Related Articles
After Indian-origin boy, Arav Ajaykumar residing in U.K entered MENSA with an IQ of 152, another from Singapore is bringing laurels to the country.
12-year-old Dhruv Manoj from Singapore bagged two gold medals at the 27th World Memory Championship that was held in Hong Kong. He won the medals in categories of ‘names and faces’ and ‘random words’. He beat 56 other contestants to emerge victorious in the ‘kids category’.
Photo: Twitter/Dhruv Manoj
The competition was held from December 20-22. The boy has a phenomenal memory and can remember more than seven decks of shuffled cards in an hour; 1,155 binary numbers in half that time; and 87 names and faces in mere 15 minutes as per news sources.
In order to be able to remember such a vast amount of information, Dhruv perfected the Roman technique. As per the Roman room technique, unstructured information can be remembered by associating images with objects in a room.
Photo: Twitter
Dhruv has just finished primary school and is also a member of the computer club. Speaking about his preparation, Dhruv said that he would squeeze in two to three hours of practice a week before the vital Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE).
He would memorise binary numbers and cards for almost four to six hours in a day and started his preparation in October. However, his journey was not a cakewalk. It was very tough for him to practice just when PSLE had ended. But his determination helped him succeed.
Photo: Twitter
Today Online reported that Dhruv was the only Singaporean in this year’s competition, which saw over 260 contestants from China, Russia, India, Taiwan and Malaysia.
While he had enrolled in the competition ‘just for fun’, he ended up winning two gold medals. Dhruv’s father Dr Manoj Prabhakar who works as a management consultant in the oil and gas industry was the main force behind his success and coached him thoroughly.
Dhruv hopes to join track and field in secondary school and continue training in memory sport on the side.
