# Memo training for speed using a metronome. (Extract from NYT article)



## toastman (Feb 27, 2011)

Good evening folks,

Was browsing slashdot earlier today and they had a thread on memo (Don't bother reading, they're just going over the old stuff http://science.slashdot.org/story/11/02/24/0351254/Secrets-of-a-Memory-Champion), 

Linking to an NYT article actually written by a serious competitor at the US Memory Championships (http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/02/20/magazine/mind-secrets.html Worth a read if you're a fan, not worth a read if you already know who e.g. Dominic Pridmore is).

Now, there's a paragraph or so on training "Speed-cards", as in, memorising a deck, or two, of cards as fast as possible. IIRC the world record is 21 seconds. For the record, that's about the entropy of 3-and-a-bit cubes. Cards is going to be faster, as they're more of them, and you can "scan" a deck of cards faster than a cube.

Now here's what they say about training methods:

_In other words, regular practice simply isn’t enough. For all of our griping over our failing memories — the misplaced keys, the forgotten name, the factoid stuck on the tip of the tongue — our biggest failing may be that we forget how rarely we forget. To improve, we have to be constantly pushing ourselves beyond where we think our limits lie and then pay attention to how and why we fail. That’s what I needed to do if I was going to improve my memory.

With typing, it’s relatively easy to get past the O.K. plateau. Psychologists have discovered that the most efficient method is to force yourself to type 10 to 20 percent faster than your comfort pace and to allow yourself to make mistakes. Only by watching yourself mistype at that faster speed can you figure out the obstacles that are slowing you down and overcome them. Ericsson suggested that I try the same thing with cards. He told me to find a metronome and to try to memorize a card every time it clicked. Once I figured out my limits, he instructed me to set the metronome 10 to 20 percent faster and keep trying at the quicker pace until I stopped making mistakes. Whenever I came across a card that was particularly troublesome, I was supposed to make a note of it and see if I could figure out why it was giving me cognitive hiccups. The technique worked, and within a couple days I was off the O.K. plateau, and my card times began falling again at a steady clip. Before long, I was committing entire decks to memory in just a few minutes.
_

Interesting.

So, the idea is, say your memo is currently 30 seconds, i.e. a sticker every 1.5 seconds on average (or 40 per minute). Set a metronome to 120% * 40 = 48 BPM and try and "memo" one second per click. You will stuff up. You will often stuff up, but apparently, you'll get faster. Probably no need to solve the cube at the point (as your memo is going to be wrong), simply apply another scramble (even hand scramble) and go again.

So, let's give it a shot. Just tried 5 times at http://www.webmetronome.com/ (because I suck and it goes down to 1 bpm). I like it. Seems I still need help with the whole "White / Blue, That's ..... A, Look at UB, That's Green-Red, That's ............. F, Look at FR, it's Orange Yellow, that's...... L" process. I do sets of 6, so it's A-B-C-D-E-F-Create_image_jam_into_location. Obviously on that part (and if you have to break into a new cycle) is going to take longer.

Interesting idea at least.

Let's try a solve without the metronome. (1st attempt, gave up, horrible scramble. 2nd attempted, stuffed up during memo), 3rd attempt, Memo in 3:56... Which is 20-30 seconds better than normal. Execution in 3:16. Unforunately that was a DNF (I forgot to do parity and 2 other corners were stuffed), but a full minute better than my PB. Conclusion: Far too early to tell ~ But yeah, it pointed out a weakness (colour-letter, as opposed to position-letter), which I suppose I could train using flashcards or something if I wanted to.

Anyway, it's 4am and far too late to be practicing BLD, especially as I still have to go to work in the "morning". I don't give a duck. BLD rules!


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## mr6768 (Feb 27, 2011)

interesting. I may try it one day
thanks for sharing anyway


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## porkynator (Feb 27, 2011)

Very interesting, I knew the only way to get faster was going fast without caring about DNFs (indeed, my accuracy is about 30-40%), but I'd never thought about using a metronome.
(O.T.: 21 seconds for 52 cards? that's just insane... it takes me 15 minutes only for 40 cards)


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## ben1996123 (Feb 27, 2011)

Am going to try. So... my 3x3 memo is ~1:20, so 1.2 * 15 stickers per minute = 18bpm? Sounds about right.

EDIT: Doesn't work at all, since I have no reviewing time.


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## danthecuber (Feb 27, 2011)

http://www.speedsolving.com/forum/s...ing-Plateaus-why-normal-practice-isn-t-enough


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