w ords w e create from the phonetic sounds are linked to
the num bers,w e m ake everything m uch m ore m em orable.

Y ou can think of this action-based "associative-im agery" as a kind of m ini-story

or vignette.In the scientific literature,im ages like nuns attacking lions are
som etim es called "story m nem onics."

Permanent or Flexible?

Som e people like to choose perm anentim ages for num bers.For exam ple,22
w ould alw ays be a nun and 235 w ould alw ays be an anim al.

M y preference is to keep a sm allpoolof figures to fallback on butm aintain

flexibility w hen needed.It's also im portantthatthe w ords w e create from the
M ajor M ethod phonetics are concrete.

W hatdoes this m ean?

C om pare "nun" to "none." W hich one can you see in your m ind?
H aving com pleted this exercise,itshould be obvious thatm em orizing "none,"
i.e. nothing attacking a lion,w illnotproduce a strong m em ory thatis easy to
recall.

W hataboutcreating im ages for single digits?

M em orizing single digits is as easy as creating im ages for 1-9 in a w ay that

requires no "phonetics" as such.For exam ple,people often associate:

1 w ith a candlestick ...

3 w ith a sidew ays m ustache ...
8 w ith a snow m an ...
...etc.

If you're going to create a "setand forgetit" setof im ages thatyou use allthe
tim e,it's im portantto m ake sure thatthey com e to you naturally.Y ou should
also putthem into use rightaw ay so thatyour m ind learns these "keyw ords"
through use as w ellas m em ory.

A nd thatraises a good pointaboutm nem onics in general.It's notjustthatw e

link one thing w ith another for fun.W e do itbecause these techniques are useful
in w ays thatcan m ake a realdifference in our lives.T hat's w hy you need to use
the techniques as soon as possible so thatyou notonly understand how they
w ork,butyou feelhow they w ork also.

Itis difficultto express justhow good itfeels to be able to recalllong strings of

num bers w ith ease untilyou've done it.B ut,once you've done it,you'llhave a
hard tim e not"show ing off" a little and teaching everyone you know how to use
these new skills for them selves.

Grouping
O ne neatstrategy involves differentkinds of grouping num bers together.W e've
already talked aboutnuns attacking lions for grouping 2 and 3-digitnum bers and
you've seen how easy thatcan be.B utw hatabouta 7-digitphone num ber?

A nchoring figures is one solution.

For exam ple,let's say thatyou encounter a phone num ber thatstarts w ith 2.T he
fullnum ber is 275-8923.

A ssum ing 2 is a sw an in your single digitsystem ,you can use itto "anchor" the
restof the num bers.Starting atthe head,for exam ple,you could see your friend
K arl(k+l= 75) sliding dow n the sw an's neck to inserta viper (v+p = 89) into a
garden gnom e's m outh w here he is standing on the sw an's back (n+m = 23).

L et's break this dow n again:

T he sw an is the anchor = 2

K +L (K arl) = 75

V +P (V iper) = 89

N +M (G nom es M outh) = 23
N otice thatcorrectspelling goes outthe w indow in this exam ple.W e're focusing
on sounds alone using the M ajor M ethod.A tthe beginning,itcan take practice
to m ake these substitutions w ith speed.Y et,m ostpeople pick itup quickly.

Y ou'llnotice too thatyour m ind has an am azing ability to hone in on exactly

w hatyou need to recallthe num ber.T he sw an w illcom e first,K arlsliding dow n
the neck next,follow ed by the viper and the gnom e.Y ou m ay even find thatyou
no longer need to m entally "see" these things.Itw illbe m ore than enough to
think aboutthe associative-im agery to create the desired effect.

T hatdesired effectof instantaneous recallis the closestthing to realm agic w e

have.Y ou can use this procedure to m em orize alm ostanything.W hen itcom es
to num bers,you can link any num ber thatstarts w ith 4 to a sailboat,w ith 8 to a
snow m an and so on.

O ne thing you m ightbe thinking is:

H old on! I live in a city w here everyone's num ber starts w ith 2.H ow m any
sw ans am I supposed to have floating around in m y head?

T he solution?

R ead on,dear M em orizer,read on.W e'lldealw ith this in detailin the next
chapter.For now ,let's read the ...
Chapter Conclusion

So far w e've talked aboutunstructured approaches to rem em bering num bers and
sem i-structured grouping.T o review :m aking single w ords like "anim al" or
"nun" am ounts to an unstructured process.Putting them together by having the
nun attack the anim alis sem i-structured.

W e then added a bitm ore structure by using an anchoring figure,in this case a
sw an.

Structure is im portantbecause the m ore of ityou have,the m ore you can letyour
m ind fallback on it.In effect,building structures reduces,if notelim inates,
"cognitive overload."

W hatis cognitive overload? It's the consequence of having so m any things going
on atonce thatyour m ind m akes little or no progress.

B ut,w hatif w ith a bitof forethoughtand preparation,you could reduce,if not

end,cognitive overload so thatitnever stops you from using your m em ory
again? W hatif there w ere m ore structures w e could use to give these pow erful
and m em orable im ages a perm anent"hom e" in our m inds? Structures thatare
easy to find,easy to use and need alm ostzero effortto use?

If the answ er to these questions interests you,then I am aboutto show you a

fascinating technique.Itis a technique thatw illletyou hold as m any num bers in
your m ind as you could ever w ish.
 Chapter Two: How To Build & Use A Memory Palace

In this chapter,you'lllearn aboutthe M em ory Palace concept.W e're going to get

into a lotof detailaboutconstructing w ell-form ed M em ory Palaces,butfor now ,
sitback,relax and letthe conceptsink in.M em ory Palaces w illprovide you w ith
the ultim ate organizationalsystem ,a cheator crib sheetfor your m ind.

T he bestpartis using M em ory Palaces to store inform ation in your m ind is never
cheating.E verything you've m em orized has been learned in a legitim ate w ay.
Y ou justlearned itfaster and m ore "m agnetically" than anyone else did.

W e've already talked aboutgrouping.M em ory Palaces take your num ber
m em ory gam e one m assive step further by "super-grouping." W hen you use all
the techniques I've already described in this book,you are in effectm aking your
m ind "M agnetic."

A s an im portantaside,let's look atthis term "M agnetic," talk aboutw hy it

deserves capitalization and w hatitm eans for you.

T he M agnetic M em ory M ethod uses the term m agnetic for tw o reasons.First,it

is aboutattracting inform ation in a w ay thatm akes itstick in your m ind for as
long as you w ant.Second,using the other feature of a m agnet,the M agnetic
M em ory M ethod helps you repelinform ation.

W hy w ould you w antto repelinform ation? B ecause there are a lotof things that
you don'tw antin your m em ory w hich includes excessive inform ation that
causes cognitive overload.T he M agnetic M em ory M ethod and the M em ory
Palaces help you create and letyou focus on the m ostim portantthing:getting
only the inform ation you w antinto your m em ory so thatyou can repelthe rest.

For better or w orse,it's difficultto explain exactly w hy this occurs.B utonce

you're using the M agnetic M em ory M ethod,you'llfeelit.

What Is A Memory Palace?

A M em ory Palace is a m entalconstructbased on a fam iliar location.Itallow s

for rapid and efficientjourneys w here you "m eet" the associative-im agery you've
created using the techniques in this book.M em ory Palaces are the bestw ay to
store and recallinform ation in a w ay thattakes you to the levelof m em ory
expert.T hey create such m assive success for M em orizers because they rely on
actuallocations.

Why Are Actual Locations So Important?

T he answ er is sim ple:T he m ind has the incredible ability to recallplaces that
you already know w ith ease.B y "places," w e m ean buildings in particular,rather
than outdoors locations.

A nd this is w hy I suggestthatyou build M em ory Palaces based on buildings.

M y experience,along w ith feedback from hundreds of m y readers,dem onstrates
thatbuildings m ake for better M em ory Palaces.T his is because they com e pre-
structured.

Forestpaths and beaches,on the other hand,com e w ithoutstructure and you

need to im pose artificialorder on them .Y ou need to im pose order on buildings
like your hom e too,butin a w ay based upon an existing architecturalorder.T he
patterns upon w hich you can "overlay" a reliable journey in a forestin no w ay
com pare to the stability of a fam iliar floor plan.

I do notw antto confuse you w ith a contradiction here,butI w ould like to invite
you to hear an alternate opinion.PhilC ham bers,C hief A rbiter of the W orld
M em ory C ham pionships,gave us an interview on the M agnetic M em ory M ethod
Podcast.In our discussion,Philgives his opinion aboutindoor and outdoor
locations as M em ory Palaces.Y ou can listen free here:
http://w w w .m agneticm em orym ethod.com /phil-cham bers-talks-about-the-outer-
lim its-of-m em ory-skills/

B e sure to subscribe to the M agnetic M em ory M ethod N ew sletter w hile you're

on the site! :)

In brief,Philsuggests thatoutdoor M em ory Palaces pose no disadvantage

com pared to indoor locations.B utw e need to keep in m ind thatPhilis also a
distinguished M em orizer w ith m any years of experience.It's up to you to
experim entw ith w hatgets results,butm y advice rem ains the sam e.Indoor
M em ory Palaces com e pre-structured.A llyou need to do is charta journey
through them .

