Memory 2

5/2/2019 Best method to memorize a textbook?
- General Memory Chat - Art of Memory Forum
Best method to memorize a textbook?

book-memorization
launched Jan '12
Hi!
I’ve spent the last few months reading every memory book I could find, and I think I’m ready to start
using some of the techniques - but I need some advice concerning what method would be best for
my needs.
I’m a law student, and I’m trying to memorize all of my textbooks using one or more memory
techniques.
So quite simply, what method would be best for memorizing something like a law textbook? How
would you approach it?
I do like the memory palace technique, and I can use it successfully to memorize a pack of cards, but
I just can’t figure out how I would apply it to book memorizing? How do I turn a 300 page textbook
into a palace which I can access at will? How does that technique allow me to, for instance, tell
someone what is on any random page if asked?
Would I be better off transcribing the textbook into a set of lengthy notes first, and memorize that?
Would other methods be more effective? Finally, how long would you estimate it would take to
memorize a 300 page textbook?
Thanks for your help!
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2 more
https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/best-method-to-memorize-a-textbook/27370 1/13
5/2/2019 Best method to memorize a textbook? - General Memory Chat - Art of Memory Forum
Yan Feb '12
Hi launched!
Welcome to the site! Now that is a lot of questions and I’ll try to reply to them as succintly as
possible. I was in the same situation as you and with the help of mnemonics, I’ve managed to go
through medical studies quite easily, compared to my friends.
So before I go into details, contrary to popular beliefs, mnemonics and memory techniques are
not the easy way out of memorizing large texts and books.
launched:
I’ve spent the last few months reading every memory book I could find, and I think I’m ready to
start using some of the techniques - but I need some advice concerning what method would be
best for my needs.
Contrary to what other memorizers are saying, even the best ones, mnemotechnics are not for
everyone. The concepts and principles are relatively easy to understand but for you to master them,
you need to practise, practise and practise even more. Memorizing a simple shopping list using
memory techniques is fairly easy for the novice but keeping large amount of information and being
able to recall them at will is not that easy.
Before launching yourself into complex, text memorisation, you’ll need to have some weapons at
your side. Develop a simple 2 digits system for numbers and you’ll find that helpful along the way.
Practise a lot visualization first before tackling your textbooks.
Now for your 300 pages text book, the way I would go about it, is not to use a memory palace but a
journey instead, with 300 loci or 6 journeys with 50 loci each. I would assign a locus within a journey
to one page. I would use outdoor journeys with large, open spaces instead of objects in a rooms or a
house.
I would go through each page first and try to understand the information being said first. Memorizing
without comprehension is useless. I would then jot down key points in my own words. I would then try
to come up with an image for each point. Try to use the least amount of images possible. Try to
assign one image only for a point. Be consistent. Always use the same image for the same point. I
use the image of the bad guy in Terminator 2, for T-Cells in Immunology, in various situations.
Link each image using a story or other linking methods within each page on the same locus. Do this
for each page.
Start with the first 10 pages. You’ll see at first, that you are taking more time learning them with
memory techniques, than doing them by rote. But as you practise and start to develop your
imagination and memory power, you’ll go faster on the other pages.
Review each finished page. Review, Review and Review them as many times as possible in your
head. When brushing your teeth, in the shower, before going to bed. Review each page after it’s
been done, after 3 hours, the next day, the day after, after two days, the next week, the week after
and the week after that. You’ll find that it has stuck to your memory.
I still remember information I’ve memorized last June and I can tell you on which page they were.
There are many other techniques I’ve developed but I don’t know whether it will work for you. Some
of them have to do with speed reading, time management, visualization, etc.
Anyway hope you found this little guide helpful. If you have got any techniques of yours or you are
using another method to learn, please do share it with us.
Tw1 Tw Feb '12
Very interesting comments, Yan. I’m in the same situation as Launched; looking to memorise law
textbooks. I have experimented a little without the technique described by Yan, although I’ve found
that the textbooks I’m trying to memorise contain so much important information on each page that it
is not feasible to use one loci per page. I have looked at using one loci per paragraph, but this
necessitates an extraordinary number of loci (thousands if I wanted to memorise several of the core
textbooks). Any ideas of a more efficient way to memorise these textbooks?
Also, Yan, you mention some of the other techniques you’ve developed (“speed reading, time
management, visualisation, etc.”), I’d be very interested to hear more about these if you didn’t mind
sharing them.
Yan Feb '12
Hi Tw… Thanks for the comment.
Like I said above, I’m not memorising each information word by word, but visualising an image for a
concept or idea. Like I can create an image for Endocarditis and add information to that image for
symptoms, treatments, etc… After many reviews, you’ll find that you won’t have need for the loci and
images because the information would have been stored in your long term memory. You’ll have all
the information at hand just by thinking of endocarditis.
The advantage with this method is that you don’t have to have your material with you to review the
course as per the traditional method of rote. You can just go through your images in your head to
make them stick.
The technique is not to do all at once. You do, little by little, mastering the things you have learnt first
before moving on.
The most important thing is not the creation of images or loci but the actual act of reviewing several
times.
Later on, you can use the same places for other information.
I’ll share all the techniques later on. I’m currently writing them down. It is too long to write all at once
here.
If you want any help, don’t hesitate to ask. I’ve been there too…
Smartings Feb '12
Law is studied by case. Memorize case names. Use name techniques because the case name is
name of parties.
DaiGriffiths May '13
Memorizing to memorize is probably the best answer. In order to get fast enough to predict how long
it will take you.
To memorize that amount of information you will certainly need to make a lot of locations. Even at
1000 locations that’s 8 images per location. It can be done and the locations can be numbered so
you don’t have to go from the start to find your place but, it will be time consuming so, it makes more
sense to learn how to memorize numbers and random words reasonably fast first, then, you can
calculate a time it will take you to do it.
If you can make the time to do that, you can calculate how long it will take you. Then, say you can
memorize 50 words in 30 minutes, you can calculate or approximate how long it will take you and you
can set that time aside, or take your notes to the toilet, bath and everywhere where you might get five
or ten minutes. Assume the time is double the memorization time to take account that you must
review immediately. So, if you have an hour spare per day, memorize for half an hour and keep the
other half an hour for reviewing what you just memorized. Do this review immediately after
memorization.
One thing is certain, making locations every day is a must. Make it a habit until you have a lot. Like
1,000. Until you have a significant amount. You could in theory use say 500 locations. This would not
be enough to fit all the images in at once but, you could learn them in groups. Like first 500, then do
a lot of reviewing (At lest 5 times). Once you reviewed something numerous times then, typically you
will remember it. There is a name for this. It’s called the rule of 5 and it’s by Hermann Ebbinghaus.
Reviewing 6 months later might be a bit out of your plan but, you can do extra reviews early on. The
general rules is, to make it a permanent memory takes five reviews. Generally, and as you may not
have 6 months to follow the rule but, need to get it done, you’ll have to review enough early on.
I would make priority making locations though. Filling them with numbers ready for the big push. It
will be hard work so, good luck.
You can then set out a plan like, today, review yesterdays new 50 locations/images and build 50 new
locations and memorize numbers on them and review that. Reviewing is the key for keeping it in your
head. The brain will interpret your reviewing as meaning the information is something that is
important. The more reviews, the more likely the information will stick. This is made easier by
creating good images in the first place.
Always review immediately after memorizing if you plan on retaining it. Once things are in your head
and you have reviewed, a good time to do it is in bed. Before you get up and before you go to sleep.
5/2/2019 Gavino's Massive Memory Palace System - General Memory Chat - Art of Memory Forum
Gavino’s Massive Memory Palace System

