Hey everyone. Welcome to the channel. My name is Vihan Chelliah. Today I wanted to introduce
you to a study approach that I can assure you will help with your memorization and retention
of information over a long period of time, especially if your natural approach to studying
is something like unstructured cramming or simply revising. Allow me to introduce you
to Spaced Repetition.
Before we get into this extraordinary technique, don’t forget to leave me a Thumbs Up for
the YouTube Algorithm and subscribe if you’re new. I’d love to keep sharing cool stuff
like this with you every single week. Alright let’s get to it.
Now, there has been plenty of research assessing the effectiveness of Spaced Repetition as
a study technique and proving how much more useful it is in comparison to standard cramming
of your study materials. This is particularly effective when used in combination with an
Active Recall approach, which I’ll touch upon shortly as well.
So what is Spaced Repetition? Well, spaced repetition is an evidence based
study technique that emphasizes active revision and review of your materials at specific intervals
over a period of time. The basic idea is that if you space out your
study process by introducing intervals between your study sessions, you will end up remembering
much more of what you studied even if the total time you actually spent studying ends
up being less. Let’s say you hear for the first time that
the capital of California is Sacramento. Your first reaction would probably be Whaaat?.
I thought it was San Francisco or Los Angeles. But also you’d likely eventually end up
forgetting that it was Sacramento. However, if you kept encountering this piece of information,
you’d ultimately just know it as a fact and not need to rely on your memory.
Now, the reason for Spaced Repetition’s incredible effectiveness is due to its leveraging
of what’s known as the spacing effect. The spacing effect was first identified by German
psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus who found that our memories go through what is called
a forgetting curve. Essentially the forgetting curve illustrates that when we learn new information
for the first time, the piece of information gradually decays in the brain, with the fastest
drop occurring after 20 minutes and the curve leveling off after a day.
Ebbinghaus found that there is a way to slow down this process of forgetting information
and it can be done by revisiting the information at particular intervals of time. In fact,
each time we revisit our study materials after an interval of time, the forgetting curve
reduces dramatically until we recall the information with close to 100% accuracy.
This essentially shows you that when we first study something or quickly cram in information,
it stores in our brain as a short-term memory, but by consistently revisiting that information,
it eventually moves over and gets stored as a long-term memory that we can more easily
recall.
Stick around to the end of the video cause I’ll show you some extremely practical approaches
to implement spaced repetition into your learning and change the game forever.
In order to truly conquer your approach to study and retaining information, spaced repetition
is generally combined with Active Recall. Active Recall is the method through which
one consciously recalls what they’ve studied without referring back to their study materials.
It places an emphasis on testing yourself so that you completely understand and remember
what you’ve learned. This ultimately enables us to make the switch from passive learning
by simply rereading to active learning through repeated testing. I do a deep explanation
on active recall in this video right here and really recommend you check it out if you
want to get the most out of spaced repetition and study in general. I’ll leave a card
up top and a link in the description below.
Now, I know what you’re thinking, spaced repetition might not have the immediacy of
cramming through an adrenaline and red-bull infused all-nighter. But the truth is that
the information we learn by utilizing the spacing effect can last a lifetime and tends
to be more effectively retained. The difficulty of spaced repetition is not
in the effort that it takes but in the forward planning and the small investment of time
required to set up a system. Because in the long run, it saves us time as we retain information
and spend less total time learning. So how can you set up a system to incorporate
spaced repetition into your life and approach it in a practical way?
Well, the first way I like to do this is by creating a schedule for reviewing information
or study materials. I prefer setting this schedule up on a spreadsheet
with the topic of study on each row and the corresponding intervals on each column. In
my case, I set my first interval a couple of days after my first exposure to what I’m
studying, my second interval a week after that and the third interval a few weeks after
that. Bear in mind that these are just approximates and you should really find the intervals that
work best for you and your workload. The great thing about plotting this out on
a spreadsheet is it gives you a visual representation of your progress so you can plan or alter
your approach accordingly.
The main way that you can effectively practice Spaced Repetition is through the use of Flashcards.
Flashcards are generally the most common way that one goes about doing this. You can write
down your questions and use a combination of images and words on your flashcards as
a way of testing yourself and recalling information. There are also apps and programs that can
help you with this. The most popular one is Anki, which I highly recommend if you prefer
a low maintenance approach to your flashcards with great customizations.
Spaced Repetition is a perfect illustration of how much more effective we can truly become
once we understand how our minds work. Even though you may be predisposed to cramming
in all that information at once, that’s just not the way that your brain is built
to retain information. So for your next study session, go on and grab some flashcards and
chart out a schedule with intervals for recalling that info and once you crush your tests and
exams, let me know in the comments below if this helped. Thanks so much for watching.
Drop me a like down below if you found this helpful and subscribe for videos on effective
study technique just like this one. Good luck. See you next time.