Memory Palace History

B efore w e begin learning to build M em ory Palaces,itw illserve you to know a
little bitabouttheir history.N o one really know s aboutw hether or notthe
follow ing story is true,especially given thatthere are so m any variations of itto
choose from ,butas w e'llsee,w hatreally m atters is thatthe legend has clues
abouthow to use m em ory techniques w ithin it.I suspectitis for this reason that
the "origin story" of M em ory Palaces has survived.
B ack in A ncientG reece,Sim onides of C eos (c.546-468 B C E ) found him self
giving a speech ata banquetbefore a group of distinguished guests.T he building
collapsed and everyone butSim onides died.
In som e versions of the story,Sim onides w as called outof the banquetby C astor
and Pollux,m ythicalboxers w ho representheroism .T here doesn'tappear to be
any reason these tw o figures called him outof the banquet,butthe occasion did
save him from being crushed to death.
R egardless of how the story is told,because Sim onides knew the secrets of
com bining im ages w ith locations,he knew exactly w here everyone in the
building had been sitting and w as able to help the authorities identify the bodies
so they could be properly buried by the m ourning fam ilies w ho w ould never
have experienced closure otherw ise.
Itis Sim onides'ability to do this in com bination w ith the building itself thatled
to the creation of the M em ory Palace technique.T he m ajor pointof the story that
w e w illbe referring to m any tim es in this book is thatSim onides used location
to "store" and "revisit" m em orized inform ation.
The Important Mechanics of Memory Palaces
L ocation-based m em orization is usefulon m any counts,m ostly because itallow s
us to leverage the m ind's naturalability to m entally organize space w ithout
significanteffort.
T ry this:close your eyes and visually reconstructthe room you're sitting in w ith
your im agination.C hances are thatyou easily can do so.Y ou m ightactually
"see" itor only see a kind of floor plan m ade of sim ple shapes.Y ou m ay even
only "feel" or "sense" the conceptof the room ,but,one w ay or another you can
reconstructthe room in your m ind.
A fter thatsim ple task is done,m entally m ove outinto the hallw ay and
reconstructthatspace.M ove throughoutthe entire building,recreating its room s
and its nooks and crannies in your m ind.W ork on m aking itvisual,or sim ply
develop w hatis now becom ing a M em ory Palace in w hatever w ay w orks for
you.
W hatw e are doing in this exercise is using som ething w e already know to create
a pow erfulm ental"link" thatcan be revisited atw illw ith (alm ost) zero effort.
W e can place inform ation atvarious points in this m entalconstruct,"m agnetize"
thatinform ation by using associative-im agery and then revisititlater in order to
retrieve the inform ation w e've m em orized.
A tleastatthe beginning,w e w antto alw ays use w hatI call"non-arbitrary
spaces." T hey are non-arbitrary because they m ean som ething to us.T hese
include places like:Y our hom e
H om es of relatives
H om es of friends
L ibraries
M ovie theatres
H otels
G rocery stores
… and the listnever really ends.Y ou can alw ays visitnew places atjustabout
any tim e thatyou w ish in order to develop new M em ory Palaces.
About The Term "Memory Palace"
Speaking of w hich,"M em ory Palace" is the sexy term for "non-arbitrary space."
Som e people don'tlike the term "M em ory Palace," so if you're already gagging
atthe idea of using itas w e'llbe doing throughoutthis book,feelfree to find a
replacem ent.I once coached on 80 year old m an through em ailw ho w enton to
m em orize hundreds of lines of poetry using the M agnetic M em ory M ethod,but
only after he finally decided to callhis M em ory Palaces "apartm ents w ith
com partm ents" because he found the term "M em ory Palace" too hard to bear.
W hatever you do,don'tletthe term inology getin the w ay of m aking progress
w ith the techniques you're going to learn in this book.Sim ply com e up w ith your
ow n if you don'tlike the term s.M aybe you'llw ind up w riting a book of your
ow n one day and com e up w ith som ething even m ore fashionable!
T his raises the interesting questions of w hy w e callthem "M em ory Palaces" in
the firstplace.T here are m any potentialansw ers,butone of m y favorites
appears in St.A ugustine (354-430 A C E ).In his C onfessions he w rote "A nd I
com e to the fields and spacious palaces (praetoria m em oriae) of m y m em ory,
w here are the treasures of innum erable im ages,broughtinto itfrom things of all
sorts perceived by the senses."
T his is im portantbecause A ugustine is pointing outthe im portantfactthatin
order for M em ory Palaces to becom e useful,w e need to com bine locations w ith
allof our senses in order to create "treasure." B y putting sensations together w ith
locations,w e can m ake inform ation M agnetic so thatitw illcom e back to us
w henever w e w ish.
Y ou m ightalso find itusefulto know thatlocation-based m em ory techniques
appear to have existed before people like A ugustine and Sim onides w orked w ith
them .In her book on the B uddha,K aren A rm strong m entions the use of m em ory
techniques in Y oga involving locations and the B uddhistinstructor M ichael
R oach has spoken in greatdetailabouthow various m editations w ere
rem em bered by the m onks by placing im agery in differentparts of the tem ple.
For exam ple,in a m editation w hich asks us to rem em ber thatdeath is alw ays
behind us,m onks w ere advised to place a black dog ata particular partof the
tem ple to rem ind them of this principle.Interestingly,later religious traditions
like C atholicism w ould take such ritualistic rem inders outof the im agination and
externalize them in the form of reliefs or paintings on the w alls of their churches
in the form of the Stations of the C ross.
T he principle w e learn from these practices is thatw e can divide M em ory
Palaces into "stations" thatform the stops along a m entaljourney based upon
"actual" journeys thatyou can actually take.
T here are in facttw o types of stations:
* M acro-stations
* M icro-stations
A m acro-station is an entire room (i.e.bedroom ,kitchen,living room ,
bathroom ).A m icro-station is an elem entinside of a room (i.e.a bookcase,bed,
T V set).
It's im portantto recognize the difference because atthe beginning stages of
using M em ory Palaces,it's often bestfor people to startoutw ith m acro-stations
untilthey getthe hang of the techniques.H ow ever,m any people "get" how this
w orks rightaw ay and thatenables them to m ake quick progress rightaw ay w ith
m icro-stations.
T he m ostim portantthing here is to getstarted A SA P.T he sooner you start
experim enting,the sooner you can startgetting results from these am azing
m em ory techniques.
H ave a look atthe follow ing diagram .
E ach of these room s represents a m acro-station.T here are four in total,five if
you countthe area in frontof the entrance.
C om pare this w ith the sam e hom e,this tim e w ith labels thatindicate justsom e
of the possible m icro-stations in this hom e:
B y identifying a liberalam ountof m icro-stations w ithin each room ,w e now
have 30 individualspots upon w hich to place inform ation thatw e w antto
m em orize.T hus,it's a greatidea to w ork up to this levelas quickly as possible
so thatyou can take advantage of M em ory Palace journeys thatoffer this m any
possibilities.
For the sake of com pleteness,here is a listof the stations indicated in the im age
above:
T ub
M irror
Sink
D raw er
L eftbedside table
B ed left
B ed right
R ightbedside table
W indow
B ookcase
Sofa # ookca ^*!
tki
T his is the office w here I w ork.T he bookcase stores books.I use the bed to
study the effects of m editation on m em ory and research dream s.I use the desk
and chair to w rite books and w ork on m usic m em orization,the w allto lean m y
guitars on and the bike takes m e hom e atthe end of the day.
I also use allof these "m icro-stations" to store inform ation thatI w antto
m em orize.B y m aking the journey linear w ith no path-crossing and m oving
tow ards a door so thatI'm nottrapping m yself,there is no confusion aboutw hat
com es nextalong the journey and m entalenergy expenditure is keptto a bare
m inim um .
N ow thatyou've had a look into justone room of justone of m y m any M em ory
Palaces,are you beginning to see the pow er of separating places thatyou already
know into individualstations so thatyou can use them to "drop" pieces of
inform ation in order to access them later?
I certainly hope so because there is literally no other m em ory system this
pow erful,and there is stillso m uch to learn.
Specificity
In order to be truly successfulw hen using M em ory Palaces to store and retrieve
large am ounts of inform ation,it's im portantthateach M em ory Palace is selected
w ith care.Y our M em ory Palaces should be projectspecific.Y ou w antthe
M em ory Palaces you use to respond to specific needs.
For exam ple,I've started learning Japanese.T o dealw ith the hiragana,I needed
a M em ory Palace w ith 48 stations thatw ere tightly linked together,butnot
overw helm ingly so.A fter som e thought,I drew a quick sketch of m y girlfriend's
apartm ent.W ithin five m inutes,I had 48 stations w ritten outin a listand 15
m inutes later I had m em orized both the sound and the shape of 15 characters.
It's really thatsim ple.
H ow ever,if I had picked a M em ory Palace thatw as too sm allor even too large
and tried to w ork w ith itfor this particular setof inform ation,I can predictbased
on long experience w ith using M em ory Palaces thatm y results w ould notbe
nearly as fastor as easy.
T hus,w e should alw ays w ork tow ards having an econom y of m eans in our
M em ory Palaces.T his term com es from the theatre and from film and refers to
using the absolute bare m inim um needed to express certain features of a story.A
character w ho is depressed is often cram ped by the cam era to show isolation and
despair.A character w ho is happy or free is given m ore space.Space is never
w asted and has deep m etaphoricalvalue in m ostgood m ovies.
In the w orld of M em ory Palaces,too m uch space can lead to "decom pression."
W e often w antto pack our M em ory Palaces tightly in order to m axim ize,not
justthe am ountof inform ation w e can store in them ,butalso the energy.
H ow do you learn aboutthis and getitright?
B y building and using M em ory Palaces.
I can only give you the guidelines.
O nly you can undertake the journey and experim entw ith w hatw orks best.
B efore m oving on,another reason w hy you w antto m ake your M em ory Palaces
specific to the inform ation you're trying to m em orize is because ithelps you
track your results.
For exam ple,I told you thatI m em orized 15 hiragana characters in 15 m inutes,
know ledge thatI could easily express because each station is counted.I could
then predicthow m uch tim e I w ould need for the rem aining characters and
budgetm y tim e accordingly.W e're going to talk aboutthis issue m ore in the
chapter on using index cards in conjunction w ith M em ory Palaces w here you
w illlearn how to m em orize m assive am ounts of inform ation in an even m ore
structured w ay by deciding in advance how m any stations you'llneed and
choosing your M em ory Palaces for appropriateness before you even getstarted.
Chapter Summary
C hoose your firstM em ory Palace by identifying a fam iliar location.M any
people suggestthatyou should use your ow n hom e as a beginner,butI think you
can be m ore adventurous if you w ish.U se your school,church,w orkplace –
nearly any indoors location w illdo,keeping in m ind thatyou w antto m ake it
indoors to m axim ize the effectiveness and you w antto be fam iliar w ith the
location to the pointthateven w ithoutrevisiting it,you can create a journey
throughoutthe location in your m ind and divide the journey into stations.
W hen w orking w ith your firstM em ory Palace,decide firstw hether you w antto
startw ith m acro-stations or getrightinto using m icro-stations.M y preference is
for people to startlarge w ith m acro-stations and then narrow in to using m icro-
stations,butI leave this to you.Ideally,you'lltry both,butthere's only one first
tim e and it's im portantnotto frustrate yourself if you feelin advance thatusing
m icro-stations m ightbe too m uch.
O n the m atter of overw helm ,m ake sure thatyou constructyour firstM em ory
Palace journey in a w ay thatneither traps you nor enables you to cross your ow n
path.T his can be adm ittedly tricky in som e buildings and m ay m ean thatyou
need to abandon features thatyou could otherw ise use as stations in order to
keep a linear journey thatdoes notlead to crossing your ow n path or trapping
yourself.B utif you rely upon the principles I've given you in this chapter,your
journey w illbe stream lined,easy to navigate and effective.
A nd if you're w orried aboutnotusing allavailable space because you've lefta
num ber of m icro-stations behind,don'tw orry aboutit.In the long run,itis
alw ays w orth itto lose a few stations in favor of having journeys thatare clear,
linear and easily navigable.Y ou do notw antto lose m entalenergy,certainly not
w hen you'llbe using your M em ory Palaces for the purposes of passing exam s.
T his is w hy it's im portantto focus on developing an econom y of m eans,a tight
and focused approach to getting w hatyou w antw hen you w antitw ithouthaving
to rem em ber anything aboutthe journey you created.T his conceptof the
econom y of m eans w orks in film and itw illw ork in your m ind to create
com pelling journeys thathelp you recallallthe inform ation thatyou'llever need
to m em orize.
W hen creating your M em ory Palaces using these im portantprinciples,draw
them outand keep a top-dow n record.
T his m eans notonly creating the floor plan so thatyou can see itvisually,but
also conceptualizing itlogistically.B y putting the tw o m entalprocesses together,
your m ind w ill"solidify" each and every M em ory Palace you create using this
process,the beautifulresultof taking a few extra seconds to letyour brain
interactw ith a location italready know s using m ore than one perception
m odality.
A s a brief aside,although the im age I've created above m ay notbe sexy,that's
the point.Y ou don'tneed to be an artistor a graphic designer.Y ou justneed to
link your m ind w ith your hand in order to create a stronger link betw een w hat
you w illsoon rely upon only in your im agination and the reality of thatlocation
in the realw orld.
T his brief exercise w illalso help ensure thatyou can follow the journey in your
m ind alm ostw ithoutthinking aboutit.Y ou w antto m ove from station to station
in your M em ory Palace in the sam e w ay you m ove from your kitchen to your
living room .W e base our stations on elem ents thatw e are fam iliar w ith for the
precise reason thatw e don'thave to think aboutw hatcom es nextalong the
journey.W e justm entally go there.
For kids,sim ple rhym es can be effective,especially if you m ake them visual.
H ere's one:

3 tim es 3 gota fine,paid the judge,the fine of 9.

T his is a sam ple exam ple only.E ncourage everyone w ith w hom you discuss
these techniques to com e up w ith their ow n im agery.

B utas w e've noted before,it's im portantto see the im ages in your m ind and
locate them in a M em ory Palace so thatyou can revisitthem later.Y ou cannot
decode the inform ation if you don'tknow w here to find it.T his is one of the
reasons w hy having a linear journey is so im portant.

T o give you another exam ple,(even though you do need to com e up w ith your
ow n),take this one:

4 tim es 4,buying shoe-shaped beans,w hy buy 4 and not16?

R em em ber w hen w e talked aboutthe M ajor M ethod? H ere's an exam ple of

w here you can use it.

L et's say thatyou have placed this im age (either for yourself or as partof helping
a child) in the hallw ay.Since you now know the M ajor M ethod,w hy notcom e
up w ith an im age for 44 and 32.A lthough you're notdealing w ith 44,but4x4,
you can stillcreate an im age for itand understand that44 m eans 4x4.T his is
som ething you'llneed to experim entto see if itw orks for you.

Finally,(to obey the rule of threes),im agine thatyou're now in the living room .
Perhaps you or your child sees tw o m elting snow m en fighting over a jar.

8 tim es 8 (tw o snow m en) fellon the floor,pick itup,it's 64 (ja + ra = jar).

T o som e,this m ightseem like an insane am ountof activity justto rem em ber
sim ple m ultiplication outcom es.A nd certainly som e people w on'tneed any of
this.

B utfor those w ho struggle,itis im aginative m ethods like these thatcan end the
sw eatand tears and m ake m ath fun.
L et's m ove on to form ulas.A ssum ing thatyou'llbe placing this inform ation in a
M em ory Palace,im agine thatyou need to m em orize e=m c^2.

Y ou now have m ore than enough inform ation aboutusing the M agnetic M em ory
M ethod to m em orize letters and num bers.

B utw hataboutthatcurious sym bol? It's called a caretand signifies

exponentiation.W hen I needed to m em orize this,I placed itin the bathroom .
A nd there I saw ...

E instein w ith garden shears cutting the M cD onald's sym bolin half.Ithad one
catear ^ on itand its other ear w as a 2.

W hataboutc2 = a2 + b2?

B efore you read on and exam ine m y process,give ita try.W hatcould you
dream up,know ing w hatyou now know ,to m em orize this equation?

For m e,the firstthing thatcam e to m ind w as three nuns atthe sea looking atthe
abs on som e m en w alking by.In the gram m ar of m y M agnetic M em ory M ethod
vocabulary,the im age translated to:"See three nuns abs."

T he nuns,as I'm sure you'llrecognize,have to do w ith the M ajor M ethod.For

your benefit,let's look atthatsystem once again:

0= sa
1= ta or da
2= na
3= ma
4= ra
5= la
6= cha,jah or sha
7= ka
8= fa or va
9= pa

T his is w hy the sightof three nuns rem inds m e thatthere are three tw os in the
targetequation.T he factthatthese nuns are atsea rem inds m e thatthe equation
beings w ith "c" and the "abs" rem ind that"a" and "b" are also linked w ith the
num ber 2.

D on'tw orry.I can hear the question you're now asking:

W hatabout"=" and "+"?

I suggestthatyou m ake a standard im age for these thatyou w illalw ays use.

"=",for exam ple,could be vam pire fangs.T he "+" could be a cross.