method-of-loci
gavino Jan '13
Hi guys,
I have been busy thinking lately (!) am I am quite excited about the below system I have developed.
Any (preferably) constructive criticism or questions welcome.
I will post more details in future.
Summary:
Systemise your existing memory to rapidly create a Memory Palace of 100, 1,000 or even more loci,
using nested locations.
“Separate the subject from the structure”
In advance of memorising what you don’t know, create a structure of something that you do know!
Rules:
1. Create a simple journey or palace in a building you already know. This is the base journey to
give you the base loci.
(To create 10 loci per room is relatively easy to achieve and therefore so is 50 – 70 loci in an average
sized house.)
2. Now select some pegs to place at each loci that, from your existing memory, will easily enable
you to create a new imagined or known “mini-location” of at least 4 loci. This is a “nested
location”.
3. Basically that is it! But bear in mind that in very little time you have just created a memory
palace of at least 50 loci (one room) or at least 250 loci in on small house.
4. BUT, the beauty of this method is that it is actually pretty easy to create nested locations that
have 10 loci and, with only a little more effort you can have many more nested loci, so that
mini-locations become maxi-locations!
Examples:
1. Base links can lead you to the set(s) or locations of a well-known (to you) TV programme,
which is the nested location e.g. Star Trek, University Challenge, BBC Breakfast
2. Base links can be paintings of an artist you know well. Then the nested locations come to life in
his/her individual paintings.
https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/gavinos-massive-memory-palace-system/28227 1/10
3. Base links can be to (say) 10 key scenes in your favourite movie. You then use the scenes as
the nested locations to place your images.
4. Base links can be a series of your favourite celebrities and the nested location is the place you
immediately see in your mind’s eye when you think of that celebrity.
5. Base links can be to levels of your favourite video games and the level is the nested location.
6. Base links can be to your favourite golf courses or football grounds.
Benefits:
1. Hooks onto existing knowledge and solves the problem of how to associate new knowledge to
existing knowledge
2. Systemises existing memory - that is probably not sequential into sequential
3. Creates potentially huge palaces without needing to know or create multiple journeys and
locations
4. Means a large subject can be controlled in a small area.
5. Great for adding additional level(s) for mind maps
6. Can re- use other palaces you already have
7. Can be very quick and much faster than creating new journies
8. Uses brain linkages, not artificial ordering like, say, SEM3.
Why MMPS is different:
1. It is NOT using standard pegs that need an inherent sequential logic – the initial base loci give
you that.
2. It is NOT simply placing the base images of the new data to be memorised at your loci and
then linking ‘on the fly’ to the next level of new data to be memorised. This is often complex
and mixes up structure and subject.
3. It is NOT just organising your existing journies
Problems solved:
• Not enough journies

• Not enough loci
• Packing too many images into loci
• On the fly linking
• Much faster access to memorised data than SEM where have to translate more images
Advanced Extensions:
• Nesting to more levels using loci linking (e.g Eiffel Tower to France to multiple places in France) or
stories
• Using colours and other attributes to multiply nested mini- locations
• Create a mini story in new location add more loci or nested levels
For more examples see this thread:
Gavino's Massive Memory Palace System - Practical

