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  • ok I'm going to go ahead

  • and start this workshop is called more memory tricks and i know some of

  • you were here

  • last week at the regular memory tricks

  • if you weren't

  • you'll be able to catch on to this i think very quickly anyway but i have so

  • many memory tricks that it's hard to

  • uh...

  • cover them all in one workshop so we're going for two uh... these are the four

  • things that i'm a going to talk to you about today this one is really quick and then

  • we're going to spend a lot of time on these next couple

  • uh... last week for those who were here one thing that you should remember

  • is that um...i taught a couple of math tricks at the beginning of the workshop

  • and that was not designed to teach math

  • it was designed to just show you the power of tricks in knowing shortcut

  • ways to do things

  • and so uh... i'm gonna show you one more math trick and now as just a little

  • warm up

  • this is nothing you need to write down or anything but again it's to show you

  • something about again the power of tricks

  • so if i ask you

  • to do a problem

  • like that

  • nine divided by point two five

  • what you would need to do in order to solve that would be

  • to do this

  • and then this and then you have to move the decimal point over and just do the

  • whole thing

  • if you know the basics of how to do it it's not that hard it just takes a

  • little while to kind of process through

  • but if you know the trick you can do it in about one second

  • without having to do any of this and that is

  • whenever you have a math problem where you have a number divided by point two

  • five

  • that's the exact same as multiplying it by four

  • which is a lot easier than the other

  • so here's your math question for the day what's nine times four

  • thirty-six ok and if you had done

  • all of this

  • and all that and done it... you would have come up with the same answer it would have

  • just taken you are a lot longer

  • and so six divided by point two five would be

  • twenty-four right six times four

  • and the fact that you can do that once you learn this in about one second

  • doesn't mean that you're any smarter then you were when you came in here in

  • math it just means that you know the shortcut again the trick

  • and so with the goal of last week's workshop and this week

  • is to show you some applications of how you can use tricks to make your memory

  • absorb more and do better on tests as a result

  • and that's what these three are going to be all about okay

  • so whether you follow that completely or not doesn't particularly matter for our

  • purposes today but

  • what i wanted to do first

  • in terms of uh... actual teaching

  • has to do with mental pictures and uh... quick uh... recap for those who were not

  • here last week just so that you have an idea of what we're doing

  • i explained last week that one of the best memory tricks you can have

  • is learning how to close your eyes and getting a picture of something in a

  • certain way and then it

  • sticks

  • that kind of glues into your brain and you remember it

  • all of us have imagination all of us can close our eyes and see things

  • but two of the qualities of a good mental picture that i gave last time

  • that you need to be aware of

  • for what we're about to do right now is that if the pictures are really

  • stupid and bizarre

  • you remember them better and so everything i'm about to do with you is

  • gonna seem to be pretty stupid

  • and that usually sounds bad but in this case it's going to be good i'll show you

  • the other one

  • is that you very often have to involve play on words which means

  • rhyming words other words that sound similar to be able to see things in

  • picture form and again i'm gonna show you specifically how to do this now

  • now if you are very tired today

  • i'm extremely nervous about what's going to happen in the next couple of minutes

  • because i'm gonna ask you several times

  • to close your eyes

  • and get a picture of something that i'm describing and i want you to do that i

  • don't want you to sit there and kind of

  • stare at me i want you to close your eyes

  • but then when i'm done you need to open them

  • and so if you're really tired i don't hear snoring anywhere in the room so

  • hopefully we'll be ok with this

  • what i'm gonna teach you is going to actually require no note-taking

  • whatsoever so usually i like people to

  • write down some things that i teach that they find helpful but for the next

  • five minutes or so

  • i don't want you to write

  • anything down

  • it kinda defeats the purpose of this

  • i'm gonna teach you something that i'm going to test you on at the end of the

  • workshop

  • and i think if you do this the right way you're going to be shocked at how easy

  • it is for you to memorize what i'm about to show you without writing it down

  • without doing anything like that at all so

  • again i want you to just uh... follow my direction and when i have you close your

  • eyes

  • i want you to close your eyes

  • and the big thing remember is i don't want you to try

  • to close your eyes and listen and remember what i'm saying

  • because you won't

  • i want you to see the pictures that i'm describing and if you see them clearly

  • you're gonna remember them later okay so here is the strange little teaching

  • here

  • i'm gonna teach you twelve names of

  • streets that are all in the long beach area you'll probably recognize most of

  • these streets

  • three of them are in group a

  • three in b three in c and three in d

  • when i give you a test at the end of the workshop what i'm going to expect you to

  • do is when i give you the name of a street

  • i expect you to know which group it's in

  • and a lot of times when you have many things to learn it's easy to get 'em mixed

  • up and in the wrong groups but if you do this right

  • you're gonna be perfect at the end and sort of surprised again at how well this

  • worked

  • so here's the first uh... picture ok we're gonna end up with several pictures

  • here

  • we're going to use

  • this sound alike word hay

  • okay everybody i think knows what

  • hay looks like whether it's

  • a big bale of hay or like loose hay or straw that's a picture i want you to get

  • and i have a little visual aide here

  • just to kind of make this a little bit even easier for you

  • the first street in group a

  • is

  • this one

  • which is

  • market ok so this is the first part of the first scene again just follow me with

  • this even if it seems weird

  • you'll find in the end it works i want you to close your eyes

  • and i want you to get a picture of

  • the market the supermarket and you're walking down the aisle with your cart

  • shopping

  • but everywhere you look on the left and the right

  • on the floor in front of you there's hay

  • stickin' off the shelves

  • bales of hay in front of you you have to even swerve your cart around

  • so i want you to really see that again don't just listen to the words but try

  • to get that picture in your mind

  • okay now you can open your eyes

  • i'm gonna show you something cuz otherwise you wouldn't get this

  • as you're going down the aisle

  • all these people are there

  • nothing unusual about that except they're not shopping their standing

  • there kind of blocking your way and every person you're looking at

  • has something in front of their face you can't really see their face at all

  • and what they have what they're doing is they're reading magazines

  • while they're standing there in the market

  • go ahead and close your eyes and this is where i want your imagination to work

  • i want you to imagine all these people in front of you

  • standing there reading magazines and i want you to even read

  • the cover of the magazine in other words

  • what magazine is it that they're reading really be specific about it 'cuz that

  • helps

  • so kinda get that picture in your mind

  • okay and then you can open your eyes and

  • what street is that supposed to help you remember well this is one of these

  • weird tricks that actually works it may sound a little bit odd it's for

  • this one magnolia

  • what does that have to do with what i just described

  • well just this part

  • the mag as in magazine

  • if i ask you to close your eyes and get a picture of a magnolia tree

  • could you do that

  • uh... maybe a few of you but i have no idea what that looks like so i can't

  • really get a picture of it but a magazine