EVERYONE should read this. My son will learn these techniques to make his life so much easier than mine was when it came to studying. This book was a life saver for me.

I planned on writing an intelligent, articulate review of this book but… now I can’t remember what I was going to say. Just kidding

I shelved this book almost seven years ago because I have been a big fan of Harry Lorayne since I was first in college in the early 90's. I learned his techniques from one of his books and used them as tricks to impress my friends and family. I didn't use them like I should have to get better grades and so I had a hard time in college.
I have discovered something with this book, Harry Lorayne only ever wrote one book on memory techniques. He has published it many times under many names and at various times but has never promised that it was updated because it is the standard program and remains the standard program since its first publication in 1957. It's still great, and it still works and it still is valuable. If you would like to train your memory this book offers the tools to do just that. Because it was published in 1974 the material relating to the dating of months is out of date itself but it can easily be recreated with an online calendar and some attention to detail. Once written out you could memorize the dates for fifteen years in the future including the present year. That is the only dated material I can think of that would need to be amended. The rest is simple enough to defy dating if you have a simple dictionary and a little knowledge of history. (Rye is a liquor and not just a bread)

I recommend this book for the entertainment value you can produce as well as the intrinsic value of being able to train your memory for the better.

كتاب مررررة حبيته ..

من فضل الكتب اللي قرأتها في هالمجال ..


يساعد فعلاً في التخلص من مشاكل النسيان وتقوية الذاكرة ، يعلمك ايش اساباب النسيان وكيف تزيد تركيزك في هالناحية ..

فادني كثير في حفظ التواريخ والأرقام ..

أنصح بقراءة هالكتاب ..

Jadi sebenarnya ini buku trik menghafal anti gagal, dilengkapi dengan implementasi di berbagai bidang. Intinya sih kalau mau menghafal sesuatu coba bayangkan visualnya dengan konsep yang paling ga masuk akal, supaya mudah diingat.
Sementara untuk angka-angka, ada padanan katanya, masalahnya kata lain tersebut kalau saya coba terapkan di bahasa Indonesia jadi agak susah (yaiyalah).

Absolutely fantastic. Beautiful techniques that you cannot (ahem... pardon the pun) forget...

Yen Liow (10/25/24)

Basically you just need the peg system. If you go through and memorize the Peg Words you’ve got the essence of the book applied to various situations. Would have been much more valuable to learn in elementary or middle school for study.

