How to Beat Simon Says: Memory Tricks for Longer Sequences
Simon Says is beautifully simple and quietly brutal. The game shows a sequence of colours and sounds, you repeat it, and then it adds one more — forever. Every round your memory has to hold a little more, until one slip ends the run.
Most people top out around a sequence of six or seven, because that is roughly the limit of raw short-term memory. But with a couple of techniques you can push well past that. Here is how. You can play Simon Says here and try each method live.
Why you hit a wall around seven
There is a famous idea in psychology: the average person can hold about seven items (give or take two) in short-term memory at once. That is why phone numbers were seven digits and why most players stall on Simon at a similar length.
The trick to going further is not to have a "bigger" memory — it is to make each item count for less, by grouping several of them into a single chunk. That is the whole secret.
Technique 1: Chunking
Chunking means grouping individual items into small clusters your brain treats as one unit. Instead of remembering nine separate colours:
red, red, green, blue, yellow, yellow, green, red, blue
you remember three chunks:
(red-red-green) (blue-yellow-yellow) (green-red-blue)
Suddenly nine items feels like three. Group the sequence into twos or threes as it plays, and your effective memory span jumps dramatically. This single technique is how people memorise long strings of anything.
Technique 2: Say it out loud (or in your head)
Silent watching is fragile. Narrating the sequence — "red, blue, blue, green" — as it plays engages your verbal memory on top of your visual memory, giving you two copies of the information instead of one.
If you cannot speak out loud, say it firmly in your head. The act of naming each colour as it lights up makes the sequence far stickier than passively watching the lights.
Technique 3: Turn it into a story or rhythm
For longer sequences, lean on patterns your brain already loves:
- Rhythm: the sequence has a beat. Feel it musically — "da-da-DUM, da-DUM" — and your body helps your memory.
- Position: the four pads have fixed spots (top-left, top-right, etc.). Some players remember the movement — "up, across, down, back" — rather than the colours.
- Story: silly is memorable. "Red apple, blue sky, blue sky, green grass" sticks better than four abstract colours.
Use whichever clicks for you. The goal is to attach the raw sequence to something richer.
Technique comparison
| Technique | Best for | Why it works |
|---|---|---|
| Chunking | Long sequences | Fewer units to hold |
| Say it out loud | Every length | Adds verbal memory |
| Rhythm/position | Fast sequences | Uses motor + spatial memory |
| Story | Very long runs | Ties data to meaning |
Focus habits that protect your run
Technique gets you the length; focus keeps you from throwing it away:
- Do not look away, even for a second. Missing one flash ends everything.
- Do not rush your input. You have time — a hurried tap on the wrong pad is the most common avoidable death.
- Reset your attention each round. As the sequence grows, consciously re-focus before it plays back.
- Play when fresh. Memory games are punishing when you are tired or distracted.
A quick practice plan
- Play five rounds using only chunking — deliberately group the sequence in twos.
- Play five rounds narrating every colour out loud.
- Combine both and play for length. You will likely blow past your old ceiling.
The bottom line
Beating Simon Says is not about a superhuman memory — it is about chunking long sequences into small groups, narrating them to add a second memory channel, and staying locked in. Practise those and your sequence length climbs well past the "magic seven."
Test yourself now — play Simon Says — and give your memory another workout with Memory Match.