Jim Kwik’s Superbrain review (2021): Is it worth it? My verdict

“Develop An Invincible Memory,” “Gain Unbreakable Focus,” “Boost Your Grades and Ace Your Exams.” 

This is what Superbrain promises you if you sign up for their 30-day program through Mindvalley.

Sure, it sounds incredible. But is it?

Is Superbrain the Super Learning Program I need, or is it just another piece of Super Fluff that was Super OverPriced?

Follow along with me in my Superbrain review, and I’ll let you know.

My Review Process:

Hey! I’m Lachlan Brown, and I run the HackSpirit website. I am interested in reviewing courses that focus on self-improvement, and Superbrain caught my eye for a few reasons. 

1) Superbrain is on Mindvalley, one of the biggest names in the self-help space. I wanted to see what kind of quality Mindvalley was bringing to the table. 

2) Superbrain promised that I would learn some hard skills — like boosting my memory. I want to put it to the test. 

3) Superbrain isn’t cheap. I’m all about maximizing learning while minimizing price. Is SuperBrain too expensive? I wanted to find out. 

Here’s how I do my reviews.

After taking the whole course, I give you a quick overview of the course, who created it, how much it costs, who will benefit from it, the pros/cons, some alternatives, and my verdict. I keep it simple and easy to follow.

Why should you trust this review?

I get it. Every review online is biased, and everyone is trying to sell you on something. Fair.

Here’s the difference though:

I have dived through this course, and I’m not going to flinch away from cons just to sell you on a product. I’ll shoot straight on the pros, and be honest on the cons. 

Plus, I’ll show you some great alternatives that I recommend. 

So let’s get started!

What is Superbrain?

Superbrain is a 30-day MOOC (massive, open, online course) on Mindvalley where you learn memory, focus, and vocabulary techniques to improve your brain performance. 

If you are having trouble remembering people’s names, right after you meet them (guilty!), then Superbrain is designed to fix that.

If you’re looking to improve your reading speed, then Superbrain has a solution for that.

It’s all about implementable “hacks” that you learn and practice in order to improve your comprehension, memorization, and overall “brain speed.” 

Check Out Superbrain Here

Who teaches Superbrain?

Superbrain is taught by Jim Kwik. Jim Kwik is a leading expert in brain training, the field of study that focuses on boosting your ability to memorize and execute other mental tasks. His credentials are quite impressive; this isn’t just some guy who pretends to know what he’s talking about.

In fact, his story begins when he suffered a traumatic brain injury at age five, and had to re-learn how to learn. Since then, he’s founded his own school for brain training: Kwik Learning.

On top of that, Jim Kwik is featured frequently in publications such as Forbes and has the number 1 learning podcast on iTunes. He’s been hired by people like Richard Branson and Hollywood directors to improve clients’ memorization.

He has another class on Mindvalley called Super Reading, which focuses on teaching speed reading. This class, Superbrain, also teaches speed reading, but not in as much depth.

What is Mindvalley

Mindvalley is a learning platform that allows subscribers to access MOOC (massive online open courses) programs through a subscription service or through a single-class pass.

Mindvalley operates within the self-help niche and a lot of its courses verge on the spiritual and mystical. They have classes on opening your chakras, on energy healing, and many other topics that exist outside the rigors of scientific study.

But, they also have a lot of other classes that are more grounded in fact. Some are mindfulness classes, others are focus on budgeting effectively.

Jim Kwiks’ Super Brain is on the more practical end of Mindvalley’s offerings. He provides you with real, applicable exercises that you can immediately use to improve (possibly) your brain performance.

Mindvalley courses are structured around completing a single lesson each day (usually a video lesson) over the course of several weeks.

Mindvalley courses are not meant to be binged but rather completed 15-20 minutes at a time, every day, until the course is done. It helps that the production value is very high for all of their videos, so you feel like you’re in good hands whenever you’re working through one of their courses.