T hus,you could im age "see three vam pire nuns atthe sea dragging a cross w hile
staring atabs."

L et's go one better.

L et's say thatyou also w anted to m em orize thatthis equation represents a

Pythagorean triangle.

W hatdo you think you could do?

I'm tem pted notto tellyou,justso thatyou'llcom e up w ith som ething on your
ow n.B utsince w e're nearing the end of this chapter,I'llrevealw hatI w ould do
anyw ay.

I w ould see a python in the distance building a pyram id.

B utw hatI see is notatissue.

W hatm atters is w hatyou see.

A nd w hatm atters is thatyou create im ages thatare large,bright,vibrantand

exploding w ith crazy action.Y ou w antto create a "rubberneck" effect.T his w ill
"force" you to look atthe im agery w hen you com e across itin your M em ory
Palaces.Itw illbe im possible notto "decode" w hatthe im agery m eans,alm ost
effortlessly placing the m em orized inform ation in your hands.

N o equation or form ula is too com plex.W ith practice,you can use the M agnetic
M em ory M ethod to m aster anything you w antto m em orize.
 And to prove it, I have a special gift for you.

R obertA hdootis an accom plished m athem atician.H e's also the m an behind
Y aym ath.org,a popular m ath-learning resource from w hich you can benefitat
any tim e.A nd now even m ore so w ith the m em ory skills you've learned.

B utjustbecause R obert's a m ath w hiz doesn'tm ean thathe has form ulas
m em orized.

Q uite the contrary.A s he told m e,he w rites outform ulas for students from the
textbook,notfrom m em ory.

C om plex form ulas.

T w isted form ulas.

L ong,snarling and daunting form ulas.

G uess w hat?

I helped him learn how to m em orize even the m ostcom plex of these.In fact,he
m em orized 9 extrem ely com plex form ulas in just45 m inutes using a M em ory
Palace.

A nd then w e m ade a video together in w hich he describes exactly how he did it.
A nd he describes how incredible itfeltto m ake such an achievem ent.

I'm going to give you thatvideo.

H ere's the link.T his is from m y private D ropbox accountso please do notshare
it.Italso includes the transcriptof the interview ,w hich you'llalso find atthe end
of this book:
https://w w w .dropbox.com /sh/o6a3dbanq9gbik6/A A A L asFA 4iPSxcR 2O m 3V dE pC a?
dl=0

H ave you w atched the video?

Y ou have?
G ood.Inspiring,isn'tit?

H ere are the m ostim portantpoints to consider aboutR obert's M em ory Palace
w ork w ith these form ulas:

1.H e used a fam iliar location w ith m eaning for him .

2.H e drew upon narrative elem ents from his reallife.T hese elem ents involved
dram a and drew upon fam ilialcliches.

3.R obertfilled the im ages along his journey w ith vibrantand intense action.

4.R obertpacked his journey in a com pactm anner.In som e parts,he m oved
from one chair atthe dinner table to the next.

5.R obertreview ed the m aterialusing R ecallR ehearsal.T his process involved a

m inim alam ountof tim e and ensured thatthe form ulas eased their w ay into long-
term m em ory.

Itis on the m atter of R ecallR ehearsalto w hich w e now turn.T his technique w ill
notonly ensure thatthe num bers and form ulas you've m em orized go into long-
term m em ory.Itw illalso exercise your im agination so thatyou can m em orize
faster,m em orize m ore and im prove your m ind.
Chapter Four: How To Get Even The Most Difficult Numbers, Equations &
Formulas Into Long-term Memory Using The Simplest And Most Elegant
Memory Technique In The World T he techniques you've learned thus far
m ake itpossible to m em orize any num ber or equation w ith speed and accuracy.
Y ou've also learned how to create a M em ory Palace and use it.Y ou,your child
or any m ath studentliving under your roof can now m em orize the tim es table
w ith speed and accuracy.

B utthe extentto w hich the m em orized num bers w illlastdepends on a lotof

factors.T he easiestw ay to explain these factors is to look atsom e theories and
concepts of m em ory.T hen I w illteach you about"R ecallR ehearsal" so thatyou
can place any num ber of form ulas into long-term m em ory.H aving done this,
you can restassured thatthe inform ation w illbe there w hen you need it.

W hom is long-term m em ory for? Itis especially needed by students w ishing to

pass form ula-driven exam s.Itis also helpfulfor those w ho perform calculations
as an em ployee.O r perhaps you're a self-em ployed com puter program m er w ho
w ould enjoy the edge of having form ulas on hand.B eing able to pluck them
from m em ory saves a lotof tim e com pared to searching G oogle or rifling
through books.

W ith these benefits in m ind,let's see w hatyou can do to getany m ath

inform ation you need into long-term m em ory.

Hermann Ebbinghaus

H erm ann E bbinghaus (1850-1909) perform ed m any m em ory experim ents.H is

findings are usefulfor those of us interested in practicing m em ory skills atthe
highestlevels.Y ou can find his ideas in a book called Ü ber das G edächtnis,or
M em ory:A C ontribution to E xperim entalPsychology.

In this book,E bbinghaus suggests thatlearning and retention degrade based on

tim e and position.In other w ords,the order in w hich you learn som ething affects
how you w illkeep it.T hus,the m ore tim e you spend on inform ation,or the m ore
"prim acy" you give,the greater the chance itw illenter long-term m em ory.

T he problem is thatw e tend to give m ore prim acy to the inform ation w e learn
first.E bbinghaus called this the "prim acy effect." W e gettired,our attention
w anes and a w hole hostof distractions interruptus.E ven the firstpiece of
inform ation w e've learned can prove disruptive because itm ay be so interesting
or useful.O ur interestin the initialinform ation interrupts our ability to focus on
the nextpiece.

A nother term E bbinghaus uses is the "serial-positioning effect." For our

purposes,this term am ounts to the sam e thing,butw e'llrevisititagain further
along because w e can "hack" it.T he procedure you'lllearn w illenable you to
w ork m em ory m iracles.U sing this specialtechnique,getting m athem atical
inform ation into long-term m em ory w illbe easy.

W hy is this im portantto num ber m em orization?

It's im portantbecause w e're using M em ory Palaces.T his m eans thatw e're not
only learning inform ation in order,butalso m em orizing itin order.A nd because
this som etim es involves long strings of num bers or form ulas,w e w illsuffer from
the "forgetting curve." T his related principle,also from E bbinghaus,tells us
som ething im portant.If you do notpractice inform ation you have learned,over
tim e you w illforgetit("use itor lose it").

B utthis doesn'thave to be the case.H ere's how :

I callthis exercise "M agnetic M em ory M ethod R ecallR ehearsal."

W hen you use it,you are literally rehearsing w hatyou've m em orized as if it

w ere a stage play.

A lotof people think of the m nem onic associative-im agery as m ovies,butI think
this is incorrect.

W hy?

B ecause m ovies are the sam e every tim e you w atch them .O nly you change.

B utw hen itcom es to m oving through a M em ory Palace,the im ages are never
quite the sam e.Y ou are using the com bination of location,im agery and action to
trigger recall.T his lets you "restage" the im age-stories you've created.Itis a
play.A nd it's also playfulw hen approached in the rightspirit.
Q uite frankly,in m y not-so-hum ble,butalw ays M agnetic opinion,if this isn't
fun,either you're doing itw rong,or m nem onics sim ply isn'tfor you.I'm sorry to
sound brutal,butusually people haven'tgotten the m ethod dow n and that's w hy
they struggle.

Y ou w illelim inate m uch effortif you've taken care of the follow ing:

* Y ou've created your associative-im agery correctly.

* Y ou've placed itin w ell-constructed M em ory Palaces.

In fact,getthese tw o things rightand everything w illbe elegant,easy,effective

and fun.For m ore help,I recom m end thatyou w atch getm y free M agnetic
M em ory M ethod W orksheets.If for any reason you cannotclick thatlink,just
type in http://w w w .m agneticm em orym ethod.com /free-m agnetic-m em ory-
w orksheets/.

W ith allthis said,the only thing you have to do w hen itcom es to R ecall
R ehearsalis to find yourself a quietplace and go through the m aterial.Startat
the beginning of your M em ory Palace journey and keep going untilyou've com e
to the end.

Y ou can do this m entally,butI recom m end thatyou have a pen and pencil.
W rite everything dow n from your m em ory.T ake care thatyou've rem oved
yourself from the source m aterial.D on'thave your textbook anyw here in sightso
thatyou w on'tbe tem pted to check your accuracy untillater.Y our goalis to
exercise and testyour m em ory.

W hen finished,only then check your accuracy.If you find any flaw s in your
recall,use w hatI callthe principle of com pounding.

B ack to testing your im ages,this stage of R ecallR ehearsalis sim ple.O nce
you've w ritten everything out,go back to the associative-im agery you've created.
If you've found problem s,either add new m aterial,stream line itor m ake it
bigger,brighter and m ore colorful.

Then Test Yourself Again.

W hen you're satisfied w ith your accuracy,use the R ule of Five.T his w ill
reinforce the m aterialfor long-term m em orization.T he R ule of Five com es from
W orld M em ory C ham pion D om inic O 'B rien.H e suggests the follow ing review
schem e:Firstreview :Im m ediately
Second review :24 hours later
T hird review :O ne w eek later
Fourth review :O ne m onth later
Fifth review :T hree m onths later

Personally,I think you'llbenefitm ore by review ing m ore often than this.E ven
so,O 'B rien's basic layoutis valuable and you should keep itin m ind.

My Suggestion Is That You Work Like This:

Firstreview s:Im m ediately,one hour later,three hours later,five hours later.

Second review s:T he nextm orning,the nextafternoon,the nextevening.

T hird review :O nce a day for each day of the follow ing w eek.

Fourth review :O nce a day for a w eek the follow ing m onth.
… and from there on in,keep review ing atleastonce a m onth,if notm ore often
for as long as you w antto keep the inform ation intact.

If thatsounds like a lot,itisn't.D epending on the am ountof m aterial,you can

rehearse dozens of form ulas w ithin 15 m inutes t t l r m i utlot,iti's"-
Chapter Five: How To Overcome Procrastination So That You're Actually
Using The Techniques In This Book And Making Massive Leaps In Your
Understanding Of Math And Acing All Of Your Exams T his chapter w illbe
usefulfor anyone m em orizing m ath of any kind.W ithouttrue understanding,
even the sim ple technique of using M em ory Palaces can seem drab.W orse,it
can feeldow nrightunexciting.If you struggle,this chapter w illputyou in
controlof how you approach m em orization and R ecallR ehearsal.

T hen,in the second partof this chapter,w e'lltalk aboutm ore aboutthe principle
of com pounding.T his w illhelp notonly your retention of the m ath you've
m em orized,butalso troubleshootany recallissues you m ay be having.

Generating Excitement

I once read M ike K oenigs on speed-reading.For him ,one of the bestm ethods
for speed reading a book is to pretend thatyou w illbe interview ing the author.
N otonly that,butthe interview w illbe taking place on live television the next
day.M illions of view ers w illbe w atching,m eaning thatyou'llneed to know the
book w ell.Y ou'llneed to have a depth of understanding and accuracy aboutthe
specific details of the content.

I think K oenigs'idea is brilliantand adaptable to m em orizing m ath principles

and form ulas.W hen learning and m em orizing m ath,for exam ple,you can
pretend thatyou have a book to sell.Y ou know thatpeople are only going to
w antto ow n itforever if you are able to w in their hearts by speaking to them
intelligently.Y ou need to explain the m ath you've m em orized in clear,crisp
term s.T o am p things up,w hen I use this technique,I som etim es pretend thata
m ovie dealis in the w orks.B utitw illonly happen if I can convince the producer
thatI know m ath w ellenough to consulton the screenplay and production.

I know this sounds bonkers,butsuch "JediM ind T ricks" can w ork w ell.T hey
create excitem ent,m otivation and urgency.

T here are m any m otivationaltricks like this.A nyone can explore them .O nce
you begin,you'llfind tricks thatgetyou excited.Y es,even if you don'tnaturally
feelm otivated to learn and m em orize m ath.
Justtake these ideas,putthem in place and experim entw ith your ow n.T rack
your results and then rinse and repeatw hatw orks.

N ow onto the job of …

The Principle Of Compounding

W e've already covered this,butit's w orth going into m ore detailto ensure that
you've gotthe fullpicture.

W hen m em orizing inform ation,you m ay discover thatyou cannotperfectly

recallone or tw o item s.Y ou feelsure thatyour im ages are vibrant,w ell-located
and buzzing w ith action and energy.Y et,w hen you look for the m ath principles
or equations,you stillstruggle to recallthem .

T his huntfor the m aterialcan lead to stress and anxiety.T hese feelings w ill
m ake you self-conscious and increase the struggle.Y ou don'tw antthis w hen
taking a testand the thoughtof stress alone w illm ake you even m ore self-
conscious.

R elax.R efuse to be frustrated or concerned.A ny slips in your M em ory Palaces

are actually opportunities.W hen approached w ith the rightm indset,they w ill
m ake you a better m em orizer,and you'llbe studying the m ath atthe sam e tim e
you com pound,increasing your m ath know ledge.

W hen com pounding,m any of m y readers replace the originalim ages they've
created.I caution againstthis because doing so can leave "fossils" thatw illonly
confuse m atters later.