Examples
I have had a few messages asking for more practical examples of MMPs,
so thought I would share some responses (apologies if I ramble!) and other information on this
separate thread. Anyway, to recap on some of the MMP key points: I have found...
Reading time: 11 mins Likes: 7 ❤
Another 'My first Memory Palace' topic... (sorry about that...)
An approach to memorize a dictionary
Need help creating a Memory palace for school
Number of journeys needed
Med Palace System!
14 more
zyzzyva57 Jan '13
My problem with memory systems is they can grow too complex for rapid use, as with 2 + 2 = 4
I have nailed down 100 pegs that come fast to mind; however, I still have problems with this simple
homework of driving around my local Wal-Mart parking lot memorizing tag numbers – I find many
tags combine letters plus numbers, which become a major ouch with memorizing
My pegs can easily be expanded from within each peg, say a room or store
Still speed is what I want – I want my memory systems to be as fast 2 + 2 = 4
Hope my point makes some sense
Thanks for your tips, because I usually find something with tips I can make usuable for me
gavino Jan '13
Thanks.
I probably should have mentioned that the system is mainly geared towards creating a structure for
memorising large volumes of long term information such as books, coursework, address books etc,
rather than as a short term tool, which it seems is more what you’re looking for there.
Cheers
Gavino
gavino Jan '13
Thanks Yan and they are good points well made. Curiously I actually have about 1250 working loci at
present and about another 250 ready to go!
However the MMP system is specifically designed to rapidly create larger, but also easier and more
manageable palaces.
I need it because I am planning a big ramp up in my memorisation work this year - and early signs
are good
Gavino
drsleep8 Jan '13
Gavino, another thing I like about your system is that it can be used as a hierarchy in the sense that
the basic items on the journey could even be category names, with the more specific detail attached
to the nested “journey or pegs,” under a category name.
It models real long term knowledge better than a simple list of items would.
For example I could use it to memorize the countries of the world in alphabetical order.
The main locus would be say for example Afghanistan, assuming I want to memorize them in
alphabetical order.
I would associate Afghanistan with the first locus.
Then I would use the say 4-5 nested loci to attach the Capital, population number, the main
language(s) spoken, main industry, etc just to the nested items. (Better if I have exactly the number
of nested items I want to memorize for each country.) In other words the Capital would probably
always be my first nested locus. The population might always be my second nested locus, etc.
I would then associate Bahrain, if that is the next country alphabetically, to the second base locus.
And then I would use the nested loci in the same order to associate the 3-4 main facts I wanted to
remember about the country.
So this could be better than just associating the countries to a list and just elaborating a story for
each country to include the above items that I wanted to memorize about each country.
At least recall would be more sytematic with less chance for error. So in one room of my house I
could have 10 countries (base loci) with 4 nested facts about each country. There are about 195
countries by the way. But it is a start. (Wether to include the countries I already knew a lot about
would be a minor problem.)
Of course one still has to associate the nested items to each base locus, but there may be some
logical or thematic way to do that to make it easier, like you said based on things we already know
well. For example if the first base locus in one my rooms in my house is a television, then I could
have my top four favorite programs (visualize the main character maybe as the symbol of the show)
nested in that site in alphabetical order, or a walking order if that is possible.
And as you say, I do think that several nested loci as in the example above which would create 40
loci, would be easier than trying to remember forty basic loci without nesting. I say that because even
with mnemonics there is a “primacy” and “recency” effect in that the loci in the middle may be harder
to recall than the loci at either the beginning or the end. I already have several long journeys and find
I have to practice them more than I would like to, to make sure I recall the ones in the middle, to the
point that I am preserving large numbers of loci that I rarely need. But I think I would practice them
more if I had long term information attached to them rather than a series of nonsense syllables or
playing cards that I would rather forget.
gavino Jan '13
Thanks Dr S for this well thought out reply. I too am much less keen, for whatever reason, on story-
linking compared to loci.
Your country example is great and I also particularly like the way MMP allows me to recall additional
layers (branch levels) of a mind map.
And you may well have hit the nail on the head as to why I prefer short journies and nested locations
to a single long journey, so thanks for that also!
Gavino
Mutsu Jan '13
Hello !
I’m French, so I hope that I don’t make too much mistakes. First Thing is simply Thanks Gavino.
In the book called The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci, J. D. Spencer explains the technique used by
the Jesuits Matteo Ricci. Matteo Ricci used a combination of a real palace and an artificial. I follow
this advice and I place doors or elevator in my room that doesn’t normally exist. When a new
information comes, I open the door and I make new picture in a new location. But this location isn’t
artificial. For example, in my kitchen, I make a door that doesn’t exist which opened to the museum
that i know well.
I hope that you understand me…
New Member: MimKoRn - Slovakia. Music learning? Book-focused, practical.
gavino Jan '13
Welcome Mutso and thanks for your comments - your English is much, much better than my French!
I think this is a similar concept and adding virtual doors and elevators would be one really useful way
of extending an MMP if you find that extra base loci are needed. Thanks!
Gavino
Wessells Feb '13
Gavino, I had a question, have you already made it yourself and if so, how big of a palace is it? How
many loci does it contain?
I’ve been working on mine for a few days now. My base line is 52 loci right now (it wasn’t even on
purpose) and it’s just the bottom floor of my house (I have three floors).
My estimations were to have around 900 loci packed in there but it’s going quite well so I think I
underestimated myself and i should look at numbers around 1200 (it’s a very slow job to do and I
need to be sure that every loci is in the right place before I start memorizing Medea).
So, tell us about your own experience and what the biggest palace is you have created.
anon_bot Feb '13
Frankly, I don’t see myself using valuable spaces to place “links” to other palaces. Take your example
of 10 friends in the garden, linked to their homes. Well, I already use the homes of friends as
palaces, so I don’t need links to get there. So, I can use the garden to place non-linking images when
I need to recall something.
I see no advantage in the number of palaces or steps in a journey using your method. If you simply
create a lot of palaces and a lot of journeys, then no linking is required to get to them.
The “movie” technique is something that a lot of us have been using, especially those of us who have
eagerly made it a point to watch a lot of old movies again and again (even the silent movies). It’s
always interesting to use them, because not only to they provide palaces/journeys, but they also help
your concentration in order to better recall new movies you come across.
One of the best ways I’ve found to increase the number of rooms in any palace is to use the trick
from the movie Ui f !Bekvt un f ou!Cvsf bv: open a given door to a wholly new palace, or simply a room
of the palace you’re in. In some palaces, I place a special door, sometimes in each room, sometimes
in a designated place within the palace. Perhaps it’s a giant shining golden door, or a door with the
giant image of someone’s face on it. I see it and it tells me there’s another room/palace behind it. I
might be in a palace of human bones and somewhere is a giant door with a picture of Arnold
Schwarzenegger posing and flexing his muscles, telling me that through that door is the palace of
human muscles.
Whenever I have a door or anything with a picture, I try to take a hint from the Harry Potter movies:
have the image moving within the frame, make it come alive, rather than keep it static. Action =
memorable.
5/2/2019 Installing a Book in my mind - Memory Training Journals - Art of Memory Forum
Installing a Book in my mind
wesselj Apr '11
I have completed construction on the first 3 areas of my memory palace, and now have 60 loci to use
as storage for remembering lists and cards etc. I still want to add 2 more rooms, that would yield a
total of 100 loci, but for now I want to become comfortable with the journey up to 60 spots. the nice
thing is that each area is a block of 20 loci, so I can practice using them separately or as a whole.
With the first part of the palace completed I decided to shift my focus to memorising the first of the
books that I felt I want to keep in my memory palace. So I started with 7 Habits of Highly Effective
People. My first goal was to use the statue in my memory palace (a permanent feature) and build the
structure. For this I quickly scanned the book to get the main sections and chapters in each section.
This gave me the first 3 levels of the structure that I will need to remember the book. Now I’m busy
reading the book very attentively, noting important points that I want to remember. Once I finish each
chapter I will load the important points into the main structure. For my first two books will follow this
procedure, as both of them contain certain points that I find valuable, the prose is of very little
importance to me in these two cases, so only the main points need to be memorised.
I should learn a lot while installing these two books, and hope to expand on it, as my main goal for
training my memory is not to become a memory champion, but rather to have specific quotes and
main points in books. Names, telephone numbers and other everyday info is also important to me.
Memory Palace Basics (Detailed)
Laurence Apr '11
The idea of memorizing a book interest me as well. Is it possible to memorize the entire book, word
for word? As if it were a quote ( I guess in essence it would be )
wesselj May '11
Memorising an entire book should just be an extension of memorising the headings of chapters, and
main ideas of each paragraph. To my mind it is simply a matter of granulation. The level of detail you
need to remember is all that increases when you want to remember more information. Yes this is a
overly simple thought, but lets explore it.
In any language there exists a finite number of expressions for each and every idea that we might
encounter. As such you do not need to memorise the book word for word. All we need to do is get to
a sufficient level of detail. This level will differ from person to person, and the more you begin to get a
https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/installing-a-book-in-my-mind/26105 1/9
feel for language, or for an author’s voice you will find that you will become able to express yourself
using the same idiosyncrasies as that of the author you are quoting.
As in all expert processes this skill is something that you have to build, and practice until you reach a
master level of expertise. So my strategy is to first master memorising the gist of a book (using books
I do not feel the need to remember word for word) up to a point where I no longer have to labour to
form the structures and connections I need, and once I reach the appropriate level of skill I will
increase the level of detail I memorise, and practice that using other books, until a naturalisation
occurs. This process serves 2 purposes, firstly my skill at memorising increases, but at the same time
my body of knowledge grows. I will, once I reach a paragraph level, begin to include certain verbatim
quotes in my memory structure, and increase these until I will be able to read an entire book from
memory, also starting with a small book, say 200 pages and work my way to larger and larger
volumes of data.
TheNightingale May '11
Laurence:
The idea of memorizing a book interest me as well. Is it possible to memorize the entire book,
word for word? As if it were a quote ( I guess in essence it would be )
It may be possible, but, in my opinion, not worth it. Let’s look at the reasons one may wish to
memorize a book word-for-word:
For an exam/academia
For pleasure
For a competition
Think about the first one. No one EVER needs to know a book verbatim for an exam. Most textbooks
teach your facts and conceptual ideas. You need the key thoughts, facts and concepts, but nothing
more. The only things you might need verbatim for an exam are:
Poems
Quotes
Speeches
Excerpts of text (From Shakespeare etc.)
But definitely not a whole book! And usually your excerpts are provided for you anyway.
Now I suppose some people might want to learn a book word-for-word for pleasure. I suppose you
could memorize a book word-for-word and then read it to yourself in your head if you were travelling
or something. But that would ruin the whole experience of reading for me. It’s about the pages and
the physicality of a real book for me. That’s why I don’t think I will ever get into this Kindle craze that
everyone has at the moment. The Kindle is great for travel, but at home, I’d rather have the real
book!
The final reason (competition) seems the only valid reason to learn an entire book verbatim. I don’t
know much about memory competitions, but would reciting a book, word-for-word, from beginning to
end ever be used in a memory competition? I honestly don’t know.
I think it’s probably possible to learn a book word-for-word. But I imagine it would take a long time to
do so if you wanted 100% retention. Whether it’s worth it to you is the biggest question. Personally, it
wouldn’t be for me, but it might be for you. Maybe try one chapter and see how it goes?
samdizzy May '11
I can suggest: The Bible, the Torah, other religious books. Long poems like the Divine Comedy, Illiad,
Odyssey, etc. These are worth keeping in your mind. Me, I keep them handy.
wesselj May '11
When I reached a sufficient level of skill I’m gonna tackle The Bible, very daunting
Rublev May '11
This idea of memorizing entire works has long been an obsession of mine. I memorized about half of
an 8000 line poem (Paradise Lost is 14,000 lines), the entirety of Hamlet (3880 lines approx), and
numerous other texts. My whole purpose of joining this forum has been to see if these projects of
mine could have been accomplished more simply and less painfully.
I did my memorization through an intense process of simple repetition. I recited 50+ pages of the text
to myself each day on a rotating basis as the amount of material I memorized became too great to
review in a single day (I was spending 6+ hours a day with review, counting a long commute,
showers, etc.). My point in detailing this is to show that if all we are talking about is consistent effort
and repetition, it’s simply a matter of patience and discipline.
What I want to know, though, is whether these mnemonic techniques actually promise significant
improvements in fixing and retaining verbal content. I can see better results in retaining facts and
numbers, but language is quite a different story. Although it is true that the number of linguistic
structures is finite, Chomsky and others have shown that the possibilities of actual language, as used
in speech and texts, is practically infinite. As I see it, the true testing ground of mnemotechnics is not
finite sets such as decks of cards and binary chains – it’s the complexity of human language.
wesselj May '11
There are rote memorisation. What I propose is to mix this approach with mnemonics. Lets say you
want to memorize Hamlet, if you want to memorise this by rote you basically have one word linked to
the next and the next and the next, but your content is also your structure. On the first level you can
begin by building a structure to link chunks of verse, for memorising small chunks of verse is a lot
easier than memorising scenes at a time.
the simplest way to do this will be to build a memory palace with loci for each of the pages in Hamlet
(This will be easier to do than the main structure for books that I am currently working on). Now you
need to link 5 images to each location, do this in a linked list. Now you link reminders to each of
these so they can remind you of the pard you memorised linked to that. This will not only speed up
your memorisation process, but also accuracy of recall. I agree that language is infinite, but having a
sentence with specific words, there is a finite number of expressions for that idea. Even more so if
you impose the rules of poetry.
Hayden1177 Jun '14
In my previous post the examples i gave were very simple so i will quickly provide some more
complicated ones.
Change your plans when advantageous = me sat playing chess with Sun Tzu , Sun Tzu yawns and
covers his face with his hands and i take the opportunity to move some pieces while he can’t see.
Your plans should be made according to the movements of your enemy = Me facing Sun Tzu and
him facing me, he steps left, i step left, he steps right, i step right etc.
Appear unable to attack when you are able = Me limping towards an unworried Sun Tzu whilst
holding a knife behind my back.
Nearly all of my examples are me and sun tzu, in some rooms there are 2 or 3 versions of me and 2
or 3 versions of sun tzu interacting with each other. I know it goes against all suggestions, i don’t
have crazy things happening or bright colors or what have you, just boring, simple Loci but it works
great for me and that’s all that counts.
cc477 Jul '15
I concur its not worth memorizing a whole book.

