How to Ace the RCMP Memory Section

The RCMP memory section tests your ability to recall details — names, positions, colours, quantities — after a timed viewing and a short delay. It rewards trained technique over natural ability, and candidates who practice chunking, association, and visualization for 2 to 3 weeks consistently outperform those who rely on raw recall.

Most people walk into the RCMP Online Assessment thinking the memory section will be the easy part. Then they see a scene with 12 objects, each with distinct colours, positions, and attributes — and they realize their casual confidence was unfounded.

Memory under pressure is a skill, not a given. And like spatial reasoning, it improves dramatically with structured practice. The candidates who score well on this section aren't necessarily blessed with better natural memory — they've learned specific techniques and practiced them until they're automatic.

What the Memory Section Actually Tests

The section works like this: you're shown a stimulus — a scene, a grid of objects, or a sequence — for a fixed period of time (often 60–90 seconds). Then it disappears. After a brief delay (sometimes filled with a distractor task), you're asked to recall specific details:

• What colour was the object in the top-left corner?
• How many items were on the table?
• Which direction was the vehicle facing?
• What was the third item in the sequence?

The details that get tested are rarely the obvious ones. The RCMP specifically tests whether you captured peripheral and attribute-level information — the kind you'd need if you were writing an incident report from memory.

5 Memory Techniques That Actually Work

1. Chunking — Instead of trying to remember 12 individual items, group them into 3–4 chunks of related objects. "Three red items in the top row, two vehicles on the left, one person in the center." Your working memory handles 3–4 chunks far more reliably than 12 independent items. This is the foundational technique — everything else builds on it.
2. Association (Story Method) — Link objects together into a brief mental narrative. "The red car is chasing the blue bicycle past the green mailbox." Even a nonsensical story works — the narrative structure creates retrieval hooks that isolated facts don't have. Your brain remembers stories better than lists.
3. Spatial Anchoring (Memory Palace) — Mentally place items in specific locations in a familiar space — your kitchen, your bedroom, your childhood home. When you need to recall them, you mentally walk through the space and "see" the items where you placed them. This is the technique professional memory athletes use, and it's highly effective for scene-based recall.
4. Verbal Repetition with Attributes — For shorter sequences or grids, quietly verbalize what you see with full attributes: "Top-left: red square. Top-right: blue circle. Bottom-left: green triangle." Hearing yourself say the details (even subvocally) reinforces the encoding. Don't just look — narrate.
5. Triage your attention — You can't remember everything equally well in 60 seconds. Scan the whole scene first, then spend your remaining time on the details you know are commonly tested: colours, quantities, positions, and directions. Prioritize over covering everything superficially.

4 Practice Habits That Build Real Memory Skill

1. Practice with a timer from day one — Untimed memory practice builds memory. Timed memory practice builds the specific skill you need for the test. There's a big difference. Set your phone for 60 seconds and work within that constraint every time.
2. Practice the delay too — Police entrance assessments typically include a gap between encoding and recall — specifically to test whether your memory holds under distraction. Practice by encoding a scene, doing something else for 2–3 minutes, then trying to recall. This trains your consolidation, not just your attention.
3. Review what you missed — specifically — After each practice session, note which type of detail you consistently miss (colour? quantity? position?). That's where your technique isn't working. Adjust your encoding strategy for that attribute category.
4. Use the practice tests at RCMPPrep.ca — Our memory section is built to develop the same skills tested in police entrance assessments — timed recall, scene detail, object attributes. The best practice is format-specific practice — general memory games will help, but structured reps will help more.

An Example to Try Right Now

Look at this list for exactly 30 seconds, then close your eyes and try to recall as many details as you can:

• A red sedan parked facing left
• Two people standing outside a blue building
• A green mailbox on the right side of the door
• One bicycle leaning against the wall — no lock
• Three windows on the second floor, one open

How did you do? Most people get the broad strokes (the car, the building) and miss the specifics (the colour of the mailbox, which window was open, the missing lock). That gap is exactly what the RCMP memory section exploits — and what your practice should close.

Memory isn't fixed. It's a trained skill. Candidates who spend two weeks practicing specific memory techniques with timed conditions consistently outperform candidates who rely on natural recall. Don't walk in cold.

Try our memory practice section at RCMPPrep.ca — designed to sharpen the same skills tested in police entrance assessments. Start with the free sample.