T he m ore popular term for this "fossil" problem in the m nem onics com m unity is
"ghosting." H ow ever,I dislike this term because our m em orized m aterialshould
notbecom e etherealw hen itdies.If itm ustfade,itshould leave a fossilbehind
thatw e can "pour" energy back into.

So w hen you encounter associative-im agery thatneeds w ork,add to the im ages

and actions to enhance them .T his w illim prove your recallrate.

A s alw ays,please rem em ber thathaving action in your associative-im agery is

key.Itm akes the targetinform ation m ore m em orable,and the m ore m em orable
itis,the m ore readily available for recallitbecom es.T he good new s is there are
m any w ays to com pound im ages to m ake them m ore m em orable,especially
w hen you relax w hile you w ork.

W ith thatsaid,please realize thatthere is nothing w rong w ith your m ind if you
find w eaknesses in your M em ory Palace system s.It's justa m atter of going back
and com pounding the im ages.In m ostcases,a second pass w illdo the trick.A ny
m ore than three passes suggests thatyou need to go back and review the central
tenants of the techniques taughtin this book.O r you can take m y free video
course.Justvisitw w w .m agneticm em orym ethod.com to getstarted.

Finally,if you w antto succeed w ith m em ory techniques,avoid rote learning at

allcosts.T he pointis to rely solely on your im agination.T here aren'tgoing to be
any books or index cards around w hen you're com pleting a testor exam ination.
D uring thattestitis justyou,your im agination and the w ays thatyou've used it
to learn and m em orize m ath.

In addition to com pounding your associative-im agery,you m ightlike to

com pound and reinforce the M em ory Palaces them selves.T his is as easy as
popping into the M em ory Palace and am plifying itas you w ould associative-
im agery.If your m em ory of som e locations is notas strong as you originally
thought,w ork w ith another location altogether to form a better M em ory Palace.
M em ory Palaces are in abundance,so if you feellike you're running outjust
review the earlier parts of this book.I give you m any w ays to find dozens of
them .

U ltim ately,the am ountof tim e spenton rehearsing,com pounding and

"renovating" your M em ory Palaces and the associative-im agery you place w ithin
them depends on your levelof experience and generalenthusiasm for
m em orization.A gain,m ake sure thatyou com plete the preparation and
predeterm ination exercises as fully as possible.G iving them their fullattention
w illsave you plenty of tim e and sw eatlater.B ut,w hen leaks in the system do
occur,no stress.Sim ply w ander through your palaces and m ake "repairs."

Some Common Questions From Readers

Som e of the questions thatI receive on a regular basis include:

* W hatdo I do if m y visualand/or conceptualim agination is lacking?

* W hatif your representative exam ples don'tw ork for m e?

*W hatif I don'thave im ages thatso conveniently m atch a m athem atical

principle?

In the firstinstance,please go back and reread the chapters on the m ain

principles of the M agnetic M em ory M ethod.T hese give you severalideas for
im proving your visualim agination.

T o revisitthese ideas,a visualim agination is bestdeveloped by learning to

draw ,by looking atart,by building pools of fam ous actors/artists/sports
celebrities/etc.,and by actually practicing these m ethods.D on'toverthink the
process.G etting started and keeping going w illteach you m ore than anything
else.Plus,there are resources like W ikipedia.T his alone w illgive you m ore than
enough artto study.Italso features lengthy databases of
actors/singers/politicians and allthe people you could ever hope to include in a
M em ory Palace for the purposes of assisting your m em orization and recallof
m athem aticalprinciples and rules.

Second,m y representative exam ples are notdesigned to w ork for you.I have
given them so thatyou can m odelthe process.M any w ould-be M em orizers are
unw illing to create their ow n associative-im ages and spend hours scouring the
Internetfor "m nem onic exam ples," or they try to getthe exam ples they read in
m em ory books like this to w ork.

T his approach confuses activity w ith accom plishm ent.Y our goalshould be to
learn how to create your ow n m nem onic associative-im agery.Y ou then learn to
exaggerate the im ages so thatitcreates m em ories thatyou cannothelp butrecall,
even if you tried.

Som e people think I'm a little hardnosed aboutthis stuff.T he truth is thatY oda
in Star W ars w as right.

"D o or do not.T here is no try."

A nother phrase thathas helped m e m any tim es over the years is this:"N one of
us w orks as hard as w e think w e do."
N ow ,you m ightbe thinking:W aita m inute.T hroughoutthis book you've been
talking abouthow easy and fun allthis is.

G reatobservation.

A nd itrem ains true.

A tthe sam e tim e,effortis involved.

B utthat's nota bad thing.People often m istake "effort" for "w ork." T hey don't
realize thateating chocolate takes effort.K issing takes effort.E verything takes
effort.

E verything has to do w ith how you approach the gam e.I suggestthatyou
approach it...

M agnetically.
 Chapter Six: How To Defeat Procrastination Forever

M ath students often com plain thatthey cannotfocus.O r they claim thatthey
haven'tthe w illpow er to spend the necessary tim e on learning.

T o address this problem ,here are a few points aboutlearning and concentration
thatI have picked up over the years.

O ne w ay of thinking aboutlearning and m em orization is to see them as tw o

differentskills.B y the sam e token,learning is m em orization and all
m em orization is learning.T he only question lurking here is:do you have to
understand w hatyou've rem em bered in order to rem em ber it?

T he answ er,of course,is no.M any tim es I have learned a w ord or form ula and
forgotten w hatitm eantor how itshould be used.A s discussed in a previous
chapter,this is w hy com pounding im ages and rehearsalor revisiting the palaces
frequently is so im portant.

Y et,there are barriers thatpreventus from taking these im portantsteps.O ne of

the biggestim pedim ents is procrastination.W e allprocrastinate,and this is just
som ething for the sake of sanity thatw e have to adm itto ourselves.Since w e all
do it,there is really nothing to be gained from punishing ourselves or feeling bad
aboutour procrastination.T he factof the m atter is this:Sitting around feeling
bad for doing nothing inevitably leads to m ore sitting around doing nothing.It
m akes the problem w orse.

T he author T im Ferris,w ho m ade his claim to fam e w ith books such as T he 4-

H our W orkw eek and T he 4-H our B ody discusses a very interesting m ethod for
dealing w ith procrastination.H e allow s itto happen.H e know s itis inevitable,
so he plans for it.O ne of the bestquotes I've heard from him is thatw e should
"budgetfor hum an nature instead of trying to conquer it."

T he pointis thatw e m ustn'tpunish ourselves for skipping a few days here and
there.A s Ferris suggests,w e w illdo m uch better over the long haulif w e
routinely schedule the days w e m iss.Intentionalprocrastination can even be
inspirational.
W hy?

B ecause as you are w orking,you know thatsom e vegetation tim e on the couch
is justw aiting for you to enjoy.

For m ore valuable tips on breaking the procrastination habit,join the M agnetic
M em ory m ailing listby visiting w w w .m agneticm em orym ethod.com .A w ealth
of free m aterialaw aits you.
Chapter Seven: Two Relaxation Secrets For Studying Math That Condition
You To Excel In Tests And Exams With No Stress, Worry Or Suffering
H arry L orayne has pointed outthatone of the reasons w hy w e can'trem em ber
the nam es of people w e m eetis because w e haven'tpaid attention to them in the
firstplace.H e's right.I believe thattension,stress and notbeing presentgets in
the w ay of the attention needed for M em ory Palace w ork.

T he num ber one reason you w antto be relaxed w hen you learn m ath is because
itw illtrain you to be relaxed w hen you are trying to recallthe principles and
form ulas in an exam setting.N othing is w orse than know ing som ething but
being unable to recallitdue to nervousness or feeling like you are on the spot.

T o thatend,I w antto share w ith you som e principles of breathing thatyou can
use w hile m em orizing m ath.

W e need relaxation in order to overcom e such boundaries since so m any of us

experience confidence issues around our m em ories.Fortunately,this is easily
done.

T he tw o m ain strategies I use have w ider applications than m em ory w ork alone.
I recom m end using them every day for generalhealth as w ell.

I know of nine breathing techniques overall,one of w hich I w illdiscuss in this

chapter.Itis called Pendulum breathing.

T he second involves progressive m uscle relaxation.

Pendulum Breathing

If you've ever seen a pendulum ,then you know thatthere is an interesting

m om entatthe end of each cycle.T his happens w hen the pendulum seem s to
hang for an instant.T hen itm oves a little bitm ore in the firstdirection before
falling back the other w ay.Itdoes this back and forth.

Pendulum B reathing w orks m uch in this w ay.

T o startw ith Pendulum B reathing,fillyour lungs norm ally,and then pause

slightly.Instead of exhaling,breathe in a little bitm ore.L etthe breath out
naturally and pause.T hen instead of inhaling after the initialexhale,exhale outa
little bitm ore.B y circulating your breath in this w ay,you are "sw inging" the air
like a pendulum .

T his practice w illreduce stress over once you are used to doing it.M ake itpart
of your daily practice w hile w alking or sitting atyour desk.If you do nothing
else,im plem entPendulum B reathing in your m em ory w ork.T his m ethod of
breathing m akes M em ory Palace construction and the generation of im ages and
associations so m uch easier.

W hy?

B ecause you are putting yourself in a kind of oxygenated dream state.

A tfirst,itm ay seem difficultto concentrate on both your breathing and doing

im aginative M em ory Palace building.T his is because in som e w ays,itis like
being a drum m er w ho is creating three or four differentpatterns,one for each
lim b.B utw ith practice,the ability w illcom e to you.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Progressive M uscle R elaxation is relatively w ell-know n,and yetso few people

practice it.

T he w ork is sim ple:siton a chair or lie dow n on a bed or the floor.N ext:

1) Pointyour toes upw ard and hold.

2) Pointyour toes tow ards the w alland hold.

3) Flex your calves.

4) Flex your thighs.

5) Flex your buttocks.

6) Flex your stom ach m uscles,low er back m uscles,chestand shoulders (allcore

m uscles).
7) Flex your hands,forearm s and upper arm s.

8) Flex your neck,your cheeks and the m uscles surrounding your eyes.

Practice Pendulum B reathing as you do this,or atleastw ork to conjoin the

flexing m ovem ents w ith your breathing.

O nce you have achieved a profound state of relaxation and allof your M em ory
Palaces have been built,sitw ith the m aterialyou w ish to rem em ber.If isolating
the principles and form ulas helps you,prepare an index card for each.

A s ever,avoid rote learning atallcosts.L etyour M em ory Palace skills do the

w ork.C om pound your im ages w hen testing routines revealw eaknesses.Justas
you w ould relax to rem em ber,relax to testand relax to com pound as w ell.

A gain,realize thatyou w antto practice relaxation during m em orization so that

you condition yourself to be relaxed w hen accessing the w ords later during tests
and exam s.T his is the key to M em ory Palace M astery
 Conclusion

T here is m uch m ath to learn and m em orize as you continue your adventures w ith
the M agnetic M em ory M ethod.

B ecause a solid understanding of how M em ory Palaces w ork is criticalto your

success,let's conclude w ith som e intensive review .W e'llalso expand on som e of
the m ostim portantM em ory Palace concepts as w e go through w hatyou've
learned.

T he firststep is to create a journey,butnotjustany old journey if you're using

the M agnetic M em ory M ethod.Instead of sim ply creating a helter skelter path
throughoutthe building you are using,obey these four principles to create
effective M em ory Palace journeys thatw illbe fun to use:* D on'ttrap yourself

* D on'tcross your ow n path

*Peer versus enter

* Selectyour "stations" w ith care

L et's review each of these principles in detail.

1) Don't Trap Yourself.

O ver the years,I have found thatm any people I've w orked w ith w ind up
trapping them selves in their M em ory Palaces.T his is because they start
anyw here in their hom e atrandom instead of thinking the journey through.

For exam ple,I'm presently w riting in the kitchen.B utin this hom e,the kitchen
w ould notbe an appropriate starting pointin this M em ory Palace.T his is
because in order to have m ore than tw o or three stops along m y journey,I w ould
have to m ove deeper into the M em ory Palace.

O n the contrary,w e w antto m ove outw ard,tow ards an exit.T his is so thatw e
can getoutside and add new stations or stopping points along the journey atany
pointw e w ish.
W e alw ays w antto be able to add m ore stations.

A lthough a subtle pointfor true M em ory Palace aficionados,w e also w antto

avoid "M em ory Palace C laustrophobia." T his condition describes the feeling that
there isn'tenough space for the im ages w e have created and leftata particular
station.

I w ould be saying this tongue in cheek,butI have actually heard from one of m y
readers thatthis is a problem for her.A nd I believe it! A nything thatcauses you
to concentrate on m atters other than the inform ation you've stored in your
M em ory Palaces needs to be avoided.N ottrapping yourself along any pointof
the journey is a good place to start.

2) Don't Cross Your Own Path.

T his pointis strongly related to the pointaboutnottrapping yourself.If you have

a com puter nearby,I discuss this atlength in a free video on Y ouT ube I created
to help a reader w ho sentm e a m ap of one of his M em ory Palaces:
http://w w w .youtube.com /w atch?v=IQ 6j5d7D vgo

(If you're reading the printedition,or listening to the audio edition of this book
and don'tfeellike typing this address,justsearch for "M etivier Y ouT ube avoid
m em ory palace confusion" and itshould pop up).