Fiction books: Just focus on what the whole book is about and the main ideas.
Academics/Non Fiction: Main idea, Sub-ideas, and vocabulary.
I have a friend of a friend who has a photographic memory in fact its so good that when he writes
papers he copies it word per word not on purpose but because he can’t separate his photographic
memory from his ideas. Anything he reads is forever in his head.
Personally I would rather have a number of long term palaces and a few short term/temp palaces.
Why would I want to memorize every book is behind me. Even if I was Matt Daemen from Good Will
Hunting it seems pointless. There is no point in memorizing something if your not going to apply it.
thatoldfool Aug '15
I started to memorize the Tao Te Ching a few years ago, before learning about mnemonics.
Regarding “There is no point in memorizing something if your not going to apply it,” I found that
having memorized just a quarter of the TTC, it would “come” to me during the day at some opportune
moment. So I would argue that there doesn’t need to be a known or immediate application to a
memorized book–it will apply itself at the right time, once you know it, based on your circumstances.
-tof…
Bateman Aug '15
I would agree with that old fool. When you memorize something like that, whether it’s a book, article,
speech, when you need it, the information comes to you. It just pops up into your mind when there’s
something related to it around you.
Bateman
Jinay Sep '15
Imo kindle(not the tablet) isn’t ruining anything and its just your personal choice to have a real book
in your hands. The place where I live doesn’t have a good library facility.even my college library is
mediocre(only keeps technical books (that too courses ONLY)). Kindle was my savior. I got into
reading only after I bought the kindle. In developed areas, kindle may be considered a bug but you
should also take into account so many people (like me) who benefit from such devices.
Another point, kindle helps me a lot to improve my vocabulary (just a tap to reveal dictionary
meaning). You can carry a thousand books in your pocket. I’m not opposing physical books. I love
them too. I’m just making you aware of one more variable to take into account when commenting on
the practicality of kindle.
5/10/2020 [TEXT] I just finished the online Coursera course "Learning how to learn". I highly recommend it to everyone and I summarized everything I learned fr…
[TEXT] I just finished the online Coursera course "Learning how to learn". I
highly recommend it to everyone and I summarized everything I learned from it.
So I just finished the course https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn and I can say that it has
actually changed the way I perceive my studies. I strongly recommend it to anyone willing to put some efforts
to change the way you learn.
If you are like me, and you got tired of all the click-bait rubbish that surrounds the productivity articles and
advices you will find on the internet, then this is the course for you, and it is the last course you need.
Almost every single video of the course references a bunch of scientific papers. It is almost entirely based on
scientific researches. It introduces you lightly to the concept of how the brain function, how memory works,
why procrastination happens, and so many other related subjects that include practical tips on how to learn
more efficiently.
In addition to all the lectures, the course features a lot of interviews with highly prolific scientists and some
notable people like Nelson Dellis, the four-time USA Memory Champion.
Without further ado, here are all the notes I wrote down while taking the course, organized in a chronological
order that follows the course structure.
Edit: As some of you have pointed out, the book A mind for numbers is the book that the MOOC was based
on. Dr, Barbara Oakley, the author of the book, is a woman who started learning mathematics at the age of 26,
and is now a professor of engineering at the university of Oakland.
Week 1: What is Learning?
Brain Facts:
Cells of the nervous system are called neurons. Information from one neuron flows to another neuron
across a synapse. Human brain has a million billion synapses.
Your brain creates synapses whenever you learn something new. Sleeping helps "update" your brain cells.
Literally.
Why do we procrastinate (scientifically):
Problem:
Learning a new thing or doing something you would rather not do can be stressing. This can cause anxiety at
first. This activates the area associated with pain in the brain.
https://www.reddit.com/r/GetMotivated/comments/5950tm/text_i_just_finished_the_online_coursera_course/ 1/9
Your brain looks for a way to stop that negative feeling by switching your attention to something else more
pleasant.
Solution:
The trick is to just start. Researchers discovered that not long after people start actually working out what they
didn’t like, that neuro-discomfort disappeared.
Remember that the better you get at something, the more enjoyable it can become.
Consider using the pomodoro technique.
Learning hard and abstract things:
The more abstract something is, the more important it is to practice to create and strengthen neural connections
to bring the abstract ideas to reality for you.
Ex: You should practice a lot with the math vocabulary to understand it and recall it easier. [∫∞ex dx, k!(n−k)!]
Summary of what I learnt:
1. There are two modes of thinking:

a. Focused mode: Concentrating on things that are usually familiar.
b. Diffused mode: A relaxed mode of thinking "your thoughts are free to wander".
2. When you don’t desire doing/learning something, go through it and just start. The discomfort goes away
and, in the long term, this will lead to satisfaction.
3. When you learn something new, make sure to take time to rest, then come back to it and recall what you
learnt.
3. This is very important. Don’t cram information in one day. This leads to inefficient learning. It’s like
building a wall without letting it dry.
4. Revisiting and practicing what you learn is important. Research shows that spaced repetition(repeating
things after few days) is the best way to build and strengthen the synaptic connections.
4. Sleep is very important. It clears the metabolic toxins from the brain after a day of "brain use". It is best to
sleep directly after learning new things.
5. It was shown that exercising and/or being in a rich social environment helps your brain produce new
neurons. Don’t lock yourself in your room. Stay active and spare time for exercise (including general
physical activities) and friends daily.
Week 2: Chunking
Chunks:
Pieces of information, neuroscientifically speaking, bond together through use and meaning. They can get bigger
and more complex, but at the same time, they are single easy to access items that can fit into the slot of the
working memory.
Chunking is the act of grouping concepts into compact packages of information that are easier for the
mind to access.
Example: If you understand and practice a math formula. You no longer will need to focus much to solve it
like you did the first time. That’s because your "formula chunk" got so abstracted into your brain that it can
only take one slot of your working memory to solve it.
Turn off distractions. You want to use all the four slots of your working memory when studying. Learning will be
inefficient if some of those slots are connected to something else.
You have to solve the problem yourself. Just because you see it, or even understand it, doesn't mean that you
will be able to solve it (Illusion of competence). It is always easier to look at the material, even if you think it’s
easy, then doing it yourself.
It gets easier. When you think that a chapter or a book has too much information and that there’s no way to go
through them all; just focus on whatever section you’re studying. You’ll find that once you put that first concept in
your mental library, the following one will be easier.
This concept is called Transfer; a chunk you have mastered in one area can often help you much more easily
learn other chunks of information in different areas.
Master the major idea and then start getting deeper. However, make sure not to get stuck in some details
before having a general idea. Practice to help yourself gain mastery and sense of the big picture context. Try
taking a "picture walk" before you dig through the material, this means, look briefly at the pictures, chapter titles,
formulas used… before diving into details.
Recall mentally without looking at the material. This is proven more effective than to simply rereading. Reread
only after you try to recall and write down what was in the material.
Consider recalling when you are in different places to become independent of the cues from any giving location.
This will help you when taking a test in the class.
Test yourself to make sure you are actually learning and not fooling yourself into learning. Mistakes are a good
thing. They allow you to catch illusions of competence.
Don’t always trust your initial intuition. Einstellung problem (a German word for Mindset). An idea or a neural
pattern you developed might prevent a new better idea from being found. Sometimes your initial intuition on what
you need to be doing is misleading.You’ve to unlearn old ideas and approaches as you are learning new ones.
Mix up the problems (Interleaving) from different chapters. This is helpful to create connections between your
chunks. It can make your learning a bit more difficult, but it helps you learn more deeply. Interleaving is very
important. It is where you leave the world of practice and repetition, and begin thinking more independently.
Don’ts:
Highlighting too much and creating maps are often ineffective without recalling.
Repeating something you already learnt or know very well is easy. It can bring the illusion of
competence; that you’ve mastered the full material when you actually just know the easy stuff. Balance
your studies and focus on the more difficult (deliberate practice). This sets the difference between a good
student and a great student.
A big mistake is to blindly start working on an exercise without reading the textbook or attending the class.
This is a recipe of sinking. It’s like randomly allowing a thought to pop off in the focus mode without paying
attention to where the solution truly lies.
Week 3: Procrastination and Memory
Procrastination:
The routine, habitual responses your brain falls into when you try to do something hard or unpleasant.
Focusing only on making the present moment feels better.
Unlike procrastination which is easy to fall into, Willpower is hard to come by. It uses a lot of neural
resources and you shouldn’t waste it on fending off procrastination except when really necessary. You
actually don’t need to.
The long-term effect of Procrastination can be dangerous. Putting your studies off leads to studying
becoming even more painful. Procrastination is a habit that affects many areas of your life, if you improve in
this area, many positive changes will unfold.
Procrastination shares features with addiction. At first, it leads you to think that if you study too early you’ll
forget the material. Then, when the class is ahead of you, it leads you to think that you are inadequate or
that the subject is too hard.
You want to avoid cramming which doesn’t build solid neural structures, by putting the same amount into
your learning, and spacing it over a long period by starting earlier.
First time learning something:
The first time you do something the deluge of information coming at you would make the job seem almost
impossibly difficult. But, once you've chunked it, it will be simple.
At first, it's really hard, later it's easy. It becomes like a habit. Ex: Driving for the first time.
Habits:
Neuro-scientifically speaking, chunking is related to habit.

Habit is an energy saver. You don’t need to focus when performing different habitual tasks.
Habits can be good or bad, brief or long.
Habits Parts:
1. The cue: The trigger that launches you into zombie mode (habitual routine).
a. Recognize what launches you in zombie procrastination mode:
i. Location. Time. Feelings. Reaction to people or events…
b. Consider shutting your phone/internet for brief periods of time to prevent most cues.
2. The routine: Routine you do in reaction to the cue.
3. You only need to use your willpower to change your reaction to the cues.
4. Actively focus on rewiring your old habits.
2. You need a plan. You need some willpower.
3. The reward: Habits exist because they reward us.