My first twelve years of school I found to be impossibly difficult. I got C’s on my report card. The only A’s I got were in physical education and Choir. Everyone who took those classes always got A’s automatically it was a guarantee. I got C’s in my other classes. I tried so very hard to get a B but the test answers just would not stay in my head for the tests. I would forget what I had studied even after studying for many hours. Therefore, I logically assumed I was just not smart.
None of my relatives had ever gone on to college to get a higher education. Most didn’t even get a high school education. I realized it was obviously because school was so “very hard”.
Just before we went back to my hometown, my couple of friends from my church prepared a farewell party for me featuring a magician.
As a climax to his show his last trick: he with lighting fast speed memorized lots of information right before my eyes.
I always like to go back and talk with magicians after their shows.
Hi, I really enjoyed your performance. I really liked your last illusion; I have never seen anyone do anything like that before. So I assume you are a real genius with fantastic mental abilities.
No, it is just a trick. Like when a magician pulls off their thumb. Nothing to it, easy as pie, anyone can do it!
It is very hard hearing “that truth being told to me once”! I have been told thousands of times that college isn’t for everyone. You have to be extremely intelligent with special mental agility that only a few have. I am fairly sure; the magician must be lying to me. I am pretty sure that this magician is just an X-man type of person with special mental abilities. For me, to do something like that will border on real magic.
The magician is now saying, I hear you are returning to your old hometown.
Yes, I am.
Just get a book on the memory trick from Bob Nelson who owns the magic shop. Do you know Bob?
He and I are good friends. I saw him once a month at the Jr. Magicians meetings.
I assure you all you will need is that one book, to be able to do the same “trick” I do.
I really wonder if what he says is true. I will never be able to do what I just saw him do. That is way above my ability. I can’t memorize anything, it is very embarrassing, let alone doing it as fast as a lightning flash.
I can’t memorize scriptures at church and I can’t even memorize the Cub Scout Oath. It is awful being me! I feel like the scarecrow in the wizard of Oz movie, you know, if I only had a brain, that’s me. Just like the rest of my family who do not even have high school educations.
When we went back to my hometown, I “opened my mind” and I got the memory book. I read just a few pages from the book. Then I tried their memory secrets.
I’ll try this with my sister. Mary Anne here is a pencil and paper. Name things you see every day and number them one at a time and write them down. I’ll turn my back so I cannot see the list. Now with your list of one hundred things call out any number from one to a hundred.
Ok, 65.
That is something big and cold, an iceberg.
Your right how can you do that!
Call out another number.
43 is a bottle of rum.
That is amazing.
Immediately after reading few minutes I am doing this memory trick. I cannot believe how easy this is and how now I can memorize lots of information with ease lightning fast. The magician isn’t a genius. It really is just a trick!
The truth he told me once: I can hardly believe this is really true!
I am going to start believing people even when I feel what they are saying couldn’t possibly be true. Basically, this is inspiring me to be open-minded; no matter what I had been told a thousand times to the contrary.
At this same period of time, Clifton Inman, a University Representative came to my home and convinced me that I should go to a private College. I decided to give it a try because I had just learned the memory trick and I thought it might work in the university setting.
So I went to the university and used the memory trick to get my first B average in my life the “first” semester. I was then offered a scholarship. My grades kept on getting higher and higher and higher. I ended up getting a six-year $420,000.00 education (today’s private university cost) M.A. degree using the secrets from the memory book.
The memory book made me seem to be a genius to the other students because they could see that I seemed to “never study”. I didn’t join study groups or study with others. I did not need to join a study group. I just got to totally enjoy college. I loved it because college was so very easy for me. Nothing to it, a piece of cake, it was absolutely positively wonderful a fantastic fun time for me! My new found mental abilities even astounded my professors.
I wonder why Professor Johnson wants to see me. He said he wanted me to come alone. I have never had a professor ask me to meet with them like this in such a clandestine manner. I wonder what he wants.
Come on in Mr. Young be seated. I have been a teacher for twenty-five years and no one has ever gotten a 100% on my "essay" final exam.
(Now he is sitting there quietly like a stone statue and staring deep into my eyes with a purposely disquieting intensity. Should I tell him the truth I used a magic trick to get the 100%? No, I have a reputation of being a genius. I got it; he is one of the best teachers, most interesting teachers in the university. Bet he'll buy this.)
Mr. Johnson, your classes are so interesting and exciting you just inspired me to study and that's why I did so well on your final exam.
(I touched the magic button. He is smiling, he believes me. It worked!)
Thank you, Mr. Young, you have a nice day.
You know I didn't have the heart to tell him I got 100% on all my final exams.
It was embarrassing when the other students asked me how I thought I did on a test we had all taken. I always knew for sure that I got every answer completely correct and accurate in every way. I would just say, I did alright and I usually got the highest grade in the class on the test.
Back in the days that I went to the Universities, there was great respect for the professors and the professors had great respect for their students.
I am a certified college professor and it is not the same in today’s institutions of higher learning. Also, the very expensive private colleges and universities had a tradition of respect and honor that seldom is seen in the much less expensive institutions of higher learning that the large majority of students attend. I never attended the less expensive state schools a few decades old. My schools were the hundreds of year old with the very best professors.
This is the truth being told to you once;
Oh, there’s Professor Hamlin he’s way across the room. He’s looking at me. He’s coming this way. I think he’s going to talk with me. I have never had a Professor walk up to me like this. I wonder what he wants. He is standing right next to me smiling a big chaser cat smile. Wonder what he is going to say.
Hello Scholar Young.
He is slowly bowing his head and just standing there with his head bowed. I wonder how long he is going to keep his head bowed. Now he is slowly raising his head and looking into my eyes with that big chaser cat smile. How are you doing Scholar Young?
I am fine, how is your day going? (At least 60 students staring at me, this is very nice but embarrassing)
Things are fine with me; look forward to seeing you in class tomorrow. See you later.
Off he goes. All the students are watching me with a feeling of reverential respect mixed with wonder.
I had several professors who “every time” they saw me, would walk out of their way to come over to where I was standing or sitting. Then they would stop, look me in the eyes and say to me, hello scholar young.
Next, they would slowly bow their head and stand quietly for a few seconds with their head down. Then they would raise their head slowly look into my eyes with a big smile and ask how my day was going. After a short conversation, they would then move on to where they were going. They never walked within my line of sight without doing this ritual honoring, even when I was sitting with other students. While they were doing this, all the students around me watched in awe. The professors never passed me without doing this physical and verbal sign of high honor because I was one of the four Greek scholars in the University. They treated all four of us the same way. We were the only students treated this way by any of the professors.
I remember my first day of Greek class.
Hello students, welcome to Greek studies. Greek is the most rigorous subject that can be studied in any University. I appreciate your courage to attempt this study. We have a major test each day because there is so much to learn. We have hundreds of Greek vocabulary words to learn each day.
It will take you a minimum of five hours per night to memorize these words for the daily tests. Until this time you have not known what true scholarship is. Look at the person to your left and the person to your right they will not be here tomorrow.
Sure enough, in a day only four students were left out of a whole regular size class because of the rigorous scholarship that would be required each night.

