Memory6 min read·

Spaced Repetition: How to Remember What You Study for Months, Not Days

You forget most of what you learn within days unless you review it at the right moments. Spacing your reviews is the cheapest fix there is.

The Forgetting Curve

In the 1880s, Hermann Ebbinghaus measured how quickly he forgot lists he had memorised. The pattern he found, now called the forgetting curve, is steep: a large share of new material fades within a day or two if you never revisit it.

The good news is that every time you successfully recall something, the curve gets flatter. The memory lasts longer before it fades again. Spaced repetition uses this: you review just as you are about to forget, so each review buys more time than the last.

Spacing Versus Cramming

Cramming packs all the repetitions into one night. It can get you through tomorrow's test, but the memory collapses soon after. Spreading the same number of reviews over days and weeks produces much stronger long-term memory. A major 2013 review of learning techniques by Dunlosky and colleagues rated distributed practice as one of only two techniques with high usefulness (the other was practice testing).

A Simple Review Schedule

You do not need special software to start. After you first learn a topic, review it:

  • The next day
  • 3 days later
  • 7 days later
  • 14 days later
  • 30 days later

    • Each review should be active recall, not re-reading. If you struggle badly at any step, go back one step.

    The Leitner Box (No App Needed)

    Make five boxes or envelopes. All new flashcards start in Box 1.

  • Box 1 — review every day
  • Box 2 — every 2 to 3 days
  • Box 3 — once a week
  • Box 4 — every two weeks
  • Box 5 — once a month

    • Get a card right and it moves up one box. Get it wrong and it goes back to Box 1. Hard cards come up often, easy ones rarely. That is spaced repetition with paper.

    Apps

    Flashcard apps such as Anki work out the intervals for you. They are worth it for large volumes of facts, like vocabulary, formulas, dates and definitions. Keep cards small and make your own: writing a card is itself a round of learning.

    Making It Work With a Busy Schedule

  • Review first, learn second. Start each session with 10 to 15 minutes of due reviews before new material.
  • Never skip the 1-day review. It is the one that saves the most from the steepest part of the curve.
  • Plan revision blocks. In myExamRoutine, the study planner builds a revision phase before your exam date so older topics come round again instead of being left to fade.

    • Turn your syllabus into a tracker

    myExamRoutine tracks every topic of your syllabus, plans your study days and shows your weak areas. Try it free for 15 minutes.

    Build my tracker free →

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