Guide to Memorizing PAO/PA System for Beginners

Guide to memorizing PAO/PA system for beginners (like me)

Feb 2013

Damalis

Hi all,

Thought I’d write a little guide to help beginners memorize their PAO/PA systems because after taking the time to build my PAO I got a little overwhelmed with the task of learning it as I found it difficult to make in the first place and time consuming. I thought it would take ages to memorize and put it into action, so I sat down and thought about it and ended up learning it and putting it into action in just 5 hours (2 hours a day for 2 days and 1 hour on the 3rd day for review) and thought this may help some people who are facing the same difficulties.

A big THANK YOU to Dai Griffiths with his support and help since I started out and giving me the idea on how to do this.

Ok, before you start you need to have your PAO/PA system built and know your system pretty well for converting the numbers into letters, weather it be Major System or Dominic or whatever so make sure you have that done.

To start with your going to make a 100 loci journey to place your PAO/PA in and number them from 1-100 for easy recall (this will not affect your system as its just an easy way to recall your journey). You must NOT use this journey for anything else but the system so don’t go recycling it.

The way did this was break the journey into groups of 5 loci so it was easy to make and make every 5th point stand out in my mind for easy recall and to help me jump to stops on my journey easier. I used Rhodes new town and old town as my journey for a few reasons. Firstly, Greece in the home of Mnemonics, and secondly I like the idea of all the shops, bars ect being open fronted so I could walk along the streets in my head and look into my loci along the way with plenty of space to place them.

Once you have your journey made take a little time during the day recalling points at random (thats where numbering them comes in), backwards, forwards, number groups, anyway you feel like until you feel you know the journey well. I was working very long night shifts when I did this so while I was at work I just took a few spare minutes to walk parts of my journey and flip from point to point. made my night go faster too ;O)

the next day make sure you have about 2 hours free and, if like me a few of the people on your PAO/PA are not that strong an image, make sure your next to your computer, tablet.

Now your going to place your Images for your person, action and object along your journey, but your only going to do the first 50. The way I did this was do 10 at a time (doing it in groups of 10 also helped me come across any actions that where the same and correct them along the way), so first stop on my journey I place Steven Seagal - Goosing-Panda ( I use the major system for the names and arbitrary actions and objects related to that person in some way). Place that person at the first loci, picture them doing the action and picture the object. once you have 10 do a review in your head then mess about with it a little (backwards, forward ect). On your last review of the 10 go through them again, but make the letters that correspond with your system stand out clearly when you review it. repeat this process till you have your first 50 Loci filled and do a full review then bugger off and make a coffee, you deserve it!

During the day/night just mess around with this in your head, again jumping at random to different loci and recalling the person-action-(object) that is related to them. Before you go to bed go through your whole journey and make the letters stand out in your head again that relate to your system.

next day do a quick review before you do the next 50. If you have any problems recalling certain people at a loci, don’t worry, you just haven’t made the link to that Loci strong enough so get your list and place them again and maybe make them interact with the Loci and object a little better in your head.

Do the same as you did for your first 50 and don’t forget to mess around with it through the day, its fun and helps and before you go to bed, recall the 50 you just learned before you go to bed, again making each letter of your system stand out.

OK, last bit. When your up and about next day recall the whole journey again and make the letters of the system stand out again. do it a few times if you like. take a break, print of some random numbers and get using your newly memorized PAO/PA