Check Out Mindvalley’s All Access Membership

How much does Superbrain cost? 

You can purchase access to Superbrain through 1 of 2 ways, both of which are on Mindvalley.

The first way is to buy access to just Superbrain. It’s a 34-day course. For lifetime access to Superbrain, it’ll cost you $449.

That’s $13.21 per day of content. For a 20-minute a day lesson, it’s on the more expensive side.

If you go on Mindvalley’s site, you’ll see that the price has been knocked down from $1,099 to $449.

Normally, I’d be really excited to tell you about a deal of this magnitude, but I’m a little skeptical.

Why?

Because Mindvalley always markets their courses as being half-off like that. I’ve never actually seen a Mindvalley course not marked half-off. I’ve not seen one ever sold for full price. Because of that, I have to rate that the course is always $449.

Now, Mindvalley may value their course at $1,099, and be telling you that they are giving you a deal on this course, but I can’t back that up. What I have to tell you is that the course always costs that price, regardless of their marketing gimmicks around it.

When you purchase access to the course, you get lifetime access to Superbrain, which includes:

• 34 days of lessons
• Access to the Superbrain community
• Bonus training videos 
• Access via desktop, app, and smart tv

There is a second way to access Superbrain.

You can purchase the Mindvalley Membership. This subscription has gone under a couple different names over the years (All Access, All Access Pass), but the program is the same: it’s a subscription service that allows you to access 50+ Mindvalley courses for a flat, yearly fee.

How much does it cost?

$499 annually.

$499 is only 50 bucks more than purchasing the Superbrain course. But instead of accessing 1 course, you get access to 50 for the year.

There are a few caveats. 1, you can’t bill monthly. You have to bill annually. 2, you only get access as long as you renew your subscription (as opposed to buying a single class, where you get lifetime access).

So, from a simple price comparison perspective, Mindvalley Membership is the better deal if you plan on taking 2 classes a year.

Check out the entire list of courses on Mindvalley to see if this is something you’re interested in!

When you purchase the Mindvalley Membership, you get:

• Access to 50+ Mindvalley courses
• Mentoring and virtual coaching with Mindvalley founder Vishen Lakhiani
• Exclusive invites to in-person and virtual events
• Networking opportunities
• And more!

Check Out Mindvalley’s All Access Membership

Can I get a refund for Superbrain? 

If you initiate a refund within 15 days of purchasing Superbrain or Mindvalley Membership, you’ll be refunded for the entire purchase.

You will lose access to the course/subscription after the refund has been processed.

As long as you initiate the refund within 15 days of purchase, you’ll get your money back.

What’s it like taking Superbrain?

I want to show you what it’s actually like to go through a few Superbrain lessons.

I figured I’d show you pieces from the beginning, middle, and end of the course, so you can see what it’s like for yourself.

Let’s get going!

The Sun is Up

Day 2’s lesson is called The Sun is Up and is focused on teaching you one of the main building blocks of building you your ability to memorize: basic association.

In this lesson, Jim asks you to memorize a list of 20 words. Words like sun, sock, fox…it’s a relatively random list.

Then, you write down the words you remembered. I had 7.

But then, Jim teaches you a trick — basic association. This is where you create associations with the words you need to memorize, so that you can burn them into your head more clearly.

As an example, the 11th word you need to memorize is “skis.” The number 11 looks like a pair of skis. Another is the 20th word, Fox. This association would be “20th-century fox.”

Through this process, you learn how to tether words together, which helps you memorize them. When we did the process again, I got 16 right.

This lesson was about 20 minutes long. After the lesson, I was tasked with teaching the concept to someone else. Well, I guess I’m teaching it to you, right?

Learning Foreign Languages

Lesson 19 is Learning Foreign Languages, which starts with a quick review on word substitution, which is a mental trick to help you remember words through pictures.

