Test Your Memory

Some college students were taking an examination just prior to their Christmas
vacation. This was an exam they hadn't looked forward to, since they knew it would be
a tough one. It was!One student handed in his paper with this remark on it: "God only
knows the answers to these questions. Merry Christ- mas!"The professor marked the
papers, and returned them to the students. One had a message on it: "God gets an A,
you get an F. Happy New Year!"IDON'Tthink you'll find the tests in this chapter
quite as difficult. Even if you do, it doesn't matter, since no one will know how
badly you do on them. In a previous chapter, I gave you a few examples
showing how conscious associa- tions are a great help in remembering anything.
Such a sim- ple aid to our memories, and yet so effective. The fact that those of
you who learned the phrase, "Never believe a lie" never misspelled the word,
"believe" again, proves their effectiveness. The more important fact that you can
retain these simple associations over a period of years, proves it still more.It is
my contention that if you can remember or retain one thing with the aid of a
conscious association, you can do it with anything else. That's my contention
and I intend24
Test Your Memory 25to prove it with you; I also intend to prove it to you.
After you've learned the methods, I'm sure you'll agree that con- scious
associations will be more useful and valuable to you than you ever imagined
they could be. If I were to tell you now, that after reading and studying the
system in this book, you would be able to remember as high as a fifty digit
number, and retain it for as long as you liked, after looking at it only once—
you would think me mad.If I told you that you could memorize the order of a
shuffled deck of fifty-two playing cards after hearing them called only once,
you would think me mad! If I told you that you would never again be
troubled by forgetting names or faces, or that you would be able to remember
a shopping list of fifty items, or memorize the contents of an entire magazine,
or remember prices and important telephone numbers, or know the day of the
week of any date—you would surely think I had "flipped my lid." But read
and study this book, and see for yourself!I imagine that the best way for me to
prove it to you is to let you see your own progress. In order to do that, I must
show you first how poor your untrained memory is. So take a few moments
out, right now, and mark yourselves on the tests that follow. In this way you
will be able to take the same tests after reading certain chapters, and compare
your scores.I feel that these tests are quite important. Since your memory will
improve with almost every chapter you read, I want you to see that
improvement. That will give you confi- dence, which in itself is important to
a trained memory. After each test you will find a space for your present score,
and a space which is to be used for your score after reading those particular
chapters.One important point, before you take the tests—don't flip through
the book and read only the chapters that you