Some college students were taking an examination just prior to their Christmas vacation. This was an exam they hadn't looked forward to, since they knew it would be a tough one. It was! One student handed in his paper with this remark on it: "God only knows the answers to these questions. Merry Christmas!" The professor marked the papers, and returned them to the students. One had a message on it: "God gets an A, you get an F. Happy New Year!"

I DON'T think you'll find the tests in this chapter quite as difficult. Even if you do, it doesn't matter, since no one will know how badly you do on them. In a previous chapter, I gave you a few examples showing how conscious associations are a great help in remembering anything. Such a simple aid to our memories, and yet so effective. The fact that those of you who learned the phrase, "Never believe a lie" never misspelled the word, "believe" again, proves their effectiveness. The more important fact that you can retain these simple associations over a period of years, proves it still more.

It is my contention that if you can remember or retain one thing with the aid of a conscious association, you can do it with anything else. That's my contention and I intend to prove it with you; I also intend to prove it to you. After you've learned the methods, I'm sure you'll agree that conscious associations will be more useful and valuable to you than you ever imagined they could be. If I were to tell you now, that after reading and studying the system in this book, you would be able to remember as high as a fifty digit number, and retain it for as long as you liked, after looking at it only once—you would think me mad.

If I told you that you could memorize the order of a shuffled deck of fifty-two playing cards after hearing them called only once, you would think me mad! If I told you that you would never again be troubled by forgetting names or faces, or that you would be able to remember a shopping list of fifty items, or memorize the contents of an entire magazine, or remember prices and important telephone numbers, or know the day of the week of any date—you would surely think I had "flipped my lid". But read and study this book, and see for yourself!

I imagine that the best way for me to prove it to you is to let you see your own progress. In order to do that, I must show you first how poor your untrained memory is. So take a few moments out, right now, and mark yourselves on the tests that follow. In this way you will be able to take the same tests after reading certain chapters, and compare your scores.

I feel that these tests are quite important. Since your memory will improve with almost every chapter you read, I want you to see that improvement. That will give you confidence, which in itself is important to a trained memory. After each test you will find a space for your present score, and a space which is to be used for your score after reading those particular chapters.

One important point, before you take the tests—don't flip through the book and read only the chapters that you think will help you. All the chapters will help you, and it is much better if you read from one to the other. Do not jump ahead, of me, or yourself!

• Test #1
• Test #2
• Test #3
• Test #4
• Test #5
• Test #6

Do not feel discouraged because of the poor marks that you may have received on the foregoing tests. I have given them to you for a definite purpose. First, of course, as I stated above, that you would be able to see your own progress as you read through this book. Also, to show you how unreliable an untrained memory really is.

It does not take a lot of work and study to be able to get 100% on all these tests. I like to refer to the system in this book as the "lazy man's" way of remembering!

Interest In Memory