The Forgetting Curve
Have you ever spent hours cramming for a test, aced it, and then completely forgotten everything a week later? That happens because of the “Forgetting Curve“—our brains are naturally wired to dump information we don’t use.
Once you have studied and revised, it is really important to come back to it again after two or three days so that the memory imprint can be repaired. Then again after a week or so, then again after 2 weeks. If you don’t do this, your memory of that topic will gradually fade away.
By reviewing the information at the time you are starting to forget it, you force your brain to work harder to recall it. That effort signals to your brain that the information is actually important, imprinting it into your long-term memory.
Spaced Repetition – a Time Saver!
The best part about spaced repetition is that it actually saves you time. Because you’re keeping the memory alive right before it fades, your review sessions only need to take 5 or 10 minutes each time, rather than hours of painful re-learning.
You can easily build this into your routine using your own paper flashcards, or free flashcard apps like Anki or Quizlet. Using Cloud9Science apps like BioQuiz will also help by presenting you with essential knowledge questions again, and repeating the ones you tend to get wrong.
It takes a tiny bit of organization upfront to plan your review sessions, but it means you can walk into your GCSE exams completely confident that the facts you learned weeks ago are still locked in and ready to go.