5. Give yourself bigger rewards for bigger achievements. But after you finish them.
3. **Ex**: If I study for 4 hours today, I’ll watch a movie, guilt free, at night.
6. Habits are powerful because they create neurological cravings. It helps to add a new reward if you want
to overcome your previous cravings.
7. Only once your brain starts expecting a reward will the important rewiring takes place that will allow you
to create new habits.
4. The belief: To change your habits, you need to change your underlying belief.
8. Ex: You might feel like you’ll never be able to change the habit of studying late. This is not true. You can
actually rewire your brain
9. Joining a student community helps, either online or in real life.
10. Trust your system. You have to feel happy and worry-free when you are resting.
Weekly/Daily list:
Researchers showed that writing your daily list the evening before helps you accomplish them the next
day. If you don’t write them down, they will take the valuable slots of memory.
Plan your finishing time, this is as important as planning your working time.
Work in the most important and most disliked task first, even if it’s only one pomodoro.
Take notes about what works and what doesn’t.
Have a backup plan for when you will still procrastinate.
Focus on Process:
You should realize that it’s perfectly normal to start a learning session with a negative feeling even if you like the
subject. It’s how you handle those feelings that matters.
Solution: Focus on the process, not the product. The product is what triggers the pain that causes you to
procrastinate. Instead of saying "I will solve this task today", put your best effort for a period of time continuously
over the days.
Memory:
Use your visual memory to remember things.

Ex: Link a memorable picture to a formula.
Images help you encapsulate a very hard to remember concept by tapping into visual areas with enhanced
memory abilities.
The more neural hooks you can build by evoking the senses the easier it will be for you to recall the
concept.
Keep repeating what you want to learn so that the metabolic toxins won’t suck away the neural patterns
related to that memory. Spaced repetition is the key.
Flashcards help. Consider using Anki.
Handwriting helps you deeply convert what you are trying to learn into neural memory structures.
Memory Techniques:
Create meaningful groups and abbreviations.
To remember numbers, associate them to memorable events.

Create mnemonic phrases from first letters of the words you want to remember.
Memory Palace Technique: Use a familiar place (like the blueprint of your house) and associate visual
images of things you want to remember with physical places.
This is not easy. You’ll be very slow at first. But with practice, you’ll get better.
The more you practice your "memory muscle" the easier you’ll remember.
Week 4: Renaissance Learning and Unlocking Your Potential
You should know:
Exercising is by far more effective than any drug to help you learn better. It helps new neurons survive.
Learning doesn't always progress linearly and logically. Inevitably your brain will hit a knowledge-collapse
sometimes. This usually means your brain is restructuring its understanding, building a more solid
foundation.
You learn complex concepts by trying to make sense out of the information you perceive. Not by having
someone else telling it to you.
Metaphors
Metaphors and analogies are very helpful, not only to memorize, but to also understand different concepts.
It is often helpful to pretend that you are the concept you’re trying to understand.
Intelligence:
Intelligence does matter. Being smart usually equate to having a large working memory (more than just four
slots).
However, a super working memory can hold its thoughts so tightly that new thoughts won’t easily find a way
into the brain. Such a tightly controlled attention could use an occasional breath of ADHD. You attention
shifts even if you don’t want it to shift.
Deliberate practice is what helps the average brain lift into the realm of those naturally gifted. Practicing
certain mental patterns deepens your mind.
Brilliant scientist like Ramón y Cajal, the father of neuroscience, or Charles Darwin, were not exceptionally
gifted. The key to their success was perseverance, taking responsibility for their learning and
changing their thoughts.
Take pride in the qualities you excel at. Tune people out if they try to demean your efforts.
Right hemisphere:
Helps us put our work into the big picture perspective and does reality checks.
When you go through a homework or test questions and don’t go back to check your work, you’re acting
like a person who’s refusing to use parts of his brain.
Left hemisphere:
Interprets the world for us but with a tendency for rigidity, dogmatism and egocentricity.
May lead to overconfidence. Ex: believing dismissively that your answers are corrects.
Best practices:
Always step back and recheck to takes advantages of abilities of both-hemispheres interactions.
Brainstorm and find focused people to analyze your work with.
Your errors are sometimes easier to be found by others.
Explaining yourself to others helps you understand more.
Studying in a team helps you catch what you missed, or what you can’t see.
Don’t fool yourself. Don’t blindly believe in your intellectual abilities. Having a team can bring those
projections down.
Test Checklist:
Did you make a serious effort to understand the text? If you had a study guide, did you go through it?
Did you attempt to outline every homework problem solution?
Did you understand all your homework problems’ solutions? If not, did you ask for explanations?
Did you work with classmates on homework problems? checked your solutions?
Did you consult your instructor/teacher when you had a problem with something?
Did you sleep well the night before the test?
Test Taking Technique: Hard Start - Jump to easy: (Try this strategy with homework problems first)
1. Take a quick look at the test when it’s handed to you to get a sense of what it involves.
2. Start with the hardest problem. Pull yourself out if you get stuck for over 2 minutes. Starting with a hard
problem loads your focused mode first and then switches attention away from it. This allows the diffused
mode to start its work.
3. Turn next to an easy problem. Solves what you can, then move back to a hard one. This allows the
different part of your brain to work simultaneously on different thoughts.
Taking Test Tips:
Being Stressed before a test is normal. The body puts ups out chemicals when it’s under stress. How you
interpret the body reaction to those chemicals makes all the difference.
Shift your thinking from "I am afraid of this test" to “I am excited to do my best”.
If you are stressed during a test, turn your attention to breathing. Relax, put your hand on your stomach
and slowly draw some deep breaths. This will calm you down.
Relax your brain on the last day before a test. Have a quick final look at the materials. Feeling guilty the
last day is a natural reaction even if you prepared well. So relax.
Good worry motivates you. Bad worry wastes your energy.
Double check your answers. Look away, shift your attention, and then recheck.
5/2/2019 Guide to memorizing a book - General Memory Chat - Art of Memory Forum
Guide to memorizing a book
Bateman Aug '14
This is my guide on how to memorize a book(since everyone asks).
I will try to keep this as succinct as possible. Before reading, one should have read the getting
started guide , and be familiar with memory palaces, linking, etc.
IMHO, there are five main ways to memorize a book. Way 1: Memorize just the title and author. Way
2: Memorize title, author and the table of contents/main plot points. Way 3: Memorize a couple main
ideas and/or quotes from each chapter. Way 4: Memorize the main idea of each paragraph, along
with some complete passages. Way 5: Memorize the book verbatim, that is, every single word.
You should choose with each book you read how much you want/need to memorize out of it. How
much detail? Do you just need some quotes? Do you need some complete passages? Do you just
want to know the main plot points? Or is it only the title and author?
In this guide, we will be going over Way 2, Way 3 and Way 5. You can extrapolate how to complete
the other 2 from these.
We will be using the book “The Prince” by Niccolò Machiavelli from here .
Way 2
For Way 2, we need approximately 14 loci, since there are 26 chapters in the book(we can memorize
2 per locus), and we need a locus or two for the title and author.
First, starting off with the title and author in the first and second loci. Title: What represents “The
Prince” to you? Maybe it’s that guy from game of thrones? Maybe it’s just his crown. Or maybe, it’s
represented by the chair on the right side of the kings throne. Whatever represents “The Prince” to
you, use it and place it in the first locus. Either connected to the first image in locus 1, or just placed
in locus 2, you will have whatever you can imagine “Niccolò” as. Maybe it’s someone you know
named Nick or Nicola. Or it’s a knee drenched in cola. Either connect it to image 1, or place it in locus
2. Same thing with Machiavelli. I just imagine Tupac. Could be some politician who was described as
Machiavellian. Could be macaroni with a veil over it. Whatever comes to you first usually works best.
Moving on to locus 3, and the first chapter. It’s called “HOW MANY KINDS OF PRINCIPALITIES
THERE ARE”. It’s the same idea. Turn that into an image. For me, it’s a giant question mark with a
bunch of disjointed states each with their own prince oscillating around it. Locus 3 still(Linked to the
previous image): "CONCERNING HEREDITARY PRINCIPALITIES " King on his deathbed is giving
his prince son a “state”(Like a literal piece of a map). Locus 4: "CONCERNING MIXED
PRINCIPALITIES " Part of a state is black, part of it is white, and they’re gray in the middle, the gray
is moving back and forth.
https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/guide-to-memorizing-a-book/29853 1/9
Then you do that for the other ~20 chapters. It really is that easy. The point isn’t to follow my images,
it’s to think up of your own. I’m just giving you examples, ones that I literally came up with on the spot
in half a second. First things to pop into my head. This way, (in novels and such) you will know the
plot exactly, and the author and the book title. I recommend at the very least always to memorize just
the author and book title, you seem to retain much more, plus you get to see just how many books
you’ve read. End of Way 2.
Way 3
Main Ideas and/or quotes from each chapter. This time, you will need some more loci. Let's say we
want 3-4 ideas or quotes from each chapter. We will need ~50 loci. You can choose whether to
memorize the chapter titles or not. For this particular book, it would make sense, since they explain
very clearly what the chapter is about.
Look at chapter 5 . It’s quite a short chapter, 3 paragraphs. We can take the main idea of each
paragraph and turn it into an image. This is the same idea as when memorizing the title/chapters, but
the images will be more complex as we want to capture as much of the idea as possible.
(You have to read chapter 5 first paragraph) There are 3 boxes in the first locus. The first box is
broken in half and burning, the second is turned into a makeshift home, and the third has a smaller
green box inside of it(friendly oligarchy). The third box is also made of gold, to signify that it’s the best
choice. (Once again, this is my take, this is my example, if you think of something different, use that. )
Chapter 5 2nd paragraph(linked to the first image of 3 boxes): I imagine a man painted in the colors
of america(land of the free(but home to the largest prison population)). Someone is trying to put
chains on his hands. He succeeds for a couple seconds, and then americaman breaks the chains
and kills that man(be creative :)). (If you’re confused, Machiavelli says that once the people of a land
have been free, no matter how long ago, they will eventually rise up and destroy you)
Chapter 5 3rd paragraph(Linked or in new locus. I recommend 3 linked items per locus): In a dining
hall(with a large table, a throne for the king, small crowd, booze, etc), someone comes up to the king
and kills him. He takes his crown and sits on his throne. The people are slow to react, they don’t
know what happened. After a couple seconds though, they start clapping and cheering for their new
lord.
That’s it for Way 3. Main ideas become turned into complex images, and put into loci. This(or Way 4)
is what I recommend people do for books that are really really good. You remember the main ideas in
order, you remember what is in each chapter, what each chapter is, you know the plot, the author
and the title. What more could you want? Oh right, you want to memorize every single word of the
book… Well, that’s coming. Soon.
Way 5
(To be continued..)
Bateman
How Do I Memorize a Book?
New Member: MimKoRn - Slovakia. Music learning? Book-focused, practical.
How to memorize a 500 page book verbatim
Memorizing a Book
Which memory technique is used to memorise an entire book
Bateman Aug '14
Way 5
Memorizing every single word in a book. Or in other words, memorizing the book verbatim. I
recommend against this unless you use it for memorizing passages from books, or for idealistic
religious reasons. Normal books are simply not good enough for them to be memorized completely.
Let’s go to a chapter of Machiavelli’s we haven’t looked at yet. Chapter XXIV or you could say
Chapter 24 . It is no accident that this happens to be one of the shortest chapters in the book,
because memorizing a text verbatim takes a lot of effort.
This method requires multiple images for every sentence. Ideally, one would have one or less images
per sentence, but this text is quite verbose, with long drawn out sentences. There are only 9
sentences in this chapter, but there are over 500 words in them. We will need approximately 20 loci
for this one(shortest) chapter.
Follow the link to follow my imagery.
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p!n bl f !ju
!f bt jf s!u
p!g
pmm
px ;!àUi f !qsf wjpvt !t vhhf t u
jpot -
dbsf g
vmm
z!pct f swf e-!x jm
m
!f obcm
f !b!of x !qsjodf !u
p!bqqf bs!x f m
m
!f t u
bcm
jt i f e-!boe!sf oef s!i jn !bu
!podf !n psf
t f dvsf !boe! yf e!jo!u