O n the m ap,this reader show s how in order to m ove through his house,he felt
he had to cross his ow n path.H ow ever,as you'llsee based on the draw ing he
supplied,w e found a solution together.

Y ou can easily follow these tw o principles by creating your firstM em ory Palace
station in a "term inallocation." T his term indicates the innerm ostroom in your
hom e thatyou can m ove outw ard from throughoutthe dw elling tow ards a door
leading outside.M ain bedroom s situated in the back corner of a hom e usually fit
this description.In the firsthom e in w hich I created a M em ory Palace,m y office
w as the term inallocation.

T he path I created w as as follow s:

M y office
L aundry room
B athroom
B edroom
W ife's office
L iving room
H allw ay
K itchen

A s you can see,itw as possible for m e to m entally m ove through the M em ory
Palace in a linear line w ithoutcrossing m y ow n path or trapping m yself.I also
did notneed to pass through w alls like a ghost,nor did I sim ply jum p through
the K itchen w indow outonto the street.

W e avoid m ovem ents like this because such actions require m entalenergy.
U nnaturalelem ents create "blips" in your journeys.Y ou w illnotw antto deal
w ith interruptions like these w hen you use your M em ory Palaces later to recall
inform ation.K eep the journeys sim ple,linear and based on w hatyou w ould do
in reality.

I should pointoutthatyou don'thave to follow m y advice here.I'm m aking this

recom m endation based on years of experience of m y ow n and countless
interactions w ith readers of m y books.T hey confirm thatpassing through w alls
is the equivalentof crossing your ow n path because itdistracts from the prim ary
goal,w hich is finding inform ation you've m em orized.

Y et,itis im portantto experim enton your ow n.Itis im possible to rule outthat

such unnaturalstrategies w on'tw ork for som e people.I am providing tried and
tested guidelines,butultim ately each person needs to adaptthe principles to
their ow n use.B utif in doubt,m ove through your M em ory Palaces in the sam e
w ay you w ould if you w ere to w alk through them along a linear path along
w hich you do notcross your ow n tracks.

3.Peer versus E nter.

O f course,if you're m oving from room to room ,how on earth do you avoid not
crossing your ow n path,especially if you w antto use m ultiple places inside of
each room to store m em orized inform ation?

T he problem is easily solved.Instead of entering any room ,sim ply im agine that
you are peering into it.If you identify and create m ultiple m icro-stations w ithin
the room ,instead of w alking from station to station,sim ply castyour eyes (in
your im agination) around the room .T here should be no need to enter it.

T he im portantpointis thatyou w antto m ake sure thatyou circle the room

clockw ise or counter-
2.Find 10 "stations" w ithin the location,w hich is now officially a M em ory
Palace in your m ind.Y ou w illuse these stations as "drop-off" points for the
inform ation you w antto m em orize.A station can be an entire room or justpart
of a room .
I recom m end starting w ith entire room s atthe beginning.B utif you feelready to
"peer" into room s by giving them m ultiple stations,by allm eans do so.Y ou w ill
learn aboutyour thresholds and lim its as you explore the M agnetic M em ory
M ethod.A nd as you explore,your m entalabilities w illextend.

3.Ithelps to draw outthe floor plan of the M em ory Palace on blank paper or
graph paper.A gain,visit

http://w w w .youtube.com /w atch?v=IQ 6j5d7D vgo

or search for "M etivier Y ouT ube m em ory palace confusion" and you'llfind a
video depicting exactly how one of m y readers has draw n outhis M em ory
Palace and how to troubleshoota sm allproblem he had.

A s an alternative to draw ing outyour M em ory Palaces,you can also create a

top-dow n E xcelfile.I usually do both,butitdepends on the purpose for w hich
the M em ory Palace is intended.

T o see an exam ple of how you can use an E xcelfile to keep record of w hat
you've done in a M em ory Palace (including the M em ory Palace itself),visit:

w w w .youtube.com /w atch?v=U M PM uO yfke4

(or search G oogle using the keyw ords "M etivier Y ouT ube E xcelfile M em ory
Palace).

W hether you draw or use an E xcelfile (or both),num ber each station in the
M em ory Palace in sequentialorder.E nsure thatyour journey starts in a term inal
location (i.e.you've elim inated the possibility of trapping yourself w ithin the
M em ory Palace).Plus,m ake sure thatyour journey m oves in a linear line
w ithoutcrossing your ow n path.

4.D o allof these activities in a state of relaxation.R evisitthe chapter in this

book on the role of relaxation in im aginative M em ory Palace w ork (i.e.play) if
needed.

5.T estyour M em ory Palaces.M entally w ander through them and m ake sure that
you can m ove from station to station w ithoutspending undue focus on the
journey.T he journey should be naturaland closely resem ble how you w ould
m ove from station to station if you w ere really going to w alk through the
building.

6.A m plify your M em ory Palaces.T his m eans thatyou take a sm allam ountof
tim e to concentrate on your journey to m ake sure thatitis vivid in your m ind.A
lotof people skip this step,assum ing thatbecause they are so fam iliar w ith the
locations upon w hich they base their M em ory Palaces thatthis isn'tim portant.In
m any cases this is true.

H ow ever,personalexperim entation and the feedback I've received from those

experiencing m onum entalsuccess from the M agnetic M em ory M ethod
dem onstrates thattaking justa few seconds to m entally w alk through the
M em ory Palace and concentrate on the colors,the lighting and even the
m aterials along the w ay greatly enhances the M agnetic "stickiness" of the
M em ory Palace.Personalexperience w illundoubtedly dem onstrate thatthis is
true for you too.

O ne very interesting reader and a participantin m y video course,"H ow to L earn

and M em orize the V ocabulary of A ny L anguage," shared the experience thather
M em ory Palaces w ere intensely vivified by w alking through the M em ory Palace
and running her hands along the w alls.I've experim ented w ith this m yself and it
w orks gangbusters.D epending on the layoutof your house,you can do this w ith
your eyes closed for extra im aginative benefit.

O nce you've gone through this procedure once,you can do itagain and again.
A nd because you now understand som e of the basic principles behind truly
effective M em ory Palaces,you can be certain thatthe inform ation you store in
them w illbe easy to access each and every tim e you strollthrough a M em ory
Palace in your m ind.

More On Gathering Memory Palaces

O ne of the m any elem ents distinguishing the M agnetic M em ory M ethod from
other trainings is m y em phasis on creating lots of M em ory Palaces and then
organizing them in a particular w ay.

T he classicalm ethod of organizing m ultiple M em ory Palaces involves a "G rand

C entralStation" M em ory Palace.Im agine,for exam ple,using your high school.
In effect,high schools are a collection of room s connected by corridors.

W hen used as a centralstation for your M em ory Palaces,instead of m entally

w alking into individualclassroom s,these doors w ould lead into differenthouses
you've lived in,other schools you've attended,shopping m alls,etc.

I know thatthis option w orks w ellfor som e people,butI've found thatit

confuses the m ajority.Y ou have to rem em ber,for exam ple,w hich door leads to
w hich M em ory Palace,and since there are so m any doors and so m any M em ory
Palaces,people both new to the gam e and filled w ith experience can get
confused.

U ltim ately,there is little to be gained from this process of linking together

M em ory Palaces based on reallocations using an invented C entralStation.

W hy?

A s you'llrecall,a fundam entalrule of the M agnetic M em ory M ethod is thatw e

m ustreduce or elim inate everything thatcosts m entalenergy.W hen itcom es to
creating M em ory Palace journeys and m aintaining our netw orks of Palaces,
using an invented gathering place filled w ith a variety of doors w illcertainly
cause confusion for m any people.T his problem and its solution can allbe
sum m ed up in one sim ple phrase:T he L ess Y ou H ave T o R em em ber,T he M ore
Y ou C an R em em ber

It's a paradoxicalequation,butit's a fundam entalprem ise of m nem onics thatis

never discussed.T he architecture and principles w e are building do have a
learning curve,butonce the M agnetic M em ory M ethod becom es second nature,
itis like a very lightsoftw are code thatfloats in the background.B utplug itup
w ith too m any invented things and then you have to essentially rebuild the
C entralStation every tim e you visitit.

The Better Method

If w e're notgoing to use a "G rand C entralStation" to connectour M em ory

Palaces,w hatother options have w e? U ndoubtedly,there are countless w ays,but
I have found thatusing the alphabetas a structuralconnector w orks the best.

First,the alphabetis nota building,and yetitis stilla structure.Itbegins atA

and proceeds to Z in a regular and predictable m anner.If you find yourself atD ,
it's easy to figure outthatC precedes this letter and E follow s.If your m ind
m agnetically zoom s to Y ,then itis notan enorm ous featof m entalenergy to see
thatX and Z are its closestneighbors.

B utdue to the nature of how w e are going to assign M em ory Palaces to different
letters,w e w illnever have an issue finding them because each M em ory Palace
w illbe alphabetically labeled.

C onstruction begins,then,by seeking outtw enty-six M em ory Palaces,each of

w hich begins w ith a unique letter of the alphabet.For exam ple,w hen I first
created a 26-letter M em ory Palace system ,I used shopping m alls,m y high
schools,butm ostly the hom es of friends.I now have m ultiple M em ory Palace
system s (akin to alphabetkeys on a chain thatare them selves alphabetically
arranged according to subject) and here is a representative exam ple thatyou can
use to startthinking aboutand generating a netw ork of your ow n:A :A berdeen
M all
B :B rock H igh School
C :C lark's house
D :D aw n's house
E :E ric's house
F:Frank's apartm ent
G :T he G arage (concerthall)
H :H eather's house
I:Ian's house
J:Jessica's house
K :K ane's house
L :L iam 's house
M :Param ountm ovie theatre
N :N orthern Face store
O :O w en's house
P:Paul's house
Q :Q uinn's house
R :R yan's house
S:Sim on's house
T :T revor's house
U :U ncle L loyd's house
V :V alleyview H igh School
W :W alter's house
X :L ibrary
Y :Y olando's house
Z :Z oltan's m ovie theatre

L etm e offer a few notes on the choices here.N otallof these nam es represent
exactly w hatthey suggest.For exam ple,Z oltan didn'tow n a m ovie theatre.H e
w as the contracted janitor w ho hired m e to w ork there from 12-5 a.m .w hile I
w as a young university studentstruggling to pay the bills w hile I took the only
undergraduate course I could afford thatyear (thanks Z oltan!) L ikew ise,
"Y olando" is the nicknam e of a friend w hose realnam e actually starts w ith an
'E .'Y ou'llalso note that"Param ountm ovie theatre" is used as the "M " M em ory
Palace.

Stretching things in this w ay is to be avoided,butnotdenied.T his is because the

m ind w illnaturally bring you ideas,especially w hen you build your M em ory
Palace netw ork in a state of relaxation.It's im portantnotto resistunless you feel
thatthe association is too far outof w hack and thatyou'llhave to expend energy
m em orizing it.A s m entioned severaltim es already in this book,unnecessary
expenditures of m entalenergy are to be avoided atallcosts.

A tthis point,you m ay be thinking thatthe M agnetic M em ory M ethod is a huge

investm entof m entalenergy justto getstarted.

N otso.Itw illtake you betw een 2-5 hours to getsetup and using the fullpow ers
of your im agination to hold,m aintain and use a system of M em ory Palaces.

If you have any doubts abouttheir pow er,I encourage you to read this article by
a w om an nam ed A m anda M arkham in A ustralia w ho used the M agnetic
M em ory M ethod to m em orize 200 w ords of A rrernte in just10 days:
http://anthroyogini.w ordpress.com /2013/11/18/learning-an-aboriginal-language-
a-quick-dirty-guide-to-learning-gram m ar/

If you're reading the printedition or listening to the audio edition of this book,
you can also sim ply G oogle the keyw ords:"learning an aboriginallanguage
quick and dirty guide."
W hatI like aboutA m anda's article is thatshe includes exam ples of her E xcel
files,w hich allow s you to see how som eone has used them to achieve a
m em orization m iracle.N aturally,she has follow ed the key principles w e've
talked aboutso far,including nottrapping herself w ithin her M em ory Palaces
and notcrossing her ow n path.

A llof w hatshe says applies to m em orizing m ath.

Where To Find Memory Palaces

W e've already touched on the use of living spaces and w ork places for building
and developing M em ory Palaces.H ow ever,I'm often asked for m ore ideas and
m y answ er to the question boils dow n to the follow ing:M em ory Palaces are
surprisingly easy to discover.A lthough you m ay notbe a person like m yself w ho
has m oved from city to city and m oved severaltim es w ithin each city w hile
attending m ultiple schools and w orking allm anner of odd jobs during m y
younger years,I'llbetthatyou've lived in m ore than one house or apartm ent.

A ssum ing you have friends and fam ily,you've also visited countless hom es of
other people.Y our personalhistory is likely also rife w ith m ovie theatres,
libraries,m useum s and if you can think in a structured m anner aboutoutside
locations,there are also parks,foresttrails and neighborhood w alks atyour
com m and.

W herever possible,it's good to take a w alk around locations thatyou w illuse as

M em ory Palaces to am plify your m em ory.For exam ple,if you can visitan old
school,you w on'tnecessarily im prove your m em ory of the structure,butyou'll
m ake the location m ore vivid – and this m eans thatitw illbe m ore M agnetic.

