# Help with Memorization



## nitrocan (Aug 12, 2008)

I've learned how to blindsolve a month ago, but I am having troubles with memorizing. It takes me about 6 minutes to memorize. I'm using stickers with edges and orientation & permutation with corners. 
The problem is, I never get it correct at the first time. I memorize, then go back and double check and I just have to get it in my head. This really increases the time. I've tried images, roman rooms, journeys and they really didn't do it for me. I want to get my times down to 5 minutes. (I average 8 with 6 minutes memo, 2 minutes execution.)


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## blah (Aug 12, 2008)

You're still at the "play-safe" stage I guess. That's just how it is when you're new to BLD. When you get more experienced, BLD becomes increasingly "disposable", i.e. a DNF isn't really that big a deal anymore, that's when you start gaining speed. When your mind comes to a realization that DNFs are gonna happen anyway, whether or not you double check, you're gonna realize that double checking isn't worthwhile, and everything you memorize just goes into extreme short-term memory. At least that's what happened in my case. In fact, I don't even double check for 4x4x4 BLD anymore.

Here's how I see it: If you're gonna play safe, you're gonna get great accuracy, true, but what's the trade-off? Slow times. That's bad. Why? Because BLD isn't about consistent averages, it's about outstanding _single_ times, at least that's how it is in WCA competitions (multiBLD is another thing though). So what if you've DNFed the last 9 outta 10 solves? If your next solve is sub-minute, that's good enough to get you the WR, or any other regional record for that matter. So I say practice for speed, instead of accuracy. The more you double check and triple check, the more paranoid you get and the more confused you get, at least that's how it is for me.

Having said all that, it's still up to you  Because everything I've mentioned is just how _I_ see things, others may see it differently and you may want to adopt their opinions, yeah.


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## Nathan (Aug 21, 2008)

Yeah, im learning m2, and I'm not that good at blind anyway mostly because of my memo times which kind of suck. It's not too horrible, but I'm still in the 4 minute memo range. I'm trying to use old pochmann for corners, but I simply cant find an efficient way to memorize. I think its just faster to memo a few numbers really fast and glance at the corner orientation, and then be off. lol 

btw, i use letters for edges, and translate that into PAPAPAPA etc.


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## McWizzle94 (Aug 21, 2008)

blah said:


> You're still at the "play-safe" stage I guess. That's just how it is when you're new to BLD. When you get more experienced, BLD becomes increasingly "disposable", i.e. a DNF isn't really that big a deal anymore, that's when you start gaining speed. When your mind comes to a realization that DNFs are gonna happen anyway, whether or not you double check, you're gonna realize that double checking isn't worthwhile, and everything you memorize just goes into extreme short-term memory. At least that's what happened in my case. In fact, I don't even double check for 4x4x4 BLD anymore.



i double check but i am sub-2 minutes . i think i'm gonna start going without double checking now, because you've made a good point

btw nitrocan, just practice your memo and it will get better


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## blah (Aug 21, 2008)

McWizzle94 said:


> blah said:
> 
> 
> > You're still at the "play-safe" stage I guess. That's just how it is when you're new to BLD. When you get more experienced, BLD becomes increasingly "disposable", i.e. a DNF isn't really that big a deal anymore, that's when you start gaining speed. When your mind comes to a realization that DNFs are gonna happen anyway, whether or not you double check, you're gonna realize that double checking isn't worthwhile, and everything you memorize just goes into extreme short-term memory. At least that's what happened in my case. In fact, I don't even double check for 4x4x4 BLD anymore.
> ...





I don't double check and I'm not even sub-2! What memo method do you use? I take like 40-50 seconds for edges alone  Corners take only 10 seconds though, at most 15...


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## McWizzle94 (Aug 21, 2008)

blah said:


> McWizzle94 said:
> 
> 
> > blah said:
> ...



I'm not sure what my memo method is called, so I'm just gonna explain it the best way I can. For every edge sticker (I'm using M2 for edges), I have a letter. I memorize pairs of letters, so I end up with something like MP AL JC FH XV S. If I have an unpaired letter at the end, I know I have parity.

For corners, I use 3-cycle. I memo the permutation first using numbers, so I get something like (187362). For orientation, I memo it visually.

Hopefully I explained that well. Btw, I go in that order when I memorize, and then do that backwards when I solve


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## blah (Aug 22, 2008)

I do the exact exact exact same thing as you do. I can't describe how exact it is. From method, to letters for edges to the parity thingy to numbers for corners to visual for orientation to order of memo to order of execution, everything's the same.

So I guess I just don't practice enough. Or I suck


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## Mike Hughey (Aug 23, 2008)

blah, I'm betting that by double-checking, he means he just goes through his memory one more time to make sure he's got it. If that's what he means, I find that double-checking the memory only takes 10 seconds at the most. So you would probably almost be sub-2 already with double-checking. Also, double-checking tends to mean execution goes a little faster. Sometimes I double-check, and I'm only a little slower typically when I do.


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## McWizzle94 (Aug 23, 2008)

Mike Hughey said:


> blah, I'm betting that by double-checking, he means he just goes through his memory one more time to make sure he's got it. If that's what he means, I find that double-checking the memory only takes 10 seconds at the most. So you would probably almost be sub-2 already with double-checking. Also, double-checking tends to mean execution goes a little faster. Sometimes I double-check, and I'm only a little slower typically when I do.



well i dont really double check everything at the end, i kinda do it in the middle of everything. basically i would start memo'ing the first three pairs (6 edges total) then double check, and then the rest double check again the same way. for corner permutation i sometimes triple check because i sometimes go too fast and then forget xD. and finally for CO i just look at it for a little bit and plan the whole CO step. like Mike said, double checking can make execution faster.


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