i f !t u
buf !u
i bo!jg
!i f !i be!cf f o!m
poh!t f bu
f e!u
i f sf /
Sentence 1: “The previous…observed”: Following the theme of The Prince, my image for this is
someone looking through a microscope onto an image where someone else is whispering into a
kings ear. “Will… established”: Someone is holding up a will and the prince next to him is standing
very straight and “established”. “and render… seated there”: Similar image to the previous, except he
is very secure in some handcuffs and leg cuffs, and next(or in like a thought bubble or something) to
him is his older self sitting very loosely and lazily in his chair.
That’s it for sentence one. I’m not going to do the rest, I think you get the point.
The key for this and the other “Ways” to be successful is to review properly. You will want to keep
your images in mind as you recite what the sentence is. When you are reciting “The previous
suggestions, carefully observed,” you will for the whole time have the image of microscope looking at
someone whispering into kings ear. Same for everything else. For all the other ways. Recite the
sentences or titles, or summaries, or main points, everything, while imagining the images in your
head. Do this several times the first day, review the second day, the fourth day, a week later, and
then a couple weeks after that. The review schedule is vital to memorizing a book, or anything really,
successfully. Also check out posts on spaced review by looking up spaced review in the search box,
and this wiki page on it.
Feel free to add your own thoughts, and any intelligent questions you may have to the comments.
Bateman
PS: Here is the only other good guide I’ve seen on how to memorize a book. To be fair, it’s also the
only one I’ve seen period. It’s not as specific though, but mine is because people that ask are usually
fairly new to mnemonics, have just heard of them, and right away want to memorize a book.
Andromeda Aug '14
WOW this topic is great!

(Bateman has a gun to my head, someone please help me)
But, all jokes aside. This actually was a informative topic. I certainly am surprised not many people
are interested in this. But either way, thank you, Bateman. This topic actually helped me a lot.
Bateman Dec '14
Thank zpv, Lance. Means a lot.
Bateman
golfii Apr '15
Thank you, Bateman!
jay03 Apr '15
Hi Bateman. Thanks for your post it’s very helpful.
I have a question that i made a topic for it but since you wrote that we can ask questions i will copy it
here and i hope i will get an answer (It’s about memorizing ancient texts or words that you can’t find a
“picture” to associate them with):
I’ve read somewhere on the internet that people who learn ancient texts like religious texts tend to
picture the words and the pages. That means when they recall it the image that they are seeing is a
page filled with lines and dots and paragraphs. It’s not very efficient in general but for religious texts it
can be useful since they are written in a vocabulary probably not used anymore and you won’t get
the meaning but you will get the texts with you anywhere you go.
The method that memory champions are using for memorizing words is association: They associate
words with images. I know that it is very efficient and if i had to choose i would always remember by
using images and associate them with the words…
For memorization of random words, the second method is the best. But would you consider learning
with first method? Has anyone tried it? Your opinions about learning things that are hard to “picture”?
Bateman Apr '15
I would not use the first method. Maybe it’s doable for someone, but every time I tried to visualize
numbers or words as themselves, I just forget them after ~4 digits or ~2 words.
Maybe if you spent an hour a paragraph or so, then you could. But if you have that amount of time,
just read it 30 times, and you can eventually ‘say’ it. Sort of like when you listen to a song 30 times,
eventually you can just follow the train of words. It’s basically a audio-link chain. Can get broken very
easily though; it’s best to use visuals and memory palaces for structure, along with links.
Bateman
jay03 Apr '15
I am experimenting with the first method and i must admit it takes time, and the problem that i have
with this method is the CHOICE of the texts/books. Let’s say you want to learn something and picture
the words and the lines and the pages themselves: You are going to try to memorize the words as
they are written in the page and the colors and the style of writing and everything that you see
The problem that you may have is with reviewing… If you want to review the material that you are
trying to memorize you can’t do it with a book who has different size, fonts,… That’s why religious
people have their own book, and i believe that’s how people were learning books when they weren’t
easy to get.
Now, i think the problem is for those who are learning subjects like politics, medicine, law,… At the
university and want to use this method. I don’t think you can because the books are being revised
almost every year now and it’s not a surprise for me that people now really can’t remember pages of
anything, except for the smart ones who save their own version of stuff that they find useful.
I believe that it is the same method or the same way of memorizing than when you are taking notes,
and i am not saying it is an efficient way to learn. But it may be useful for those who doesn’t have the
time to actually understand the terms and concepts that they are learning because they are too many
or maybe too abstract.
Valor4Victory Jul '15
Thank you for this!! it is very insightful, works perfectly with the SQR3 note taking method.
Ingenious!!
wayweary Oct '15
Very informative :). However would have been nice to read your mental images/scence for at least 10
chapters, and how you linked it / placed it in locis, as it all happend in your brain. I mean without the
“this or that”, “either that or that”, “than link it or place it in a loci”.
More details from your process in other words. And to use a real text-book, most textbooks have sub-
chapters, how would you deal with them? Would it just be a link, i.e. last subchapter from chapter 1
leads to chapter 2. Or each part of a memory palace “belongs” to a specific chapter. So you know to
which chapter a specific part of information belongs, which transition from chapter to chapter would u
use.
SIRIO Dec '15
Hi Bateman, I’m going to memorize my neurology book, it’s 120 pages full of details, I calculated
about 60000 words and I have to know 20000 words exactly, so one third of it. I have to know a
verbatim of 20000 words.
I know loci method, ben system and pao, and I have a schedule made up of 100 images for each
method.
There are 100 chapters, about one chapter per page. These 20000 words are divided in about 10000
images (for example ‘optical nerve’ is an image).
I hope you have some advice.
Happy new year
5/2/2019 Gavino's Massive Memory Palace System - Practical Examples - General Memory Chat - Art of Memory Forum
Gavino’s Massive Memory Palace System - Practical