N ow thatyou've learned aboutM em ory Palaces,the nextm ajor step is to alw ays
keep one sim ple factin m ind:every place you visitcan potentially becom e a
new M em ory Palace.Y ou can deliberately focus on the location by paying
attention to itin a com pletely new pl
m ettiA
 The Magnetic Memory Method Is Perfectly Suited For That!

In sum ,the building and developm entof M em ory Palaces takes only a sm all
am ountof tim e and effort.T he nextstep is learning how to fillthe M em ory
Palaces you've prepared w ith the inform ation you w antto m em orize.T his could
be anything,ranging from facts,lists of historicalfigures,foreign language
gram m ar or nam es and faces.

A s a finalsuggestion,as you are filling outthe M agnetic M em ory W orksheets,

concentrate on the journey and m ake itas vivid as possible.Y ou can literally
close your eyes and pretend thatyou are "turning up the volum e" on the M em ory
Palace.

Y ou can try this in the room you are currently in,reconstructing itin your m ind
and then m aking the layoutbright,vivid and pum ping w ith energy.Itshould
alm ostbe as if you're casting som e kind of spellor attem pting to m anipulate
reality like N eo in T he M atrix.A nd m anipulating reality you are.

N exttim e you are outfor a w alk,shopping or justw andering around the house,
consider the hundreds of locations you can use to build and extend M em ory
Palaces.T he m ore w e pay attention to our surroundings,the m ore m aterialw e
have to w ork w ith.

A s w ell,take every opportunity to visitplaces you've previously lived or gone to

school.R evitalizing your fam iliarity w ith the locations you use to build your
M em ory Palaces is notentirely necessary,butatthe very least,you should
perform a m entalw alkthrough to ensure thatyou have enough m aterialfor at
leastthe first10 stations and ideally m any m ore.

In addition,utilize the pow er of your im aginations and the im ages itbrings you.
H arness the pow er of coincidences such as those I related in the exam ples given
in this book.

M ake sure to rem em ber the bicycle m etaphor for m em ory and suitthe principles
to your ow n needs by m aking adjustm ents to the system taughtin this book.Y ou
should never be afraid to play around,am plify and use absurdities.

T estyourself and com pound regularly or w hen necessary.

A nd alw ays,alw ays relax w hen doing m em ory w ork.

Y ou should also spend tim e thinking aboutthe kinds of m ath principles you
w ould like to learn or need to know .Y ou should analyze how you can group
differentrules together and develop your understanding of m ath based on your
areas of interestand goals.Y ou w illsee m any m ore connections by doing this.

Itgoes w ithoutsaying thatyou should recite the m ath principles and equations
you've m em orized as often as you can.Practice M em ory Palace recallw hile
speaking w ith friends or study partners.T his m eans searching for the rules using
a specific principle or form ula (m entally w alking through your M em ory
Palaces),rather than casting a hook and hoping a m ath rule sw im s by and bites.

Finally,teach others w hatyou have learned aboutm em orization skills.T alk

abouthow you builtyour M em ory Palaces,the techniques of location,im agery
and activity.G ive your friends and colleagues exam ples of how you've
m em orized specific lines.T eaching others is one of the bestw ays to com pound
inform ation thatw e've learned and itallow s us to see other possibilities and new
techniques w e m ay have m issed.

From this pointon,you are now m ore than equipped to succeed w ith the
M agnetic M em ory M ethod.I hope thatthe exam ples and instruction throughout
this book have helped you see the possibilities and options you have for creating
im ages along dedicated M em ory Palace journeys thatenable you to m em orize
m ath concepts.If you have any questions,you can contactus through m e atany
tim e.M y em ailis learnandm em orize@ zoho.com and I endeavor to answ er all
questions norm ally w ithin 24-72 hours.
 About the Author

Anthony Metivier com pleted his B A and M A in E nglish L iterature atY ork
U niversity in T oronto,C anada.H e earned a second M A in M edia and
C om m unications from T he E uropean G raduate Schoolin Sw itzerland w hile
com pleting a PhD in H um anities,also from Y ork.A s the author of scholarly
articles,fiction and poetry,he has taughtFilm Studies in C anada,the U nited
States and G erm any.H e plays the electric bass and is the author of the novel
Lucas Parks and the Download of Doom and The Ultimate Language Learning
Secret.
B e sure to visithttp://w w w .m agneticm em orym ethod.com for access to the free
M agnetic M em ory M ethod Podcastw here you'llhear interview s w ith m em ory
experts like Jim Sam uels and H arry L orayne (subscribers only) and language
learning giants like L uca L am pariello,D avid M ansaray and Sam G endreau.
Y ou'llalso find A nthony M etivier's am azing "M em ory T raining C onsum er
A w areness G uide," "M em ory Im provem entM aster Plan" and m uch,m uch m ore!
 How To Memorize 9 Complex Formulas in 45 Minutes:
Bonus Interview with Math Expert Robert Ahdoot

If you haven'talready,as a reader of this book,you are entitled to view this

video atno charge and w ith no strings attached.H ere's the link:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/o6a3dbanq9gbik6/AAALasFA4iPSxcR2Om3VdEpCa?
dl=0

H ere's the fulltranscript,edited for readability:

Anthony:W hy don'tyou justtellus a little bitaboutyourself and then tellus

w hatyou've been w orking on the lastcouple of days.

Robert:M y nam e is R obertA hdoot,the founder of Y ayM ath.org.A nd I found

m y w ay to you through the un-con school.W hatI do atY aym ath.org is record
m y m ath video lessons live in the classroom .I dress up in costum es and Y ay
M ath has been in existence for five years.W e have over 5 m illion view s and
about1.5 m illion m inutes view ed per m onth because people really enjoy the live
studentinteraction w ith teacher,the spontaneity,the authenticity,the
im perfection.A nd itis through this,thatI found m y w ay to you,over the last
few days after our initialconversation.Since then,I've learned aboutw hatyou
do and have seen how your practice of helping people use their m em ory is
accom plished through the M agnetic M em ory M ethod.

So I've been learning aboutthe M agnetic M em ory M ethod and I've been trying
to putyour tactics to use to help m e in m y practice of m em orizing m ath form ulas
because I m ean,even though I'm a m ath teacher,there's a slew of form ulas I still
need to reference and look atm y ow n crib sheets to recall.H ow ever,atyour
suggestion,w e're going to be creating a m entalcrib sheetfor m e to m em orize
form ulas and that's w hatI've been doing.Pretty recently,itactually didn'ttake
m e thatlong and I can'tw aitto share w hatI've done w ith you and see w hatyou
think.

Anthony:O kay.So say a little bitm ore aboutthese form ulas.W hatkinds of
form ulas are they? W hatcharacterizes them and w hatregion of m ath do they
Robert:T he form ula itself.

Anthony:So w hataboutthe napkin m akes – I see there's an N in the form ula.

Robert:T hat's the N for napkin.T hat's w here m y m ind w ent.

Anthony:B utw hatdoes itreally represent?

Robert:Itrepresents the num ber of trials w ithin – it's like trials m eaning like
flipping of a coin or rolling of a die or som ething like that.Itrepresents the
num ber of trials.

Anthony:O h,okay.A nd then you m entioned the X com ing tw o tim es.A nd I
see thatthere.

Robert:Y eah.T hey say N o to the napkin requestand they're saying w ith
em phasis.T hat's w hy thatfactorialsym bolis like sortof exclam ation.It's an
easy segue.It's sortof like N o! N o napkin! N o tw ice.

Anthony:O kay.

Robert:I feelw eird.

Anthony:Itis w eird,butthe factof the m atter is thatit's w orking.A nd one of

the strange things,one of the really w eird aspects of allof this is thatw e can
explain to other people how thatw e cam e to be able to recallsom ething by
decoding this im agery.B utultim ately these exam ples are usefulonly to us.So if
you putm nem onic exam ples into G oogle,you w illfind thousands,if not
m illions,of people w ho have shared exam ples.A nd I think they're a barrier to
entry for a lotof people because,okay,napkins,your fam ily,this sortof thing.It
only m akes sense to you.B utpeople really have to m ake their ow n,like you've
done.A nd it's w onderfulthatyou're able to recallthatand I assum e that,that's
going to have a particular function in an exam or in a practicalsetting w here
you're trying to calculate som ething thatw illenable you to accom plish a goal.

Robert:R ight.Y ou're creating the ability for people to do itthem selves.T hat's
w hatyou're trying to do.Y ou're nottrying to learn itfor them .Y ou're trying to
help them learn itfor them selves.A nd I getthat.I getthat.A llright.C ontinue
our nextquestion.
Anthony:H ow does thatfeelto be a -"
things by how you're treating them or using them .

Robert:R ight.T hatm akes sense.

Anthony:So let's hear another one.

Robert:O kay.Sure.So m y reply to allthis X ,to m y napkin is w hen I say to

them ,w hen you go like X this to m e,itm akes m e have negative feelings about
you.Itm akes everyone have negative feelings aboutyou.So you going like this
X m akes everyone negative to you.So take itback and back to you.Itw as like a
sortof retaliation.So if you have the form ula,you'llsee thatit's M u,w hich is the
m ean.It's like a U .Itlooks like a U .W hen U go like this X ,itm akes everyone
E ,the exponential,feelnegative aboutU and so I retaliate by doing itback to
them .X

Anthony:N ow I'm seeing very clearly exactly how that's w orking.

Robert:T hen,the one uncle,the peacem aker,he goes,easy,easy,easy.A ll

right? A ctually,it's easy,easy,E T .T here w ere three form ulas there.T he first
one there is,E Z ,allthis please and quititis over now .O ver now .H opefully
you're seeing that.

A nd the second one,he's saying,E Z again.Please take outyour bow l.A nd then
I think I w rote the form ula w rong to you.I rechecked.T he third one isn'teasy,
it's E T .So it's E T ,take outyour soup,or your spoon now .So there w as a bow l
and a spoon.So he's basically saying it's tim e to eat.So saying itagain,the first
easy is allthe please and quititis over now .T he second easy is,take outyour
bow l.T he third one is E T ,take outyour spoon and that's allover now .T he
second too I know are square rootof now .I see itthough,thatit's over now .A re
you… kudos to you thatyou're able to follow along this crazy narrative.

Anthony:I follow itexactly even though I don'tknow these sym bols and I don't
know exactly w hatthatshape of the bow lrepresents.

Robert:Sigm a.Standard deviation,butI needed a sym bollike a bow l.Y ou did

som ething w ith garden shears lasttim e w e spoke.A nd I took a queue from that.
I w as like,okay,justsom e kind of sym bolw hile w e're eating and w e w ere ata
t] kudo
rem em ber the definition than these form ulas.I'm saying itboth as som eone w ho
teaches itand som eone thatis trying to learn these form ulas.Form ulas are a
beast.T hey're so cryptic w hereas if you could explain,like you said in our last
conversation,being able to explain som ething that's very challenging in a single
sentence.A nd from the sentence you create an im age and then from the im age
you create your M em ory Palace.So it's a differentbeastto m em orize the
definition.W hatdo you think aboutthat?

Anthony:W ellI think thatw ith greater experience,you m ay be able to

incorporate thatas you continue developing.H ow ever,thatsaid,I think there's a
relationship here betw een vocabulary and gram m ar w hen using M em ory Palaces
for learning a language.So for exam ple,there are a lotof vocabulary rules that
apply to w ords thatlook differently in differentsituations.So one of the
questions I alw ays getis do you m em orize allof the differentperm utations of a
w ord w ith itself or w hatdo you do? A nd I suggesta separate M em ory Palace for
the rules in m any cases.I m ean,gram m ar is incredibly com plex and it's not
really som ething thatI've done a w hole lotof w ork on yet.

N onetheless,there is a benefitto having M em ory Palaces or a cheatsheetfor

gram m ar rules in a M em ory Palace and being able to cross-index them ,so to
speak.So you have specific instances,like let's say thata w ord is a form ula that
has a definition and you can m em orize sortof the sound and the m eaning of the
w ord atthe sam e tim e,butitneeds to be cross-indexed or so w ith a gram m atical
rule in som e cases.So if you're able to sortof jum p from one M em ory Palace to
the other,it's alm ostlike T esla rays or som ething like that.

Robert:E veryone's fantasy to teletransport.I've alw ays w anted to do that.

Anthony:B utin term s of gender for certain w ords,you can justincorporate

certain sym bols.O ne of the exam ples thatI give thatI've used a lotis a boxer or
boxing gloves is alw ays som ehow incorporated into an im age w ith a m asculine
gender,or a skirtw ith a fem inine gender or fire as partof neutral.B utdefinitely,
I think that,thatis a very interesting issue thatpeople need to explore on their
ow n and com e up w ith solutions once they know the m ethod.B utitsounds as
though the realbeast,as I think you putit,is the form ulas them selves.A nd
you've cracked the code as w e've seen from the tw o of these things.So really the
E nglish definition is probably easy peasy nextto this.

