Speed Cards training: memorise a deck against the clock
Memorise a shuffled deck of 52 cards as fast as you can, then put it back in order. This drill runs the World Memory Championship format — under 5 minutes to memorise, 5 to recall, best of two trials — and scores it with the World Memory Sports Council formula.
- Memorise
- < 5 min
- Recall
- 5 min
- Deck
- 52 cards
- Trials
- Best of 2
- World record
- 13.96s
- Guinness, 2017
Start a drill
The official Speed Cards format
One freshly shuffled pack of 52 playing cards. Competitors may look at cards repeatedly and several at a time, and signal the moment they finish memorising; a timekeeper records the time to a hundredth of a second. Then comes a second pack in perfect order, which they rearrange to match.
| Level | Memorise | Recall | Attempts |
|---|---|---|---|
| National | Under 5 min | 5 min | 2, best counts |
| International | Under 5 min | 5 min | 2, best counts |
| World | Under 5 min | 5 min | 2, best counts |
Standard mode runs exactly that, with two trials on fresh decks. Your time stops when you press “I've got it” and is taken from server timestamps, so it can't be edited in the browser. Each trial is saved to your history on its own.
How Speed Cards is scored
The arbiter compares the two decks card by card from the top. At the first discrepancy, counting stops. A complete deck is scored on time with the formula points = 11180 ÷ time0.75; anything less is scored as cards ÷ 52, with the time taken as 300 seconds.
- 1,548Complete deck in 13.96sThe Guinness world record time.
- 1,000Complete deck in 25sThe rulebook's own anchor: 1000 points.
- 519Complete deck in 60sPoints fall as time rises, but slowly.
- 155Complete deck in 5 minutesStill far ahead of any incomplete deck.
- 0.73Cards 39 and 40 swappedCounting stops at card 39: 38 ÷ 52. The last 12 cards don't count.
- 0First card wrongNothing before the first mistake to count.
The better of your two trials is your score. If competitors tie, the better score from the other trial decides.
Scoring-aware strategy
- Bank a complete deck first. Only the better trial counts, so a safe, slower deck in trial 1 protects you from a zero and frees trial 2 to chase time.
- Protect the top of the deck. Everything after the first mistake is lost, so an error at card 5 costs far more than one at card 50. Early images deserve the most vivid encoding.
- Review before you stop the clock. A few seconds of review costs a few points; a gap in the journey costs almost all of them.
- Use a card system. A PAO system turns three cards into one scene, and a memory palace route keeps those scenes in order.
The full method is in How to memorise a deck of cards.
Speed Cards FAQ
What is Speed Cards at the World Memory Championships?
Speed Cards is the discipline where competitors memorise a single shuffled deck of 52 playing cards as fast as possible, taking under 5 minutes, then rebuild the order with a second deck within 5 minutes. There are two attempts, each with a freshly shuffled deck, and the better one counts.
What is the world record for memorising a deck of cards?
Guinness World Records lists 13.96 seconds, set by Zou Lujian of China at the 2017 World Memory Championships in Shenzhen.
How is Speed Cards scored?
A complete deck scores 11180 divided by the memorisation time in seconds raised to the power 0.75, which gives 1000 points at 25 seconds and about 1,548 at the world record time. If the deck isn't completely right, the cards are counted only up to the first mistake, the time is taken as 300 seconds, and the score is that count divided by 52.
What happens if I make one mistake in Speed Cards?
The count stops at the first discrepancy, so every card after the mistake is ignored even if it's right. A deck with its 39th and 40th cards swapped scores 38/52, about 0.73 points, while a complete deck memorised in the full 5 minutes still scores about 155.
How many attempts do you get in Speed Cards?
Two, each with a freshly shuffled deck, and the best score counts. If two competitors tie, the better score from the other trial decides.
How is the memorisation time measured?
At championships a timekeeper with a stopwatch or a Speed Stacks timer stops the clock when the competitor signals they have finished memorising. In this drill the clock stops when you press “I've got it”, and the time is taken from the server, not your browser.
How long is the recall time in Speed Cards?
Five minutes, at National, International and World level alike.
How do you memorise a deck of cards quickly?
Give every card (or pair of cards) a fixed image, place those images along a memory palace route you know well, and walk the route to rebuild the deck. A PAO system can pack three cards into one scene, so a full deck needs about 18 images.
Keep training
Sources
- World Memory Sports Council rulebook — Speed Cards (format, timing and scoring formula)
- Guinness World Records — fastest time to memorise and recall a deck of playing cards
Not affiliated with the World Memory Sports Council.