A pair of local elementary school students have tied the Alberta record for card sequence memorization at the Alberta Provincial Memory Championships held at the Westlock Elementary School March 24.
Fifteen Grade 5 students and one Grade 3 student participated in the championship, designed to help participants build mental dexterity and test their skills at a provincial level.
Students packed the school’s library and were given five minutes to memorize the sequence of a shuffled pack of cards before being asked to place another pack in the same order.
Two students, Victoria Brett and Elijah Jersch were able to tie the Alberta record of 21 cards in five minutes.
Moments after his record-book finish, Jersch said he was barely able to contain his excitement.
“I’m shaking right now,” Jersch said.
Like many of his classmates, Jersch used a visual memorization strategy to remember the sequence.
“I used picture memorization, pairing images like a dolphin to represent the two of hearts. Two is always something in the ocean,” he said.
Brett also used visual memorization to tie the record with a slightly different twist of using body parts to remember the sequence.
“I used the images combined with our body list,” she said.
“I practiced every single day at home. I just kept on thinking over the cards and it was worth it.”
WES Grade 5 teacher Darren Michalczuk coordinated the Alberta championship along with the help of several volunteer judges, including Victoria’s father, Robin Brett, who confirmed his daughter’s vigorous practice regime.
“She does it in secret and has her own separate area to concentrate,” he said with a laugh.
Michalczuk confirmed that, despite distractions, the competition was a success, giving the kids a valuable new pastime and a way to enhance their memory skills in other areas.
“It was quite stressful. We’ll probably try to find a quieter area than the library for next year. A lot of them faced their fear and it was quite challenging to be in that environment, but the fact that they made it through was awesome,” Michalczuk said.
“The record was a bonus. The work they put in, that’s what’s worth it. They reached their goal before even getting to the competition. A lot of them are hooked now. When they do it for music and math, they’re seeing the bigger picture of how it works.”
Michalczuk was also a participant in the event, nearly memorizing a full deck of cards in one of his two attempts.
He misplaced his first card as the buzzer rang, invalidating an otherwise perfect score of 52 cards in five minutes.
He’ll get a chance to test his skills again in June when he and his family visit the Canadian Memory Championships in Montreal.
“My goal at provincials was to see it I could do it under pressure. I think I’ll be able to do the whole deck without errors come nationals,” he said.
Until then, he’ll be busy expanding memorization challenges at WES, bringing the fun to remaining grades at the school.
“We’re going to start having mind games on a regular basis just to keep going with it,” Michalczuk said.
“In math, we’re going to continue doing the memory part once a month, and a similar competition without the cards. A lot of kids want to go to nationals next year.”
