Memory Methods

[Mike Hughey]

I have one rather odd thing I use for memory that I've never heard of anyone else using, and while it's probably not useful to anyone who isn't already very familiar with hexadecimal, I thought I'd mention it in case it's useful to somebody else out there.

I use 3-cycle (learned from Macky's website). I'm able to memorize and execute orientations very quickly (for me, anyway) by using hexadecimal to memorize them. I use one bit for each position for edges, which requires 3 hexadecimal digits - one digit for top face, one digit for middle layer, and one digit for bottom face. Then I use 4 hexadecimal digits for corner orientation - 2 digits (one for top face, one for bottom face) for those that need to go counterclockwise, and 2 for those that need to go clockwise. So it's just 7 hexadecimal digits for the entire orientation, and I find hexadecimal easier to memorize than decimal because of the letters. Many times the patterns make a word or some other thing that's easy to remember. And it's nice for the corner orientations if you're good with hexadecimal, since you can just count the bits to see if what you've memorized is really legal or not - they either have to be the same or off by a multiple of 3 bits. After a while of using this, you quickly get to where you can just glance at the edges or corners and instantly recognize them as a particular hexadecimal digit, and that's where it gets really fast.

[Karthik]

Thats a very cool method!!
Since I memorize CO last and remember it visually I dont even need 4 out of those 7 hex digits.So for orientations all I have to do is remember 3 hexadecimal digits!!
I guess people with a little mathematical inclination will find this awesome!

[HelloiamChow]

I use numbers for EP, chinese numbers and tapping the pieces for CP, tapping pieces for EO, and tapping pieces for CO. Yeah, I rely a lot on tapping pieces. I'm working on some pictures for me to remember too, to back up all my numbers.

[pjk]

I have switched to a new way for me to memo. I first memo EP just visually. Then I memo CP by repeating the first 4-5 digits of the cycle, and then the rest I memo visually. I memo EO, and finally CO all visually. Memo'ing EO and CO takes me like 5-10 seconds max normally. I memo the entire cube around 90 seconds on avg.

[aznblur]

How would you memo 2-cycle where EP and EO are done at the same time (Stefan Pochmann's 2-cycle)?

[joey]

You can use the same methods that people are using. You can do visual, or you can use a letter/number scheme. Except each piece has two numbers/letters, one for each orientation.

I would say that a non visual memory for pochmann would lend itself to bigger cubes aswell.

[pjk]

How would you memo 2-cycle where EP and EO are done at the same time (Stefan Pochmann's 2-cycle)?

I would use images. I was doing this before I moved to 3 cycle. Assign an image to all 22 shoot locations, and memorize a story with those images to create the cycle. I can be done extremely fast with practice.

[tim]

After a few experiments i want to describe my problems/experience with memory methods:

I switched from 3-cycle to M2, because my memorization times were really bad, so i had to learn some kind of memory method. I think a memory system based on images needs a lot of practice for people using 3-cycle to be as fast as memorizing pure visually, because you have to encode 3 images (or whatever you've memorized). So i decided to give M2 a try, where you need only one image at a time.
At first i used a pure journey system. I placed one image at one location. After a few tries, i noticed that it took a long time to link my image and my location together. I also had the problem, that M2 requires you to keep track of the m slice's position. So i tried to use 2 images per location. That was even harder to memorize, because i had to invent a mini story, to memorize the order of the two images. It was all very frustrating and i didn't want to practice that much, to become fast at memorizing two images at one location.
So i gave a 'story system' a try. I link my images together by making a funny story. And it was fast from the beginning (i needed less than 2 minutes for memorizing and executing edges the first time. That's almost as fast as my times with 3-cycle + visually memorization). So i think that's the system to go, but i have the m slice problem again. I have to know if the m slice is "correct" or not. At the moment i try to count (not really count, but saying "true", "false", "true", ... after each piece), but that distracts me too much and i can't look ahead well. Do you guys have any idea how to keep track the status of the m slice? I also thought of counting while memorizing in order to memorize the pieces at the m slice (UF, DB) how i'll have to execute them and not what their "real" target is. So i wouldn't have to think while executing. What do you think?

And thanks Daniel for your advices and sharing your experience .

[hait2]

After a few experiments i want to describe my problems/experience with memory methods:

I switched from 3-cycle to M2, because my memorization times were really bad, so i had to learn some kind of memory method. I think a memory system based on images needs a lot of practice for people using 3-cycle to be as fast as memorizing pure visually, because you have to encode 3 images (or whatever you've memorized). So i decided to give M2 a try, where you need only one image at a time.
At first i used a pure journey system. I placed one image at one location. After a few tries, i noticed that it took a long time to link my image and my location together. I also had the problem, that M2 requires you to keep track of the m slice's position. So i tried to use 2 images per location. That was even harder to memorize, because i had to invent a mini story, to memorize the order of the two images. It was all very frustrating and i didn't want to practice that much, to become fast at memorizing two images at one location.
So i gave a 'story system' a try. I link my images together by making a funny story. And it was fast from the beginning (i needed less than 2 minutes for memorizing and executing edges the first time. That's almost as fast as my times with 3-cycle + visually memorization). So i think that's the system to go, but i have the m slice problem again. I have to know if the m slice is "correct" or not. At the moment i try to count (not really count, but saying "true", "false", "true", ... after each piece), but that distracts me too much and i can't look ahead well. Do you guys have any idea how to keep track the status of the m slice? I also thought of counting while memorizing in order to memorize the pieces at the m slice (UF, DB) how i'll have to execute them and not what their "real" target is. So i wouldn't have to think while executing. What do you think?

And thanks Daniel for your advices and sharing your experience .

i don't know much about the m2 method, but this seems like an elegant solution that i would use
when memorizing your images, you could switch between day/night as a background, corresponding to the location of the M slice.
it would be easy i guess if you link your images to the state of time ( i don't know what images you use so i can't really help with specifics)

just an idea =)

[Jack]

I have been trying M2 for with 3 cycles for corners recently, and parity was easy to recognise because I would solve the corners first and know whether there was one by seeing if the corners had parity first.