Robert: Itw ould be easier.Itw ould be easier nextto this because it's a
conceptualthing.Y ou can explain,and I've explained thatnum erous tim es to
students thatconfidence intervalis like the intervalatw hich you believe the true
population lies.It's like if you do a survey and you say that80% of people
believe in clim ate change in m y survey and then you do som e interval
som ew here betw een 80% give or take 2% is the true population percentage that
believes in clim ate change.It's like – that's – once you understand the definition,
then the beastis this thing.A nd I w ould need to cross-index.I believe in that.I
w ould need to cross-index.O kay.

Anthony:A re these allthe confidence intervals or justthe ones you selected for
this particular exercise?

Robert:T hese are pretty m uch – there are three generalconfidence intervals.
O ne for P,w hich is a percentage.O ne for X bar,you see thatis for m eans,for
average.A nd one for standard deviation,the bow l,the sigm a.T here are three of
them there.B asically you do a sam ple study and then you ask yourself to w hat
degree does m y sam ple apply to the population atlarge.T hat's basically w hata
confidence intervalis.A nd these are pretty m uch those three,atleastw ith the
introductory statistic studies,those three.

Anthony:O kay.D o you w antto do som e m ore?

Robert:Sure.I could do som e m ore.I'lldo these lastthree ones and then I

w anted to share w ith you a little brief story abouthow ,unbeknow nstto m e,I
w as doing your m ethods w ithouteven realizing it.A nd before w e had even m et,
I w anted to tellyou.T he kids love it.It's one of the bestvideos thatpeople like.
So I'llend w ith thatone.B utbasically,after allthis stuff [you've already heard],
I'm notreally hungry – allthis yelling back and forth.T ake outyour bow l.T ake
outyour spoon.Itsounded very sortof like dictating to m e.So w hen I w as a kid
to blow off steam ,I w ould play N intendo.A nd one of m y gam es on N intendo
w as N inja G uiden and itw as a N inja gam e.

Anthony:I rem em ber thatone.

R obert:Y ou rem em ber N inja G uiden? A nd so,I justrem em ber because w hat
prom pted m e w as.It's called kisquare.Itlooks like a throw ing star.So that's just
how I – thatw as m y in,the throw ing star.So itgoes like this.N ow ,one sw ord.
So it's like the m inus sign here.H ere's the m inus sign and the sw ord,you know ,
is like this.N ow ,one sw ord.A nd the opponentsays,tw o sw ords.A nd then there
are tw o throw ing stars.So now one sw ord,tw o sw ords,"s squared" and that's
over tw o throw ing stars.A nd that's tw ice around the bow l.I don'tknow w hy it's
around the bow l.It's probably because I didn'tw antthe bow land I w anted to go
play N intendo.I justm ade thatone up.I justdid thatone on the fly,butitw orks.

A fter I play the gam e,I'm hungry again.I'm hungry again,so I go back to the
kitchen and they presentthe food.N ow ,here.See,that's N equals.N ow here is
the equals.A llright.So here w e go,m ore of m y past.M y parents w ere born in
Iran so I grew up w ith a w hole array of Iranian cuisine.A nd I'm going to tellyou
w hatone of those dishes w as,itw as callZ ettesh Polo [ph].It's sortof a raisin
rice.O kay.So I have zettesh polo.T w o servings of the zettesh.T hat's Z squared.
So zettesh polo w ith quince.T hatw as another thing itw as served w ith.A nd
that's poured allover tw o eggplants.

A re you follow ing m e w ith the form ula w here itsays it[refers to form ulas
w ritten on the form ]? A nd then the second dish w as one serving of zettesh and
then the bow lis back,so you pour itin the bow land that's over one serving of
eggplant.B utI'm hungry,so I w antthattw ice.T hat's the squaring.So again,
now ,picturing I took a flightover to G erm any and I w as hanging outw ith you
and w e w ere having the beers.I w ould have no problem explaining to you thatI
grew up in an Iranian household w ith Iranian cuisine and Z ettesh Polo w as one
of them .Z ettesh Polo is raisins w ith rice and quince and thateggplantw ould've
been on the table too.I w ould have no problem explaining thatto you,buthad it
been for this opportunity I never w ould've gone there,probably.I w ould've
talked aboutrelevantstuff.So that's w hatI'm saying.

Anthony:D o you have any alternative ideas thatyou could use to also
m em orize this stuff thatcom es to m ind?

Robert:A lternative ideas? H ow do you m ean?

Anthony:Y ou've gone to this particular dish and how itw as involved in your
culture and so forth.B ut,if you w ere pressed to com e up w ith differentsetof
inform ation,do you think thatyou could have an alternative m nem onic
associative im agery?

Robert:Sure.I m ean isn'tthe listinfinite?

Anthony:Itcould w ellbe.B utI'm justcurious because as w e're saying,

everyone has their ow n take,buta lotof people w illw onder,w hatif I don'thave
anything? So I'm justtrying to think…

Robert:So w hatif I don'thave anything? W ellI m ean,you have to – okay,

look,as som eone that's new to this,I think m y,itw as finding w here I reside
w ithin the palace.W hatare the im ages associated? W hatare the actions? T hatto
m e w as the challenge.A nd I w ould be sortof lostin thoughtthinking aboutthat.
T he second I com e up w ith an applicable narrative,an applicable M em ory
Palace,then I w ould be able to do it.A nd I'm saying I'm not– itdidn'ttake that
long,butitw as definitely a lotof effort.I w as sitting here this m orning.I w as
thinking,w here am I? W hatam I doing? W ho's around? W hatare they saying?
W hatdo I sm ell? H ow do I feel? W hat's the tem perature in the room ? T hese are
the things that– and so it's notan easy process,by any m eans.B ut,once you're
there,itstarts to hit.It's sortof like itcom es in w aves.

B ut,I w ouldn't,w ithoutw asting your tim e,be able to com e up w ith another
palace on the spotor som ething thatw ould m ake sense to m e,like I could go to
[audio gap] quail.Z PQ w ould be zebras and pigs and quail,butthey don'treally
have any particular personalm eaning to m e,butI w ould have no problem .A nd
then elephants on the bottom .I w ouldn'thave a problem rem em bering it,you
know like you said,you callitthe training w heels.Y ou use them to usher in the
m em ory into your head and then once it's in there,then you can take off the
training w heels.Y ou don'tnecessarily need to rem em ber zebras and pigs and
quails and elephants,butm aybe the factthatI've said itthree tim es w illm ake m e
take off the training w heels.

Anthony:R ight.R ight.R ight.W ell,justfor the benefitof people w atching this,
I think thatone of the things to be said is,if you're notable to have Z squared
w ith P and Q ,associated w ith som ething so convenientas a dish,w hich I
actually w antto say som ething aboutthatin a second,butif you didn'thave that,
you could for instance you gave the exam ple of a zebra,a pig and a quail.W ell,
you could have the zebra sw inging som e sortof an appropriate w eapon atthe pig
w ho is then being attacked by the quailatthe sam e tim e,or som ehow getall
these im ages in there.B utthe pointis,w ithouta personalassociation,the
technique is to exaggerate the violence or exaggerate the action or to m ake
everything big and vibrantand colorfuland justzoom ing w ith action so that
you're creating this rubberneck effectif you're notable to bring anything
personalto it.So I think thatis a clue for people w ho are justlike,w ellI don't
have any exotic dish thatsounds justlike that.
B utw hatI do w antto say aboutthatis thatone of the m ostam azing things that
I've noticed both in m yself and others w hen they startto getinto this stuff,I
don'thave any data on the unconscious m ind for this,butitseem s as if the
unconscious m ind seem s to arrange things conveniently.A nd thatthere seem s to
be justan absolute overflow of coincidentalopportunity to link things.

A gain,I don'tknow how to accountfor that,or testitscientifically,butit's m y

im pression.It's m y im pression on a personallevel,anecdotalleveland an
anecdotallevelfrom other people.A nd italm ostfeels as if there's sortof a
reverse undertow or som ething like thatw here the m ind prepares things in
advance and is justready there for you as if itknow s.A gain,I don'tw antto get
into w oo w oo or pseudoscience or bizarre things,butthat's the feeling thatI
have.A nd it's justalm osttoo convenientatsom e points.A nd I don'tknow if
that's som ething thatpeople can cultivate or not,butitis som ething to think
aboutand focus on allow ing to happen.

A nd that's one of the sortof things thatyou describe.W ell,w hatam I going to
do? W here am I? W hat's the tem perature? W ho's here? T hat's a process of
allow ing som ething to happen.A nd w hen you kind of justgetoutof the w ay,it
starts to com e and you getthis kind of effectthatI'm talking about,convenience,
convenientim agery justsortof popping up.So I'm curious,did you do anything
to relax yourself,w hich is one of the key things I teach in order to enable this
kind of flooding up of im agery?

Robert:I did.A gain,as a teacher m yself,I believe in creating space to learn.

A nd so,I cleared the m orning.I had a good breakfast.I sleptw ell.A nd so once I
satdow n,I w as fully focused and w ithoutother sortof stresses of the m ind or in
m y life in the w ay.I do thatas a learning practice autom atically.So I'm glad that
you m ake thatgoalexplicit.T hat's a very,very good explicitgoalthatyou have.

C an I justcom m entaboutyour claim aboutthe subconscious m ind,the

unconscious m ind? I think it's so interesting and a very interesting claim and
m akes a lotof sense and m y reason as to w hy,m y guess is thatw e're alw ays in
survivalm ode and itseem s like the brain's role in survivalis to create
predictability,to create order.So itw ould m ake sense thatitw ould do that
subconsciously in the face of allof this chaos,thatit's justready to go to put
things into buckets so thatw e could have som e levelof predictability and
predictability leads to survival.So I think thatthat's a very,very plausible claim
and one thatI'm going to think abouta long tim e after our conversation.

Anthony:T here's certainly a lotof related research into the unconscious that
they've done through certain tests and so forth thatrelate to this thatdefinitely
can be investigated,som ething to getinto ata certain point.O ne of the other
things thatI w anted to ask you aboutis that,itsounds as if you've m anaged to do
allof this,w hich is actually pretty substantial,in one room .Is thatthe case?

Robert:Y eah.I did itin one room .

Anthony:A nd do you feelthatyou could go to,say,the confidence intervals

inform ation w ithouthaving to firstvisitthe binom ialprobability distribution
inform ation? O r do you need to startatthe beginning?

Robert:N ow m aybe I could startatany room ,butatthe beginning,I needed the

fulltour.I needed to go into the house.I needed to see the dining table first.I
needed to go into the fam ily room and play N intendo and then I needed to go
into the kitchen for the dishes.So I think early on,I needed to go from room to
room and now ,especially w ith this coaching thatyou're giving m e,I can startin
one room .

Anthony:N ow ,w hatis your,assum ing allof this m aterial– you w ere able to
retain itafter spending really w hatsounds like a pretty insubstantialam ountof
tim e this m orning…

Robert:Y eah,this m orning.

Anthony: … W hatI w antto ask,even though you're notactually going to do

this,if you had to produce this inform ation on a test,say nextw eek,and
assum ing thatyou m aintained your recallthrough rehearsing itseveraltim es
betw een now and then to m ake sure thatitsticks and to re-am plify it,w hatis
thattestsituation going to look like? W hatdo you expectto see on the exam ?
A nd how do you predictthatyou w ould use these constructions thatyou've built
inside of a m em ory palace in order to assistyou in passing thatexam and being
successful?

Robert:R ight.T hat's a good question because m any tim es I think the im portant
partof an exam is notonly to know the form ula butto know w hen itapplies,on
w hich problem to use itand in w hich problem to apply it.It's sortof like
know ing w hen to use a screw driver or a w rench or a ham m er.It's the sam e idea.
Y ou have to know w hen to use w hich tool.

A nd so w hatI w ould do,is thatjustgiven like if I'm trying to em body w hatit's

like for a studentto take a testw ith the pressure and allthatstuff and the fear of
notrem em bering I w ould suggestcom ing into the exam and justgoing through
m y m em ory palace,going through thatprocess and w riting dow n allof the
form ulas atthe top of the page,justgetting allof them dow n.G etting allof them
dow n w ould be really im portant.A tleastthattakes the pressure off from having
to recallitatany specific m om ent.

From there,know ing w hen to apply w hich form ula to w hich problem is exactly
w hatyou're saying aboutthe cross-indexing because you w ould need to look for
key w ords w ithin the problem s.T he problem s w ould say,for exam ple,w hatis
the confidence intervalestim ate if m y sam ple size if 40 people and m y m argin of
error is 2% ?

Y ou know they w ould give you thatN .T hey w ould give you the E .T hey w ould
give you the P.T hey w ould give you the Q .and they w ould give you allthose
things,butbeing able to cross-index,know ing to use thatconfidence interval
form ula for thatproblem w ould be an entirely – I feellike a differentM em ory
Palace thatyou need to teletransportto,unless you em bed itw ith in.

L ike I said,as I getm ore advanced,w hatI'm trying to do,is I'm trying to m odel
w hatit's like for som eone that's going into your m ethods w ith fresh eyes and
help your view ers figure outthis process as som eone that's doing this basically
from square one.A nd so yeah,I think as of now I w ould need to do the cross-
index m ethod w here you have a differentsetof rules and a differentnarrative,
differentpalace,differentim ages,differentactions thatw ould be able to
reference the narrative of the form ulas them selves.A s of now ,I have notbeen
able to create an expanded version thatincludes allof them .

