Indian student wins memory championship by recalling 80 digits in 13.50 seconds

A 20-year-old college student from India has won the Memory League World Championship. This online competition involves competing against each other, and challenges include memorising the order of 80 random numbers.

According to the Memory League website, Vishvaa Rajakumar is ranked No.1 with a score of 5,000. According to his LinkedIn profile, he is a student of Puducherry-based ManakulaVinayagar Institute of Technology.

Rajakumar, who memorised 80 numbers in 13.50 seconds and 30 images in 8.40 seconds, spoke to New York Times on his technique and strategies of memorisation.

Preparation for Memory League

While speaking to NYT, Rajakumar called hydration as very important, adding that it helps the brain. He said,"When you memorize things, you usually sub-vocalize, and it helps to have a clear throat. Let’s say you’re reading a book. You’re not reading it out loud, but you are vocalizing within yourself."

Vishvaa Rajakumar claimed that not drinking a lot of water will lead to the speed being “a bit low”.

He said that his room, kitchen, hall, and bathroom are his “memory palaces”, where he practices. In his process, Rajakumar explained that he takes a pair of words, makes a story out of them, and then places them in a location.

Next, he takes another pair, makes a story and places it in the second location. According to him, this “memory palace” helps in memorising a sequence.

Rajakumar's LinkedIn profile mentions him winning several awards at national and international events and being a multiple world record holder.

On his experience at the Memory League World Championship, Rajakumar said that the contestants are shown 80 random numbers that are displayed on a screen. A participant has to memorise all those numbers as fast as possible.

He told NYT that the contestant needs to click a button and the recall sheet appears. Rajakumar wrote down all the 80 digits correctly,

“My fastest time to memorize 80 random digits in this World Championship was 13.5 seconds, so almost six digits per second,” he told NYT.