Abstract Images training: rows of five, +5 or −1

Each page holds 10 rows of 5 images, read left to right as positions 1 to 5. Every row is separate — a sequence can't run on into the next row — and you choose which rows to attempt. The sheet holds the world record plus 20%, and no writing or measuring tools are allowed on the desk while memorising.

On the recall paper the rows are in the same order, but each row's five images are shuffled. You write under each image the position it originally had. Standard mode presents 1,260 images (the 1,048 record plus 20%, in whole rows) with 15 minutes to memorise and 30 to recall.

Each attempted row either earns five points or costs one. These are the WMSC rules:

• +5All five positions rightFive points for every correct row.
• −1Any wrong positionOne point off the overall score.
• −1A position left blank in an attempted rowOmissions count as errors.
• 0A row left completely emptyNo penalty for missing rows.
• 0More wrong rows than five times the right onesA negative total rounds up to zero.

• Give each image a meaning fast. Pick the one detail that jumps out — a spiral texture, a shape like a boot — and name it. The meaning is what you remember, not the picture.
• Turn the row into a story. Link the five meanings in order, or place them on five locations of a memory palace route, so the story order is the row order. See the linking method.
• Finish rows, don't sample them. A row is all or nothing: four right positions score the same −1 as none.
• Recall the memorable image first. Find the image your story starts with, number it 1, and work along the story from there.

The full method is in How to memorise abstract images.