Ever come across memory courses and schools that promise an instant memory boost?
Not so fast! Before you sign up, read on.
Quite frankly, you’ll be losing money if you go after (tempting) memory tricks like how to develop a “photographic” memory.
Truth is, you’ll end up not using your memory power to the fullest potential.
But, how do you tell the best memory training schools and courses apart from the rest?
In this article, I’ll reveal the world’s best schools and courses for memory training. This includes a powerful, magnetic way to supercharge your memory so you can learn everything important faster and recall it easily, anytime.
Here’s what I’ll cover:
Why Are Memory Courses Beneficial?
Memory courses are important because they can train you to remember and recall information, as well as keep your brain sharp.
Even a memory champion needs training to be in top form during a contest.
And anybody can learn memory strategies to remember and recall information like a champion. A 2017 study revealed that practicing mnemonic techniques can actually alter connections in your brain to make it resemble that of a memory champion.
Now, you may not want to become a memory champion. But, there are many other everyday benefits of memory or brain training.
- Memory training helps you retain and store memories a lot quicker than you generally would. So, you’ll no longer face memory problems like forgetting your car keys, or the crucial formula for your maths exam.
- It stimulates the neurons in your brain — making it much simpler for your brain to form connections when exposed to new information, say, in a dull history class.
- It improves your problem-solving skill, making it easier for you to respond to situations aptly. For example, working memory training has been proven to help children who struggle with math problem solving.
- Memory training helps filter out information selectively instead of memorizing everything you see, read, or hear.
- It fires up your overall memory and intelligence. This includes your working memory skills, short- and long-term memory, executive function, fluid intelligence, and creativity.
Let’s take working memory as an example.
Poor working memory has been found to be a common feature of educational underachievement.
It is also one of the characteristics of people with Down Syndrome, those with dyslexia or learning disabilities, and those who’ve suffered a brain injury.
How does memory training improve your overall working memory performance?
Memory training improves both of the working memory subsystems — the “sketchpad” that stores visual and spatial information, and the phonological loop that is the verbal working memory. This means you won’t have to worry about losing focus on your studies or research due to distractions.
Consistent memorization training or memory training exercises will help you fight your fears of Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia. A 2010 study showed that it improves brain function in older adults who have started displaying signs of dementia.
What should you look for in a memory course or school?
Look for training that contains focused approaches, without the fluff that seems to fill many memory performance books and video courses.
At the bare minimum, they should offer you plenty of systematic worksheets, working memory tasks, visualization exercises, memory exercises, and detailed guides on each technique — all explained in simple terms you can understand.
Some of the best memory courses and schools inspire you by covering brain training techniques from around the world. You’ll come across exciting insights on:
- How Chinese mnemonist Wang Feng memorizes a deck of cards
- How Matteo Ricci’s memory palace helped him to pass China’s civil service exam
- The Mnemonic Major System used by French scholar Aimé Paris
- How Mongolia uses mental athletics as a nation-building exercise
- And more
So, what memory courses and schools can you trust to give you the best results?
Best Schools and Courses For Memory Training
I’ve handpicked some of the best memory schools and courses that will sharpen your memory power. Let’s look at each of them in detail.
Magnetic Memory Method
The Magnetic Memory Method was launched… by yours truly! I’ve taught thousands of students and worked as a memory coach and adviser to top ESL instructors and language school administrators worldwide.
The Magnetic Memory Method is an incredibly powerful technique that will help you improve your memory in as little as eight days.
It’s a practical and fun approach to using Memory Palaces, mnemonics, and other memorization techniques to store and retrieve all kinds of information you want to remember later.
It can help you easily learn a foreign language, memorize names and faces, speeches, and specialized terminology from professional fields like law.
How does a Memory Palace work?
Memory Palace is a powerful mnemonic technique that was used by the Greeks, and by geniuses like Hannibal Lecter and Sherlock Holmes.
It is based on associating information to real locations that are familiar to you — your home, school, office, a mall, etc. You walk through the place in your head, and associate memories with different parts of that location.
For example, if you were to associate the room you’re in with names of your neighbors, you’d store names starting with A on the drawer, those with B on the ceiling, and so on. You could associate vivid visual imagery with these names, helping aid your visual memory.
When you need to remember something, simply go back to your memory palace and look it up.
When you build memory palaces, you unlock your spatial memory and visual working memory. This provides a foundation for working with your semantic, episodic, autobiographical, procedural, and other types of memory.
Combined with Recall Rehearsal, this process lets you move information from short-term memory into long-term memory quicker, and with reliable permanence. The more you do retrieval practice (conscious recall), the more you reconstruct the memory and encode it deeper in your brain.
What’s more?
All other memory techniques can be used inside Memory Palaces (but not the other way around). This maximizes the power of the loci method and combines well with the pegword method.
Mongolian Intellectual Academy
The Mongolian Intellectual Academy was founded by Khandsuren Khatanbaatar, who came across competitive memorization while studying law in Turkey.
His interest soon turned into an obsession. Later, he got trained under Melik Duyar – the co-founder of the Memoriad games – who the Turkish media refers to as “the man who forgot to forget.”
Khatanbaatar returned to Mongolia to start the Mongolian Intellectual Academy. The institute is now known to test the limits of students with training and exercises like reading at 1,500 words per minute, memorizing a deck of cards in 20 seconds, or multiplying seven-digit numbers without a calculator.
The academy focuses on improving the overall brain function and memory of students. They rely on many exercises, including Rubik’s cube practice or a simple training task like speed stacking, to help students become memory experts.
In an interview, a student revealed they even have a kindergarten that teaches basic memory techniques and mental calculation.
Thanks to its unique approach to teaching, Mongolia reigns supreme in mental athletics competitions across the globe. There are as many as eight Mongolians in the list of top 10 junior competitors for mental athletics. In the Asia Championship 2019, Mongolia’s memory athlete team won 67 medals out of 90.
Durrington Research School
The Durrington Research School in the UK is part of the Research Schools Network. Their cognitive training courses follow a holistic approach and cover everything about memorizing, retention, and teaching strategies.
Durrington’s program on improving memory and metacognition explores the research-based evidence behind memory training and how to make it useful in a classroom.
It covers:
- Teaching methods that can improve memory recall
- Strategies to enhance the depth and scope of student knowledge through better curriculum planning
- Effective revision strategies
- Techniques to prepare students for content-rich exams
- Practical recommendations to make metacognition and self-regulated learning useful for teachers
It aims to design lessons, tasks, and policies to help students retain knowledge and develop their metacognitive processes. This is especially useful for primary and secondary teachers.
Brain Academy
The Brain Academy by Gregory Caremans has several courses that are focused on developing memory and learning. You’ll also find plenty of videos, blog posts, and insights on how your brain works.
The Ultimate Guide To Memory And Learning Skill course dives into how your memory works and evolves over your lifetime. It also shows you how to stimulate your brain as you age — through childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and old age. The lectures include theories on memory, memory exercises, and plenty of tips.
There are other courses on:
- A step-by-step guide to explore your brain
- An introduction to cognitive neuroscience
- Strategies to improve your focus and attention
- Neuroplasticity and how to rewire your brain
- How to stimulate your neurons
- Neuroscience for parents
Finally, let’s look at a few other options.
Other Courses
Here are a few more that are definitely worth a mention:
Cogmed Working Memory Training
The Cogmed Working Memory Training was designed by cognitive neuroscience experts and psychologists from the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm.
This working memory training is a software-based intervention that uses visuospatial and verbal tasks to challenge your working memory capacity.
You get a training protocol specific to your requirements and tackle one training task at a time on a rotating schedule. The working memory task adapts to your capacity level in real-time, according to the working memory and neuroplastic changes that may occur over time.
The training that lasts 5-10 weeks also contains working memory exercises put together by leading neuroscientists and psychologists. You can view everything on this Cogmed training online, and it gets monitored and analyzed by a coach.
Pmemory
Pmemory is an online course developed by Ruslan Mescerjakov that promises to help you memorize 60 times more and learn 10 times faster.
The course consists of 60 lessons each with exercises and is broadly divided into:
- Basic training on memory exercises with details on memory techniques
- Learning how to memorize 25 types of information, including telephone numbers, names, and formulas, and how to retrieve them selectively from your memory
- Memorization of foreign words and phrases
- Memorizing books and complicated texts
- Memorizing codes and passwords
Memory Courses on Platforms like Coursera and Udemy
Online education platforms like Coursera and Udemy offer a few memory courses that you can do online at your own pace.
Some of them are:
- Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects by Dr. Barbara Oakley, McMaster University; on Coursera
- 10X SUPERHUMAN Learning: Speed Reading & Memory Booster by Silviu Marisk; on Udemy
- Biohacking Your Brain’s Health by Karima Benameur; on Coursera
- Become a SuperLearner® 2: Learn Speed Reading & Boost Memory by Jonathan Levi and others; on Udemy
- How To Remember Everything by Tom Weber; on Udemy
- Learning to Learn [Efficient Learning]: Zero to Mastery by Andrei Neagoie; on Udemy
Now it’s time to choose!
Power Up Your Brain the Magnetic Way!
It’s essential to sharpen your memory and brainpower, especially as you age. Memory courses and schools are an excellent way to help you with that. But remember, stay clear from those who promise tricky 30-minute or 1-hour memory transformations!
For the most effective memory training, try building Memory Palaces using the Magnetic Memory Method. It will help you remember and recall all that you need, when and where you need it.
Sign up for your free training today.
