The Major System is a mnemonic device for converting numbers into memorable words. This trainer is designed to help you improve your speed and accuracy at decoding words into their numeric equivalents using the system.

I talk about it a lot in my book Advanced Memory Palaces. I (and Darren Brown - I originally found it in Brown’s book Trick of the Mind) use the following lookup table:

Letter Number Explanation
s/z 0 ‘z’ for zero and ‘s’ looks like ‘z’
l 1 ‘l’ has one line
n 2 ‘n’ has two lines
m 3 ‘m’ has three lines
r 4 a capital R looks a bit like a backwards 4
v/f 5 ‘V’ is the Roman numeral for 5; five starts with ‘f’
b/p 6 b is sort of the same shape as 6, and p is its reflection
t 7 t sort of looks like a seven
ch/gh 8 All the good letters were taken
d/g 9 g is sort of the same shape as 9 and d is its reflection

It’s very useful but can take a while to get the hang of. I built the following little bit of javascript to help me get back into practice for my new book and I’m making it public so I can link people to it when they email.

The simple JavaScript below gives you random words: if you decode them into numbers correctly then you get a point, if you don’t, then you don’t get a point. It times you for two minutes.

Click “Start” to begin a two-minute timed session. You’ll be shown two random words — your task is to enter the number they represent according to the Major System. For example, the pair rat chef would decode to 4785. When you press Enter, you’ll find out if you are right.

Your score updates with each correct answer. Hit "Reset" to try again and improve your performance!