Examples
method-of-loci
gavino Jan '13
I have had a few messages asking for more practical examples of MMPs, so thought I would share
some responses (apologies if I ramble!) and other information on this separate thread.
Anyway, to recap on some of the MMP key points:
1. I have found that I can easily imagine a location with around five loci (see below) and with a
little help from a location that I already know (even if only slightly) I can get that up to 10 loci or
more.
2. In terms of locations that I already know (or can easily picture) that could support 5 or 10 loci,
there are literally thousands already in my memory. See later.
3. The question is, how can you utilise all of these mini-locations?
4. Answer: organise them using the MMP method, by having a base set of locations, whose only
purpose is to provide a link (or hyperlink!) to these mini-locations.
Let us assume you have already created a 100 loci journey/palace, around your house. For ease of
use, although this is not at all essential I am going to assume that you have 10 areas, each with 10
loci. So this might be front entrance/garden, dining room, kitchen, living room, back garden, 4
bedrooms and 1 bathroom.
The plan is to use these 100 loci purely to link to new mini locations, thus easily multiplying your 100
loci into 500 or 1,000 loci, depending on how carefully you want to select your mini locations.
Examples:
Front Garden has 10 loci. I quite like to have a theme for my mini-locations, but again, because you
are linking to them from your base loci, this is not essential.
1. Pick 10 of your friends and link each one to a locus in your front garden.
2. The mini-locations will be your friend’s house or anywhere that you personally relate to that
friend.
3. I think if you have been to any friend’s house, you can very easily and quickly work at least 10
loci out of it!
4. Done! Suddenly you have 100 loci instead of 10.
Dining Room.
https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/gavinos-massive-memory-palace-system-practical-examples/28098/4 1/9
If you are popular, do another 10 friends! By the way, if you have 100 friends on Facebook, as some
do, the location for each friend could be any memorable photo that they have posted and then
suddenly you have your 500 - 1,000 location MMP straight away…
But still, let us select another method here. Do you have some movies you have watched numerous
times (ideally). What you now need are 10 scenes from that movie. This is easy, because you should
find that you can remember 10-20 scenes without any prompting from a movie you love (hint: think of
the story from the perspective of what happens to each major character), but if you need help, then
go to imdb and read a detailed synopsis. That will remind you enough for sure. Pick 10 scenes where
you can imagine yourself walking around, interacting a little with what is there. Quickly pull together a
10 step journey in each location.
Final step is to simply put a link at each of the 10 base loci in your garden to that particular scene.
So, suddenly you have another 100 loci.
Kitchen:
10 locations here too. Where will you link? What about 10 areas/rooms at your school or workplace -
or perhaps you need 4 areas from your school, 2 from your university, 2 from your first job and 2 from
your second job, or whatever.
Create a 10 stage journey in each and link from your kitchen loci to each journey.
Living Room:
How about linking to your 10 favorite female celebrities and the most memorable scene you can think
of involving that celebrity?
(Example: Sharon Stone: who can forget the leg crossing scene from Basic Instinct? With no refresh
of the clip or movie, I might do this from memory for my 10 step mini-journey:
1. In front of SS
2. On left of SS
3. Behind SS
4. On right of SS
5. Hovering above SS
6. Next to main inquisitor in the audience (overweight sweaty guy)
7. Next to Michael Douglas
8. Next to Douglas’ cop friend
9. At the door of the interrogation room
10. In the corridor outside the interrogation room.
Easy. Can you picture it?)
I think you may be getting the hang of it, but finally for now, how about this? Do you by any chance
have 100 Dominic System characters? Or 100 people from the beginning of a PAO system.
Now normally I don’t recommend using DS characters as pegs, because I prefer to keep them for
numbers, but if you need a big palace fast…
1. Link your 100 DS characters to the 100 loci in your house.
2. Now simply have a memorable location for each character. As it happens Sharon Stone is my
66, but why couldn’t you do this for each of your DS characters?
Your DS characters should generally be memorable enough to get at least one decent 10-loci mini
location from each, but even if not, take Adolf Hitler who is my 18. I have no great knowledge about
him, but with very little effort I could imagine him next to a tank or delivering one of his speeches,
perhaps from a balcony, or planning his strategy in a war room with his generals. No problem getting
10 loci there a la the Sharon Stone method above if need be. [Tip: Add a jeep to the tank and you are
pretty much there!]
So, now your DS system of 100 characters, has quickly turned into (potentially) a memory palace
with 1,000 loci!
I really hope this helps and let me know what you think.
Cheers
Gavino
Gavino's Massive Memory Palace System
Need help creating a Memory palace for school
TextBook
Memorizing Nonfiction Books - would love some feedback on potential method
Med Palace System!
8 more
gavino Jan '13
Here is one I am using at the moment:
(Kids love the film - my excuse!)
Massive Memory Palace - Scenes from Carry on Camping
)Cbt f !m
pdj!bu
!pm
e!pg df *
Base loci Scene
1 Cinema nudist film

2 Camping shop
3 Mothers house & kitchen
4 Outside mothers house
5 Entrance to paradise campsite
6 Putting up tent in rain
7 Babs Coach leaves school
8 On the coach
9 In corridor at hostel
10 Terry arrives home
11 Terry and wife at home
12 Bull in field for picnic
13 Terry at farmers house with daughter
14 In tent with Mr Muggins
15 With blonde girl when drunk
16 Babs putting up tent
17 Exercises - bra flies off
18 Showers block
19 Monastery visit
20 Music festival in field
Example: 10 loci at Scene 1
Outside the cinema building

At the payment desk
Outside the door of the screening
Inside the door
Seat 1 at side - near Sid
Seat 2 at side - near girls
At front left next to the screen
At front right next to screen
In the film, playing nudist volleyball - left of net
Volleyball - right of net
Wessells Jan '13
So, what you are doing is basically just like that one pope did? He made a memroy palace as a
library for the rest of his memory palaces.
gavino Jan '13
Yes I think that is a way of looking at it, although the distinction I would make is that this method as
described is specifically creating a memory palace as a library of lots of n joj-memory palaces.
Of course there is absolutely no reason why you could not organise all of your ‘full blown’ memory
palaces with another one.
(Of course we are now in danger of hitting the risky question of whether a memory palace containing
all of your memory palaces should contain itself or not… )
duyhoa83 Jan '13
Thanks Gavino. By this way, we can utilize lot lot of loci which seems unrelated to each other, which
will build a huge librabry. Haha. Thanks a lot for your sharing.
martin.craughwell Jan '13
Wow great explaination!

