Foreword

Dominic O’Brien has now become globally known for his extraordinary mental powers. I had the privilege of first meeting Dominic in the late 1980s when I was in the process of organising the inaugural World Memory Championships. He told me that, like many students, he had been criticised in school for inattentiveness, daydreaming and for not being as interested as he should have been in the topics in the standard curriculum. Dominic’s interests were more involved in the worlds of the imagination, music and developing his more general mental skills. As a result, he left school and began to study the art of memory.

Within five short years he had developed a gigantic “Memory Muscle” and was ready to challenge all comers at the first World Memory Championships in 1991. Taking on such legends of the mind as Creighton Carvello, who had set the world record for memorisation of the numbers of pi at 20,013 digits, Dominic virtually cruised to victory, clinching the title of first World Memory Champion and in the process breaking and setting mental world records.

Since then he has gone on to defend his title successfully and to establish a growing number of mental records, including the memorisation of a pack of cards in under forty-five seconds. Ranked No. 1 in the world in Buzan’s Book of Genius (published 1994), Dominic is universally recognised as one of the greatest mental athletes in the world. After having seen Dominic smash world records with apparent ease in 1993 and 1994, Grandmaster Raymond Keene O.B.E., an authority on mind sports and chess, and chess correspondent of The Times and the Spectator, said that he had never seen anything so dominantly brilliant in the field of mental athletics.

What is more important for all students to realise is that Dominic achieved his extraordinary accomplishments by studying the field, by applying himself totally to the task he had set himself and by developing the natural skills which we all have.

In this excellent book on how to pass exams which you are about to read, Dominic reveals the methods and secrets by which he has achieved such enviable success. I recommend this book with delight, in the belief that all students will benefit from its clear advice, and look forward to seeing you challenge Dominic at the next World Memory Championships!

TONY BUZAN