Cramming versus spacing
Most of us have crammed at some point. You leave everything until the night before, then go over it for hours. Sometimes it even gets you through the test.
The problem comes later. A week or a month on, most of it is gone. Cramming puts material into your head for a short time, but it does not do much to keep it there.
Spacing is the opposite. You spread your practice over several days or weeks. Research suggests that the same amount of study time, split into shorter sessions on different days, leads to memories that last much longer. This is one of the best-supported findings about learning.
Why spacing works
Remember the forgetting curve: memories fade fast at first. When you space your practice, you come back after some forgetting has happened. You have to work a little to recall things. That effort, as you learned in the last lesson, is what makes a memory stronger.
When you cram, there is no time to forget. Every review is easy, so each one adds very little.
Spacing can feel less satisfying. You may feel like you know less at the start of each session. That feeling is normal, and it does not mean it is not working.
A simple schedule
You do not need anything fancy. Try expanding gaps, where each review comes a bit later than the one before:
- Learn something today.
- Review it tomorrow.
- Review it again in about three days.
- Then about a week later.
- Then a few weeks after that.
Use self-testing for each review, not rereading. If you struggle a lot at a review, shorten the next gap. If it was easy, you can wait longer. The exact days are not magic. The point is that the gaps grow.
Let an app keep track
Keeping track of all this by hand gets tricky. Many flashcard apps use spaced repetition built in. You make or import cards, and the app shows each one again around when you are likely to start forgetting it. Cards you know well come back less often.
A paper version works too. Keep cards in a few boxes, and move a card to a "less often" box each time you get it right.
Try it
Take one thing you want to remember, such as a few words in a new language or a work procedure. Write three quick quiz questions about it. Put reminders in your calendar for tomorrow, three days from now, and one week from now to answer them from memory.