Imagine trying to memorize hundreds of Greek words each night.
I remember my evenings in the dorm.
Oh, there’s Joe's room, he has his little green Greek book open and is in deep study. Let’s see, it is 5:00 P.M. I think I’ll go to the music room and practice the piano.
Here I am and it is 10:00 P.M. and there is Joe again and he is still studying his Greek. Oh, I can see in his room and he is just now closing his Greek book. He has been at it for five hours. Wow, that would drive me crazy.
My three fellow Greek scholars all told me they knew I was a genius because they were each studying five hours per night in their little green Greek textbooks.
Ok time for me to study. I like standing by the window outside the Greek class before the class time. I can see the Greek class door from here. Thinking I have to go in there and take the test is just the motivation I need.
Now I look down at the word and now I look out the window up into the white chiffon clouds. Ok, I got that one, now I just repeat this identical process over and over again. I glance down and look up into the clouds over and over. Hi Joe, I can’t talk with you right now. See you in the class. Finally, finished and I have a few minutes until class time.
Brace yourself for this absolute truth told to you once. I just got finished studying the same Greek book for five minutes and I know for sure I will get a hundred on the test. I just wish people would stop trying to talk to me as they walk by; it makes it hard to concentrate.
It was so easy for me. I knew absolutely positively that after my five minutes I would get 100% on the daily tests. And I knew all this information would stay permanently in my mind without any additional study. I really did feel sorry for the other three Greek Scholars who really worked their heads off studying five hours each night.
I felt a little guilty when the professors walked up to me daily and bowed to me in front of all the other students. It really didn’t seem fair when the other three Greek scholars had to study five hours each night and me only five minutes.
My fellow students noticed that I was not studying at all for any of my classes. So they asked me how long I had been a real genius. No other student would believe me when I sincerely honestly told them the truth once. I had simply read a book called the memory book and it was just a magic trick anyone can do.
Even my fellow Greek Scholars would not believe: the truth told to them once: it was just a trick anyone can do with ease, I told them over and over again. No matter what I said my fellow students had convinced themselves that I had to be a real genius.
Finally, I just gave up telling them the truth once and let them think what they wanted to. Remember the first law of real magic: People would rather believe a lie told to them a thousand times than the truth told to them once!
I found people are not opened minded. They have been lied to a thousand times and are convinced the lie is true. It is such a shame. The good life so close but so far; if they would have just believed the truth I told to them once. They could have had full tuition scholarships and enjoyed their university social life like me.
They had evidently been told thousands of times that there are real geniuses and figured I must be one of them.
Now, something really astounding did happen as I advanced on in my university studies. It blew my mind! After all, I was the wizard of Oz scarecrow C student all through my first twelve years of school. Coming from a family where most of my relatives did not get a high school education.
Here is again the truth being told to you once:
I remember when it happened. I am listening to the Dr. Rippy and I just realized I forgot to take notes on his lecture. What am I going to do? All my fellow students just walked out the door. I don’t want to tell Dr. Rippy how stupid I was to not take notes. Let me see, what was it; he was saying. Oh, I remember he was talking about the formula for changing a person’s frame of reference. You know I remember that complicated formula. He also talked about the different ways we can help people: by offering help, by indirectly helping them through their peers and you know I remember every single detail. I don’t need to take notes, it just all stayed in my head.
Let me try reading our textbook. Now I close it. I remember every word in what I just read every single word. This is amazing and I am not using the secrets in the memory book. I am remembering everything. This must be what it feels like to be a real genius! Wow, this is really weird, a good weird, but nevertheless weird as it can be. Me, Mr. dumb scarecrow with no brain and now a real genius from reading a book; hard for me to believe, dare I say: Real Magic!
Eventually, in my master’s degree study, I was able to “stop using” the secrets in the memory book. I found, I still easily got 100% on my final exams. It got so I could just set in the class and automatically remember every single detail of the professor’s lectures. I got so I could read a book and remember everything I read after one reading.
It was amazing how the memory book actually transformed me into a real genius with real magical super mental powers. It seemed like real magic that I liked very much. It made college so much fun, so inexpensive and it gave me so much free time to just enjoy my University social life.
You want a free almost half million dollar education; get, read, and use the secrets in the memory book, I did.
Here’s something for you to think about. There are many students using this book and they keep it a secret. They are your competition for scholarships. It is hard to compete with people who get 100% on all their tests.
By the way I not only got full tuition scholarships, but all my books and electronic equipment were also paid for with scholarship funds. My food was free and my housing was also free.
Will you believe the lie told to you a thousand times, or the truth told to you once, I wonder? This book worked for me Mr. no brain, it will probably work for you.

The way it's written is quite old fashioned, long winded, and utterly boring. I couldn't finish it.

A great way to remember stuff.

This book offers some good tips and drills for remembering all manner of information. Some of the drills do require practice so be warned!