I love this!
it makes creating journeys much easier
and the rooms are even more memorable
when they are scenes from your favorite films.
Rod03 Feb '13
Thanks gavino, what i just read in this masive journey system is much better than lots of other info
out there, you sharing of this was amazing…when i started to picture how to make my own i
remember a scene from the last chapters of fringe when they got to an apartment and in there they
went to a pocket universe, wich was other building, it is like watching your idea. Greetings.
ickathu Feb '13
gavino:
(Of course we are now in danger of hitting the risky question of whether a memory palace
containing all of your memory palaces should contain itself or not… )
Lociception
This is a really awesome idea. And I like the concept of using your People (DS or PAO or whatever)
as quick loci. This is good for me, because I can never remember my list of loci, but this way I can
just go through 1 at a time, starting with 00 up to 99. I think I am also going to create a memory
palace with my memory palaces in it, but I don’t know which journey I should use… I like your system
for creating a memory palace from something that has 20 or so loci into something with several
hundred.
Josh Josh Cohen Mar '13
Wessells:
So, what you are doing is basically just like that one pope did? He made a memroy palace as a
library for the rest of his memory palaces.
Do you know which pope that was?
Wessells Mar '13
It’s somewhere in Moonwalking with Einstein but someone borrowed it from me. I haven’t memorized
it so, no. Ask DoubleHelix, he knows the book pretty well.
ryanboi Mar '13
Wessells:
It’s somewhere in Moonwalking with Einstein but someone borrowed it from me. I haven’t
memorized it so, no. Ask DoubleHelix, he knows the book pretty well.
Hey man, what is the difference, in terms of memory techniques, between “Moonwalking with
Einstein” and Dominic Obrien “You can develop a brilliant memory”? Which one is better and worth
reading? Thanks
Hype Mar '13
Moonwalking with Einstein is half autobiographical, half-information, with little elaboration on how you
can apply the techniques. If you want to learn techniques “You can Have an Amazing Memory” by
Dominic O’Brien is the way to do.
Rod03 Mar '13
i think the part i liked the most was on the memory palace chapter, it gave me good hopes on make a
massive memory palace system, as described. but, ryanboi i think the info on the wiki is quite good.
guessi Mar '13
then, in short, by this method creates places within places, for example in the kitchen of my house on
top of the fridge and put a movie scenes within scenes and another 10 places…
home (10) - rooms in the house (10) -> locations of the rooms (10) -> Movies linking places of rooms
-> scenes in every movie with the comfortable seats (10) -> with each scene (10) loci
10x10x10x10x10= 100.000 loci
it´s right??..
ryanboi Mar '13
Hype:
Moonwalking with Einstein is half autobiographical, half-information, with little elaboration on how
you can apply the techniques. If you want to learn techniques “You can Have an Amazing
Memory” by Dominic O’Brien is the way to do.
Thanks for the info
ryanboi Mar '13
Rod03:
i think the part i liked the most was on the memory palace chapter, it gave me good hopes on
make a massive memory palace system, as described. but, ryanboi i think the info on the wiki is
quite good.
Thanks for the help. Yeah, I love the idea of a massive memory palace. I created a palace in The
Sims 3. Okay, maybe not a palace but a mansion with lots of rooms and each room represents
different memory palace. I also put an object in each room to act as a trigger and the object in the
room will be the first step of the memory palace that the room represents.
Wessells Mar '13
That’s a great idea to built your own palaces
ryanboi Mar '13
Wessells:
That’s a great idea to built your own palaces
Yeah man, especially when you have all the expansion packs like night life, world adventures and so
on. Its endless haha. I realised that we can also use the same concept on Sim City 2013. I dont think
I am at that stage yet, to be able to memorise whole city haha but that could be an advanced thing
PatristicFields Mar '13
Great system. I can see this as being especially useful for memorising a lot of historical information -
an initial hundred stage journey, which each stage containing a ‘mini mansion’ of 10, would represent
a whole millennium. Each mini mansion would represent a decade.
That said… I can see a little potential for confusion using it for dates. It seems intuitive to have a mini
mansion just for the 1960s, for example. But if we wanted a mini-mansion to map onto a decade
exactly, then it would seem that the first stage of the journey would actually represent 1960, whilst the
second stage would represent 1961, etc… having the digit out would be confusing. We could of
course just forget the 1960, and have the stages representing (1=1961, 2=1962… etc… 9=1969,
10=1970) But then there’s some potential for confusion to in that the start of the 70s would begin at
the end of a different journey.
Curious as to how you’d handle it?
Thanks! Again, great system… I hadn’t really thought about how many possible tiny 5 to 15 stage
journeys I have lying around which couldn’t serve to hold much substantial data on its own, but when
added together and given an artificial sequential order could really prove useful. Love it!
PatristicFields Mar '13
Also… would you say it’s best to stick to groups of 10? I could have a mini-mansion with only 6
stages - linking to stop 1 on my 'main journey - then a mini mansion with 13 stages linking to main
journey stop 2. But of course this would mean if I wanted to recall, say, stage 8 in the overall journey,
that would then be the 2nd stage of the 2nd journey. A tad confusing?
5/2/2019 What is the best way to remember things you read in books? - Quora
Joanna Jast
Updated Apr 19, 2016
I've answered this question several times before on Quora, here is what I recommend:
The key to not forgetting what you've learnt/read is to shift this piece of knowledge/data/information
from your working memory to your long term memory.
You can do it with a piece of paper and a cheap pen, or any of the fancy apps recommended below.
Here is how you need to go about:
1. Understand what's involved:
A. Here is your enemy. It's called the Forgetting Curve and it's the one to blame for all that
forgetting and not being able to recall later stuff.
You need to fight it. Actively.
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-best-way-to-remember-things-you-read-in-books 1/6
As you can see from the picture above, over 60% of stuff we learn is forgotten within 9hrs from
learning it.
B. Here is your friend - Informed Learning Process (I've just made this term up, but not really the
process).
Anything we read/see/hear etc enters our brain through senses and is recorded by
our 'sensory memory', which alerts us to the fact that something has just been registered.
Focus problems affect this stage of the process - if the stimulus is not even registered

by our attention, it's very unlikely we'll be able to recall it alter on.
The next step is to transfer the stimulus from Sensory Memory to Working Memory,

which has 7+/- 2 items capacity and can last a limited amount of time.
The final step is the transfer from Working Memory to LongTerm Memory, which is

when the learning and remembering for longer happens
Learning process comprises of three stages and interferences can happen at any of those stages:
Fight the Forgetting Curve by actively transferring what you've read/heard/seen from
your sensory> working> longterm memory
Here is how to transfer what you've read into your Long Term Memory
1. To improve transfer from sensory to Working memory improve your
attention/focus by making sure your environment does not get in the way (interruptions,
distractions, un-ergonomic workspace; manage technology), making sure your body is
comfortable (enough sleep, eating right ('brain foods') foods and in the right way (sustained
release of energy); schedule in breaks;managing stuff going on in your head (emotions,
random thoughts, etc
2. To Improve transfer from working memory> long term memory: To get what you've

read from your short-term (working) memory that lasts about 10-15s to your long-term storage (this is
the actual learning process) you go through a 3-stage process:
encoding
storage
retrieval.
To improve your ability to remember material you've read
a. Improve your encoding process: this is about your

ability to understand the material you're reading,
read for understanding; some people find highlighting and underlining key concepts and
relationships helpful but scientific evidence for that is not that strong, particularly if you
end up underlying/highlighting everything/most things
make notes that reflect your understanding of read passages, chapters
write a short summary of what you have just read; you may make some other comment
How to take notes
How to read a textbook
b) Improve your storage by creating multiple connections with your prior knowledge.
If you imagine

information you;re reading and learning being put in files, encoding is the process when you file those
files in your 'filing system'. The better your filing system (those little tags on the files on my picture
above), the easier it will be to find the piece of information you;re after:
multiple connections with prior knowledge= multiple tags=better encoding = easier to find
'creating connections'/chunking is about creating pieces of information/knowledge that

makes sense to you and that you can relate to something you already know, e.g. 'Process X is
like preparing a three-layered cake, because..' or 'Y reminds of of Z... but with W in the
middle
Here is a little more about the techniques involved: Fast and forever - an

unauthorised guide to quickly learning and remembering anything anywhere
c) Practice retrieval - using spaced repetition principles and in a variety of ways, so not just

simply recall, but also being able to apply the theory to practice, e.g.
if it's about study material/textbook knowledge: solving problems, doing old exam
questions, explaining material to others
if it's a nonfiction or fiction book and you've learnt a great tip-> put it into

practice, ideally within 1-2 days; then refresh your memory at 2-week and 2-month interval
(the notes you've made will be enough to go through
if it's a kind of a system you want to put into practice (e.i. GTD - Getting things done), do it
immediately and keep running (regular refreshers apply)
if it a phrase, a piece of poem etc.-> learn it by heart and use it within 2448
hrs (e.g. in a conversation), then again and again, closely enough to not forget (1-2 weeks'
time, and then again)more here:
The best way to remember what you are reading (about) is to take notes and then

revise them or , if it's skill-learning - put it into practice asap
I've answered similar question before:
Joanna Jast's answer to How do I read efficiently and remember more of a book?
Joanna Jast's answer to What are the best rules for reading effectively?
Joanna Jast's answer to How do I more effectively recall what I read? I can read for an hour and then I
try to recall information and I can't remember anything. What is wrong with my studying? How can I
improve my memory?
Joanna Jast's answer to How can I read and still remember what I read always?
Joanna Jast's answer to What is the best way to memorize or remember what you study/read?
I hope it helps
Joanna

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5/2/2019 Best method to memorize a textbook?

- General Memory Chat - Art of Memory Forum

Best method to memorize a textbook?

launched Jan '12

Thanks for your help!

How Do I Memorize a Book?

Phenomenal memory good or bad?

Memorizing Greek Vocabulary

Yan Feb '12

Tw1 Tw Feb '12

Yan Feb '12

Hi Tw… Thanks for the comment.

Smartings Feb '12

DaiGriffiths May '13

Gavino’s Massive Memory Palace System

gavino Jan '13

I will post more details in future.

“Separate the subject from the structure”

Why MMPS is different:

3. It is NOT just organising your existing journies

• Not enough journies

• Using colours and other attributes to multiply nested mini- locations

For more examples see this thread:

Gavino's Massive Memory Palace System - Practical

Reading time: 11 mins Likes: 7 ❤

Another 'My first Memory Palace' topic... (sorry about that...)

An approach to memorize a dictionary

Need help creating a Memory palace for school

Number of journeys needed

Med Palace System!

zyzzyva57 Jan '13

gavino Jan '13

gavino Jan '13

drsleep8 Jan '13

gavino Jan '13

Mutsu Jan '13

I hope that you understand me…

New Member: MimKoRn - Slovakia. Music learning? Book-focused, practical.

gavino Jan '13

Wessells Feb '13

anon_bot Feb '13

Installing a Book in my mind

wesselj Apr '11

Memory Palace Basics (Detailed)

Laurence Apr '11

wesselj May '11

TheNightingale May '11

samdizzy May '11

wesselj May '11

Rublev May '11

wesselj May '11

Hayden1177 Jun '14

cc477 Jul '15

I concur its not worth memorizing a whole book.

thatoldfool Aug '15

Bateman Aug '15

Jinay Sep '15

Week 1: What is Learning?

Why do we procrastinate (scientifically):

Consider using the pomodoro technique.

Learning hard and abstract things:

Summary of what I learnt: