How Good is YOUR Memory?

Pride yourself on your impeccable ability to remember names and faces? An eight-time world memory champion has created five simple tests to analyse how astute your brain really is.

Dominic O’Brien, who won the title of World Memory Champion two years in a row, and also holds two Guinness records for memory, has penned a book detailing how to improve your memory.

In it, he begins by asking readers to take five quick and easy tests to assess how good their recollection ability is. Take out a pen and paper and put your memory to the test with his five-step assessment.

Test 1: WORDS

Allow yourself three minutes to study the following list of 20 words.

Time to buy old US gold coins

Write down as many words as you can recall. The order is not important.

Score one point for each word you can recall correctly, then move on to the next test.

THE WORDS TO STUDY AND REMEMBER 

TREE, TIME, FACE, PIPE

CLOCK, MOUSE, ENGINE, PLANET

THUNDER, NECKLACE, WARDROBE, CATERPILLAR

GARDEN, TREACLE, PICTURE, HARNESS

SLEEP, APPLE, OCEAN, BOOK

TEST 2: Number Sequence

Study the following sequence of 20 digits for three minutes. In this test the order is important.

In your notebook write down as many numbers in the correct sequence as you can before a mistake is made.

Score one point for each correct digit. This is ‘sudden death’: in other words, if you recall all 20 digits but the fifth digit is incorrect, your score is four.

THE SEQUENCE TO STUDY AND REMEMBER 

5 0 3 6 7 4 4 0 9 2 8 2 0 5 7 6 7 1 2 9

Read the Whole Article