How to Hack Your Memory with the 'Major System'

Huge thanks to Brilliant for sponsoring this video!

Ever wonder how that one kid in your school was able to memorize pi to 347 digits? This video will teach you a system that will enable you to EASILY do the same thing - as well as remember phone numbers, dates for history class, and anything else that involves numbers.

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[ryankaufman]

Remembering what numbers are associated with what letters:


0 - Looks like a wheel, which screeches and sizzles like a race car

1 - T and D both have a long vertical stroke in which a one fits

2 - flip it on its side, and it’s shaped like an N

3 - flip it on its side, and its shaped like an M

4 - lay it down and the pointy end goes right up into the bottom of R

5 - put your hand out and thumb to the side. Makes an L. 5 fingers.

6 - cursive J sorta looks like a 6. IDK go with it.

7 - put it diagonally and it fits in a K

8 - cursive F looks like 8

9 - flipped b and mirrored p look like 9

[DecodeChannel]

I have always had a bad memory, as far back as I can remember.

[stevencarney]

"Emergency services" number sequence from The IT Crowd used at 0:50. Memorised that when I was about 13, 9 years ago!

[vt_near]

This one seems beneficial if you need something committed for life, but in general, it's a bit cumbersome.

[arckocsog]

I've been using this memory system for years, just with slightly different letters. You can also use it as memory pegs and remember dozens of items for a shopping list for example.

[geico]

I use the Hearthstone technique. If two numbers match the Attack and Health of a minion from Hearthstone, I attribute those two numbers to that minion.

[EllyXia]

i feel like it is way easier for me to memorize numbers in chinese. because of the four different pronunciations, a number combination kind of has its own melody. perks of growing up bilingual :)

[michaelschweigart]

I've been doing the Major System (and other mnemonics) for years. I need to; it seems like the only way I can remember anything. I can now memorize a 200 single digit number forwards and backwards

[andrewt]

Can confirm. I have used this to memorize 100 digits of pi. It's awesome that you're making videos on memory techniques now though. Thanks!

[betty]

if you study accountancy ... you really need to remmber a lot of numbers thank you Thomas

[MrBahuba]

Theres so much dull and mind numbing content on YouTube at the moment. Its so refreshing to see something productive every once in a while on your channel. Thanks for that

[Wilpsn]

Pretty nice technique, I've got interested in memorization after trying to learn japanese. I thought it would take years to learn all 2136 joyo kanjis. And then I discovered that people learn all of them in 4 months thanks to the Heisig's Method

[shizu]

This is awesome. Today I was thinking about if I should use the major system combined with the loci-method (as I need to memorize a lot of numbers and gibberish words in a short amount of time), but I was too lazy to do so. You managed to motivate me to try out the major system now! Thanks, and great work as always!

[austinhitchy]

Hey man, i appreciate the video. i can't wait to check out more of your stuff. I started reading a book called how to learn anything in 48 hours. lol it was a little more than what i thought it was going to be. The way you talked helped me understand "smashin scope" a lot more.

[renpnal]

I don't have photographic memory, but I can remember long strings of numbers or letters by visualising them in my mind. For example, with the string of numbers you showed in the beginning, I just visualised it and now I can recall it for a while. I can keep remembering it by refreshing the visual image after few days, repeating this until I remember it without even needing to repeat it.

[UnderscoreZeroLP]

I memorised digits of pi by rote. I wrote a little python program where you have to type in the digits one by one, and if you get one wrong it pushes you back to the beginning and tells you what you got wrong.

[lilya.]

Hey Thomas! I am a med student, who has an oral exam this mid June. Can you recommend anything or can you make a video about how someone should study for an oral exam? It's so much different than a multiple choice. Next to the ways of how to recall the needed informations on the spot, there is the pressure to sit next to the professor and the fear of failing is making studying almost impossible and I need to ace this exam. I'm sure there are many more students around the world, who would be also very about this topic. And thank you so much for your videos! It helped me a lot to ace my multiple choice exams (which I didn't like before watching your videos). Greetings from Switzerland!

[RedTornado]

I love how you always upload videos at the most convenient times, like this the day before my next math test.

[AaronDut]

I can also recommed the book "How to Develop a Brilliant Memory Week by Week: 50 Proven Ways to Enhance Your Memory Skills" by Dominic O'Brian. In this book he displays multiple methods of remembering things in specific situations, like names, faces, grocery lists, etc. all with exercises.

[MrX-vkjl]

You can also read the book - "Unlimited Memory: How to Use Advanced Learning Strategies to Learn Faster, Remember More and be More Productive" in one of chapters it also covers this system or something similar, although some methods in that book maybe aren't effective (at least I think).