Anthony:H ow long do you think justknow ing w here you're atnow and not
know ing how fastyou could getand how accurate you could get,know ing w hat
you know aboutstandard exam s in this area,how m uch tim e do you think you
w ould need to investin sufficiently m em orizing and then rehearsing the m aterial
so thatyou w ere confidentthatyou had itavailable as a crib sheetin your m ind
in order to be successfulin a standard exam ,an exam of consequence thatw ould
m ake a difference in a student's life to be able to pass it?
Robert:R ight.R ight.R ight.H ow long? W ellI guess that's relative.I think I
w ould say I w ould tellyou thatbeing vaguely fam iliar w ith these form ulas
before,I know thatthey're – for exam ple I know thatthere are confidence
intervalform ulas.In fact,I know thatthere are three confidence interval
form ulas.I knew thatgoing in,butI didn'tknow w hatthey w ere exceptby just
looking.I'd have to look atthe papers.Ittook m e 35 or 40 m inutes to rem em ber
nine form ulas.A nd then w ith that,I think you can say double thattim e to getthe
concepts as w ellas like w hata confidence intervalis,w hata binom ial
distribution is,w hatthey're used for and those types of things,w hich are,
honestly,m ore im portantthan the form ulas them selves.Y ou have to be able to
define w hatyou're talking aboutbefore you take outthe toolfrom the toolbox.

B ut,I'm telling you 35,40 m inutes for nine form ulas is very efficient.A nd it's
notgoing anyw here especially if now I have the narrative.I can take itw ith m e
everyw here.I don'thave to consultnotes allthe tim e.I don'thave to w rite dow n
again and again.T hatw as m y m ethod before,w as to w rite the form ula.I said to
m yself,w ell,if I don'thave the form ula m em orized,let's see how I feelabout
thatafter w riting itfive tim es.A nd then I'llreevaluate w hether I've m em orized
it.So I'd w rite itdow n five tim es.So in answ ering your question,it's notonly a
m atter of tim e that's beneficial,butit's the process.It's the process.It's notlam e.
It's nota w aste of tim e.It's nota drag.It's nota drag on your consciousness.It's
m ore of like a,W here am I? W here am I? It's introspective,w hich I like.I like
thata lotas w eird as itw as atfirst.

Anthony: D o you think thatthere are any students thatthis m ethod w ould either
notappealto or justbe outrightw rong for?

Robert:Y es,I do.I com e across a lotof students.I think anyone – and this is
nota judgm entor any lack of respectfor any students or any type of studentout
there.I think w hat's happening in education today is thatsom e people really
m ore and m ore are dem anding a spoon feeding system ,in w hich you justsay,
this is w hatitis.T his is w hatyou need to m em orize.H ere is w hatthey are.A nd
then they'llgo through the process of justtrying to pound itinto their brain and
then once it's done,in survivalm ode,they'llforgetaboutitand m ove on.A ny
studentthatinsists on the results only,thatinsists on notreally focusing on
process,thatinsists on doing itone w ay thathas w orked before and notready to
question or adoptnew m ethodologies,this isn'tfor them .T his isn'tfor them
because itseem s like you're sortof w alking backw ards.
Y ou could be spending tim e w orking on form ulas.Y ou could be spending tim e
m aking flash cards.Y ou could be spending tim e doing thatstuff thathas w orked
and served you in the past.W hy w ould I w antto think aboutgoing back in m y
pastand talking to m y fam ily atthe dining table and doing like this? N apkins,
N o N o N o (m akes X sym bols w ith his arm s).It's very different.A nd so if you're
notready to step outside your com fortzone and sortof confronta new m ethod
thatyou've never even considered before,then yes,it's better to stick to the flash
cards.O r I think you,of allpeople w ould notm andate your m ethod to anyone
thathad sortof a tangible am ountof trepidation going in.L ike,I don'tknow ,
M em ory Palace? … notreally for m e.Y ou w ouldn'tw antto force iton them .
T hey have to be ready to do the w ork and go into their m ind.D oes thatm ake
sense?

Anthony:It's certainly voluntary.It's gotto be voluntary.Y ou've gotto be into

it.B utI think thata lotof people don'tdo itbecause actually I think thatthe term
M em ory Palace turns a lotof people off.I think it's an incredibly sexy term …

Robert:I do too.

Anthony:… butI heard from one guy w ho said thathe couldn'teven getstarted
because he disliked the term so m uch.A nd he told m e – this w as an 80-year-old
m an – he told m e thathe finally cam e up w ith "apartm ents w ith com partm ents."
T hatw as his preferred term .I justsaid,hey m an,w hatever w orks.G o w ith it.
C allthem "red chickens in a field." W hatever you w ant.Justgetover the hum p
of w hatit's called and getover the factthat– it's notthatit's justone step back to
go into your m ind and startdoing allthis sortof w ork,butit's really tw o or three
steps back because you need to learn the technique in the firstplace.

Robert:A bsolutely.

Anthony:B utit's kind of like being a bitof a person w ho gets invited to the
cockpit.Y ou see allthe instrum entdials and the plane is already flying.I
rem em ber w hen I w as a kid,w e w ere going to D isneyland and this w as w ay
back before people w ere flying planes into buildings and the pilot,or the
stew ardess cam e outand said,hey,do you w antto com e see the cockpit? A nd I
w as like,sure! I w as like nine years old.A nd I w entup to the front.I w as able to
actually see the tw o guys sitting there and everything outin the sky and I justgot
the sense of w onder of this extrem ely – itseem s extrem ely com plicated.
So atfirstencountering this it's kind of like visiting the cockpitand you see and
you'llsay I'llnever be a pilot.I'llnever know how to do allthis stuff.It's just
overw helm ing.B utthen,let's justsay,you decide to give ita try and before you
ever getthatplane into the sky,there's a bitof training that's involved.Y ou've
gotto understand this.Y ou've gotto understand that.O h,there's this principle.
T here's thatprinciple.B utonce you getthatplane into the sky once or tw ice,
w ellevery tim e thatplane has to go to the pickup thing,it's gotto pick up the
passengers and it's gotto taxito the runw ay.B utas soon as itgets to the runw ay,
itgoes into the sky and itflies and itdoes itagain and again and again.A nd
every tim e it's successful.

So that's basically w hatthis is.So you firstsee the w onder.Y ou give ita try.
Y ou try to learn the technique and then you learn to fly and you com e back and
you pick up m ore and m ore passengers.T he passengers being the m em ories,the
m aterialyou've m em orized.A nd then you taxito the runw ay and then you getup
in the sky.A nd it's nota bad m etaphor as w ellbecause eventually the plane is
going to land and if you don'tkeep fueling the jet,the m em ories are going to
fade,butyou'llpick up new ones or you'llpick them up again because the sam e
passengers som etim es take the sam e flight.So I think that's a really nice
m etaphor thatI cam e up w ith on the "fly" for how this allw orks,butyou
definitely have to step back before you fly every tim e.

Robert:Y ou definitely have to step back.

Anthony:B ut,do you think it's a w orthy investm ent? Som ething thatyou w ould
gladly teach others to do?

Robert:Y eah.It's definitely a w orthy investm ent.I think itshould be an

offering because let's talk aboutthe guy thatw as uncom fortable w ith [the term ]
M em ory Palace.If som eone is uncom fortable w ith "M em ory Palace," then they
have one of tw o choices.T hey can say "apartm ents w ith com partm ents" and nnow
me Penme
I'm ready to w ork w ith you,or they can say,M em ory Palace,I'm notinto ita plnkMit
in love w ith w hatthey're trying to m em orize.T hey're doing itfor som e reason
thatis notauthentic. It's notreal.It's notlove and so thatm ay be the true barrier
here because itis going to take an extra investm ent.N otm uch.45 m inutes for
nine form ulas is nothing,you know ? It's really,atthe end of the day,in
com parison w ith w hatyou can do w ith that,itm ay be and ithas to be said,that
atsom e levelthe barrier can be thatthere's notenough true,authentic interestin
the topic in the firstplace in order to w arrantjustany kind of learning really.So
thatm ay – I justw anted to throw thatoutthere.

Robert:I see itevery day.Y ou hititon the head there.A bsolutely.A nd you
know w hat's interesting is thatyou m ightbe able to sell,as you w ere saying
earlier today,you m ightbe able to sellthe topic through these m nem onics as
w ell.A nd I'm going to conclude m y process of M em ory Palaces and this
learning technique w ith you w ith evidence thatI have actually done this
subconsciously w ithouteven know ing itand ithas to do w ith the quadratic
form ula.O kay? So look,as som eone w ho's notin an algebra class rightnow
yourself.Y ou have a respectfor m ath as a concept,butthere's notneed for you
to w alk around and m em orize the quadratic form ula.So I getthat.So w hen I try
to teach thatform ula to m y students,it's justa bunch of gibberish to them ,
especially atfirst.B utI cam e up w ith the m nem onic thatthey love and I'm going
to share itw ith you and I've been doing this for years,w ellbefore you and I had
m et.I've been doing this for years and I'm going to share itw ith you.Itm ay help
to have the form ula in frontof you.C ould you m aybe w rite it? I could recite itto
you and then you'lllook atitw ith m e.

Anthony:O kay.I'm justgetting a pen and paper here.M y fancy new C ollins
pen.

Robert:Fancy.O kay.So that's the quadratic form ula.O kay? So here's the
m nem onic thatI did.I w ould w rite iton the board so I w ould say class,here's
the story aboutthe negative boy w ho couldn'tdecide yes or no,to go to a radical
party.B utthe boy w as a square and he m issed outon (-) 4 aw esom e chicks.A nd
the party w as allover at2 a.m .they love it.T hey love it.T hey com e in the next
day talking aboutit.Itjustgave ita narrative.T he story of the negative boy w ho
m issed outon four aw esom e chicks.T hey love thatstuff.A nd it's justinteresting
thatw e found our w ay together and I had been doing itw ithouteven realizing it.

Anthony:W ellm y im m ediate instinctw ould be and I think itw ould help people
w ho struggle even w ith thatand I think itw ould benefitpeople w ho don't
struggle w ith that,using a narrative like thatis to locate thatsom e place to
actually see thatin a particular place.So if I w as going to w ork on that,I w ould
see iteither w here I'm in the room now or I'd pick a specific M em ory Palace and
locate itsom ew here so thatI have a place to go w hen I'm looking for itand then
I w ould w antto actually see thatand m ake sure I spend som e tim e exaggerating
the im agery and bringing color and action to it.So thatw ould justbe m y
response to thatto add m ore from the kinds of techniques thatI putinto things.

Is there anything else thatw e haven'tcovered thatyou think should be

m entioned?

Robert:I've talked abouteverything thatI w anted to process.Y ou've given m e a

lotto think about.Is there anything else you w anted to figure outor inquire from
m e? D o you need anything else from m e? O r how ever else I can help you w ith
this? T his has been great.

Anthony:M y only thing is I hope itcontinues so w e can help m ore people

actually adoptthese techniques and atthe very leastdo things w ith the sortof
form ula thatyou justshared w ith the negative boy and m aybe experim entw ith
people w ho struggle w ith even thatand see aboutadding a M em ory Palace
com ponentto itto give itfor w hatm ightfor som e people give itan extra oom ph
so to speak,or also as a kind of gatew ay drug,so to speak,to m ore m nem onics
w hen they see thatsortof pow er com ing together.

Robert:A bsolutely.G iving ita shell,giving ita fram ew ork as opposed to justa
sim ple cutie narrative because that's w hatI've done up untilnow .T hey can
envision them selves atthe party.T hey can see w ho's there.T hey can ask w hy or
w ho the four aw esom e chicks w ere.A llthose sortof add-ons to help the im age
com e to life.A nthony,this has been really,really specialfor m e.I think this is a
huge opportunity for m e to be able to share this conversation w ith you and I
think you're doing really greatw ork and I hope thatw hoever is w atching this and
your students understand thatit's from som eone thatw orks in academ ics that
used this m ethod for the firsttim e today and learned aboutitonly a few days
ago,it's really specialand you're really on to som ething and I'm justreally happy
to be a partof it.So thanks for this opportunity.

Anthony: A nd thank you for bringing your expertise to the practice.

Robert:Y ou gotit.
© 2014 M etivier M agnetic M em ory Series.

All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any

form or by any means, including scanning, photocopying, or otherwise
without prior written permission of the copyright holder.
D isclaim er and T erm s of U se: T he A uthor and Publisher have strived to be as
accurate and com plete as possible in the creation of this book, notw ithstanding
the fact that he does not w arrant or represent at any tim e that the contents w ithin
are accurate due to the rapidly changing nature of the Internet.W hile allattem pts
have been m ade to verify inform ation provided in this publication, the A uthor
and Publisher assum es no responsibility for errors, om issions, or contrary
interpretation of the subject m atter herein. A ny perceived slights of specific
persons,peoples,or organizations are unintentional.
T his E dition,C opyright2014

Last Chance!

I have created FREE Magnetic Memory Method worksheets just for you.
These will help you take the memory improvement lessons you'll learn in
this book to the next level. You’ll also be given the opportunity to watch the
free video course Memory Palace Mastery.

In order to download these worksheets and start watching the videos, go

now while these materials are still FREE: Magnetic Memory Method
Worksheets