The Schools Memory Championships

The Schools Memory Championships are the first to be recognised by the World Memory Sports Council through the UK Memory Sports Council. The objective is to help pupils develop their mental skills and help their studies by learning the same techniques used by the top memorisers throughout the world.

Pioneered by the international author on the brain, Tony Buzan, who founded the World Memory Championships in 1991, the Schools Memory Championships will recognise the achievements of all competitors by listing their results in the Official

Memory Rankings. Here they will be able to compare their achievements with other mental athletes competing in the same memory disciplines.

Training programmes for staff and pupils are being rollout across the UK with all competitions resources being available as free downloads on line. To register your interest, at no cost or obligation, go to the “Register” form on this site.

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The UK Schools Memory Championships has been created to help pupils discover the mind sport of memory and to develop their mental skills to help their studies.

With success in exams dependent on having a good memory, there is no better reason for schools to promote memory clubs and memory competitions for their students. Not many people realise that Memory is a long established Mind Sport and attracts competitors of all ages and from all continents.

Since it was founded in 1991, The World Memory Championships has created a “gold standard” for memory based on ten different memory disciplines.  A simplified version of these has now been created specially for schools memory competitions, backed up with a training programme to help teachers to train
memory techniques.

This is achieved through an initial training session for a group of up to 30 students and staff introducing the five memory sport disciplines detailed below and a range of mnemonic techniques. The training is supported by a comprehensive teachers manual and student workbooks.

Training in schools is delivered by expert team of trainers: Dominic O’Brien – 8 times World Memory Champion, author and mediapersonality.

Phil Chambers – Chief Arbiter of the World Memory Sports Council, author, reigning World Mind Mapping Champion and Professional Trainer/Speaker.

The competition itself is staged in your school, or a convenient local venue lasting approximately half a day. Schools may choose the date of their competition as long as it is before the end of May 2008. Each school will receive a slightly different set of questions papers to avoid cheating.  At the end of the month each student will receive a ranking and the UK Champion will be announced.

The five memory disciplines are chosen to closely correspond to those in the World Memory Championships whilst being easily transferable to school subjects.

Random numbers (15 minutes memorisation, 20 minutes recall)
Random words - simple nouns (15 minutes memorisation, 20 minutes recall)
Fictional events & historic/future dates (5 minutes memorisation, 15 minutes recall)
Binary digits (5 minutes memorisation, 10 minutes recall)
Memorisation of a shuffled deck of cards against the clock (maximum 5 minutes)

The achievements of individual competitors, as well as participating schools, will be recognised alongside the existing Memory World Rankings in a new Schools League on the World Memory Sports Councils websites.  With the growing popularity of memory clubs in schools in other parts of the world, there are plans for an international memory ranking table for competitors under eighteen in the near future.