Comment 16 by VrijVlinder :

@Comment 11 by jameshogg

Interesting technique , how about chunk reading. If you want to read something really fast you take mental snapshots of entire paragraphs at a time which later you can recall as if reading directly from the source. Even the page numbers. The more you do it the faster it gets. Some people can read entire pages like this. It takes much focus to do this consistently without fail. I can't take a mental snapshot of entire page content. The snapshot comes out as a picture of the entire page from a farther distance and can't make out what it says. But the paragraphs, it breaks it down for me. It is like a close up of the document.

I've heard of this but I am a bit skeptical of it to be honest. What research has been done on it?

Comment 18 by Bobwundaye :

Comment 11 by jameshogg

It sounds like something I might try and do as a neat party trick ;) If nothing else, I'm sure its a technique that can be applied in other situations too.

Just a question: how long does (did) it take you to memorize a deck of cards?

It took me about an hour first time. What I did was shuffle the cards and came up with words for whatever order they were in (I had already prepared 26 house places in my mind, and I had studied the techniques extensively beforehand).

It is possible to master mnemonics to the point where you can remember a newly shuffled deck in under a minute. Dominic O'Brien has won several championships and this is him in action:

Vid

For that speed, I would not recommend my method. Mine is more suited for memorising one specifically random order in the long run whenever you need it for a magic trick or something.

To go at that speed you need to be more advanced. I think Dominic attributes a famous person to each card depending on the initials, and can see the people instantly as soon as he sees the cards. He's also quite practiced in fixing the images in his mind to the point where he can trust that it is set correctly after a second of work.