Jim gives an example of remembering the state capital of Florida as Tallahassee. You picture Florida, and envision Disney World. Then you think Tallahassee, and figure out an image of that. For Jim, Tallahassee, sounds like Tall Lassie, so he imagines a tall dog (lassie) sitting at Disney World. 

Boom, memorized.

Great, now how will I ever get that image out of my head?

Jim takes this concept and applies it to foreign languages. Basically, he wants to remove “rote memory,” where you simply memorize something by practicing it over and over again and using an AEIOU memorization process:

• Action
• Exaggeration/Emotion
• Illogical
• Outstanding
• Unusual

So, every time you are trying to memorize a new word in a foreign language, if you use word substitution that follows the AEIOU process, you can learn the vocab faster. Jim uses the example of “merci” as thank you in French.

He breaks this down into “mer” as “mare,” meaning Female Horse, and the horse is loses its glasses (needed to see). You go up to the horse, and put the glasses back on the horse, and the horse says “thank you.”

Mare-see, merci.

It’s a little silly, but it is helpful to really burn those images into your brain!

Check Out Superbrain Here

The Location Method

Lesson 22 is The Location Method, where Jim teaches you a really old (2500+ years) technique for retrieving information. Basically, you construct a mental image of a place you know well, such as your bedroom, and then you locate 10 locations in your bedroom in a clockwise manner.

Such locations could be:

• Your bed
• Your nightstand
• The lamp
• The bookshelf

From there, when you need to memorize information, you imagine yourself literally storing the information in those 10 spaces. So, if you needed to memorize a group’s lunch order, you store person 1’s order in space one (bed), and so on, until you’ve got the list memorized.

It’s a nifty and effective technique! It works pretty damn well. 

Who is Superbrain for?

Superbrain is for anyone interested in boosting their memorization ability. This class really is about memorization, not boosting logic or IQ. 

Memorization. 

And memorization is extremely important. I’m pretty bad at remembering strangers’ names, so Superbrain gave me some great techniques to help in that regard.

Students, particularly students learning a foreign language, would benefit greatly from Superbrain, as memorization is a big part of building up a foreign vocabulary.

I’d say that entrepreneurs, executives, and people who need to give speeches or meet new people frequently would also benefit highly from this course.

Get Superbrain at the Cheapest Price

Who is Superbrain not for?

Superbrain isn’t for people who are looking to boost their brain’s abilities outside of memorization.

If you’re trying to land a better score on your LSAT or GMAT, this isn’t the course for you.

If you’re hoping to crush that IQ test (though, why would you?), then this class won’t help you in that regard.

What are the alternatives for Superbrain?

Jim Kwik actually has quite a few other courses that you can take.

One of them is Super Reading, which is also available on Mindvalley. You can access this course with the Mindvalley Membership.

Super Reading is all focused on Speed Reading. It’s similar to super brain, but more focused on increasing your reading comprehension by reducing a few time-consuming processes that we all do while reading without even thinking about it.

But, that’s not the only course that Jim Kwik has. He also teaches quite a few classes through his own Kwik Learning site.

Some courses he teaches are:

• Recall Masterclass – This course is all about memorization!
• Kwik Reading – This is a speed reading course
• Kwik Thinking – How can you think faster?
• Kwik Student – This is a great course geared for helping students learn and study more efficiently. 

These courses run anywhere from 3-12 weeks and can cost anywhere from 500-1,000 dollars.

Pricewise, the Mindvalley courses seem like they have a bit more content for your dollar, but that is going off the assumption that each day of a Kwik course has the same amount of content as a Mindvalley course. Again, Mindvalley’s lessons are about 15-20 minutes a day. 

Brain Age

When I first heard Brain Training, I was taken back to when I was a kid and the Nintendo DS was the hottest toy on the market. At the time, there were all of these video games that promised to help train your brain.

One of these games was called Brain Age. It was actually developed by Japanese Neuroscientist Ryuta Kawashima. These games were built around completing small tasks and games in order to help train your memory and mental capabilities.

