The Memory Palace Technique: A Student’s Guide
· 3 min read
A memory palace, also called the method of loci, is a technique where you imagine a place you know well and leave vivid images of the things you want to remember at points along a route through it. To recall them, you walk the route in your mind. It is excellent for ordered lists and awkward facts, and less useful for understanding ideas.
Where it comes from
The technique dates back to ancient Greek and Roman orators, who used it to deliver long speeches without notes. Today it is the main tool of competitive memory athletes.
It is not only for experts. In a 2017 study in the journal Neuron, Dresler and colleagues trained ordinary people in the method for six weeks. Their recall of word lists more than doubled, and the improvement was still there months later.
How to build a memory palace
Start small. Ten stops is enough for a first try.
- Choose a place you know well: your home, your route to campus, your school.
- Pick a fixed route through it, and ten distinct stops along it, such as front door, coat hook, kitchen table.
- Turn each item you need into a vivid image. Exaggerate it, animate it, make it strange.
- Place one image at each stop, imagining it interacting with that spot.
- Walk the route in your head, then try to recall the list without looking.
Try this: Odd beats neat. A giant mitochondrion jogging on your treadmill is easier to remember than a small diagram on the shelf.
What to use it for
The method shines when order matters or when items have no natural connection.
- Steps in a process, such as stages of mitosis or a legal test.
- Ordered lists, such as the cranial nerves or historical events.
- Key quotes for literature exams.
- The structure of an essay you plan to write.
Where it does not help
A memory palace stores items. It does not help you understand why mitosis has those stages or how to apply a legal test to a new case. For that you need explanation and practice questions.
It also takes time to build. Use it for the handful of lists that keep slipping, not for every fact in the course.
Keep it fresh
Like any memory, a palace fades without review. Walk it again the next day, then a few days later. Spacing works here too.
Common questions
Does the memory palace technique really work?
Yes, for memorising lists and sequences. Controlled studies show large improvements in recall after training, including for people with no prior experience.
How many memory palaces do I need?
Start with one per subject or one per long list. You can reuse a palace once you no longer need the old list, or build more from other familiar places.
Can I use a memory palace for definitions?
It works better for lists and order than for definitions. For definitions, flashcards answered from memory are usually faster.
Calm Study
Use a memory palace for the stubborn lists. For everything else, Calm Study writes flashcards and questions from your notes, so the bulk of the course is covered by recall and spacing while the palace handles the awkward bits.