They were all the rage with every mom, dad, and teacher I ever knew. 

Now, years later, as I’m reviewing Superbrain, I thought back on these games. “Were they beneficial?” “Are they still making these games?” I figured I’d find out. 

Turns out, according to Scientific American, the jury is still out.

In fact, they’re organizing a massive, 30,000 person study to find out if brain training games work.

Do they work short-term? Long term? Not at all? We’ll find out eventually!

But, if you’re down for some fun, gamified Brain Training, the good news is that these games are still being made!

Brain Training for Nintendo Switch is available now, and many other games are available to download to your smartphone or tablet. 

What are free alternatives to Superbrain? 

If you want to take Superbrain, you’ll need to spend $450. But, you don’t need to spend $450 to stretch your mind.

Certain studies have shown that simply playing games such as Sudoku, Tetris, memory puzzles, logic puzzles, can significantly boost your mental abilities.

Lumosity, a free app for smartphones and tablets, has tons of mini-games that help train your brain.

One of my favorite free learning platforms is Duolingo. Duolingo is a free language-learning program that uses spaced repetition to help you learn a foreign language. It’s completely free, though you can pay a monthly premium to remove ads.

Disclaimer: I use Duolingo all the time. I’ve been brushing up on my French and my Italian (it’s easy to get those two mixed up) for the last couple of months, and I’ve really seen a significant improvement!

Superbrain: The Pros and Cons

In every review I write, I ensure that I finish with a good, honest pros + cons section. That way, you can see for yourself whether this platform is worth your money.

So let’s jump in.

Superbrain: the pros

Superbrain had a lot I really liked! It’s a comprehensive platform created by a real expert in his field.

The lessons work

Jim Kwik teaches you real, applicable skills. That’s a lot more impressive than it sounds.

Many platforms I’ve tested give you positive affirmations, quasi-lessons, or interesting concepts to meditate on.

Not Superbrain.

Superbrain gives you real skills that boost your mental performance. I still can’t get over Tall Lassie.

There is a lot of content

There is over a month’s worth of content on here, meaning that you’ll have plenty of material to work with…if you do it every day as Mindvalley recommends. If you commit to this class, you’ll get a lot out of it.

Jim is the real deal

Listen: plenty of teachers on these types of platforms use these platforms just to puff themselves up. They like to stretch their credentials and promise you something you won’t achieve.

When I started this class, I was skeptical. I wondered if Jim would be that type of teacher.

I’m pleased to say that this was not the case. Jim was a very focused, helpful teacher, and his background is impressive and very robust. He’s no slouch. I learned a lot from him.

Get the Discounted Rate for Superbrain

Superbrain: the cons

Like every platform I review, there were a few things I didn’t like.

The price

This is the biggest one. $450 for 30 days is a lot of money.

For some people, it may be no problem. And for others still, the Mindvalley Membership may make it even more enticing.

And while I do think that the material is very, very good, I want to caution that this is not an accredited course. It’s not something you can put on a resume. If you are looking for a course to help you get that job or boost that resume, this is not the course for you.

If it’s between spending $450 on this course or your rent, cover your rent.

But, if you are looking for a great brain training course, and aren’t put off by the cost, then go for it. But just know that this is a class that is on the higher end of the price spectrum.

Not all the material is original

Jim does a great job bringing old, classic ideas back to the present. But not everything he teaches you is original or revolutionary.

Many of his lessons are tried and true skills that he has adopted and innovated on. Understand that these can be found elsewhere if you’re willing to put in the legwork

Don’t Decide Now — Try It For 15 Days Risk-Free

Superbrain: is it worth it?

Thanks to practical, applicable lessons, I’d say that Jim Kwik’s Superbrain is worth it — if the $450 price point doesn’t put you off.

It’s an engaging 30-day class that gives you real skills that you can use to boost your memory and your cognition.

Definitely worth it in my book.

Check Out Superbrain Here