Hermann Ebbinghaus (a German psychologist) was baffled by how easily he forgot some things and how others were stuck in his brain. Between 1880 and 1885, he had nothing better to do than to experiment with himself. Over those five years, he tried different methods of remembering information and, without boring you too much, let’s just conclude that he came up with the following: the forgetting curve!

 

This curve indicates that we rapidly lose learned knowledge in a matter of hours, days, and weeks if we don’t repeat and revise these items. Numbers: we lose about 50% of the new info within just one hour and forget a total of 70% within the first 24 hours. This is bad news! Of course, this all depends on several factors like personal stress, memory strength and the meaningfulness and presentation of the material. But the fact is that unless we take conscious action, the learned information slips out of our minds! If we relearn it, it sticks better, and as proof, take a look at the image of the curve.

 

 

The steepest drop happens within the first hours (the red curve). We all know this situation, you come out of a class or webinar, and your head is full of information. But a few hours later, you cannot remember the then-so-brilliant concepts, and the key points mentioned are gone. Revising the learned material as quickly as possible is the solution, and then relearning in intervals, because if you do this, it still drops, but every time less severely.

 

Regular review sessions can reinforce the learned material and improve your memory. When you do this with longer time gaps between the sessions, it is called “spaced learning.”

 

Like I mentioned in the newsletter from 2021, your brain needs to see, hear and revise things to realize, “Well, we have been repeating the same old subject so many times, I’d better remember it.” So, make a default revision schedule. Warning: this will take extra time, yes! But it is worth it because during the last revision before your exam, you will be like, “I have got it!”

 

The plan is to revise the learned material after 1 hour or at the end of the day, then the following day, the day after that, 2 days after that, then 1 week later, and revise 1 day before the exam again (repeat weekly if you have lots of time until the exam). Here is an example:

 

Make your own study schedule, check some out on Etsy or Pinterest, or send me a message if you want to use the one I have prepared at andrea@globalgirlcoach.com.

 

Now go, experiment with how this works for yourself (like the German guy), and see how it goes. Starting the new year like this will make you feel less stressed, and you won’t need to pull an all-nighter right before exams.

 

Good luck with this semester!

Kindly, Andrea

Andrea Schmitt is a life coach specializing in teenage girls and a former Stanstead parent (Jessica Lozano Schmitt 2018). Find out more about her services at https://www.globalgirlcoach.com/ or email andrea@globalgirlcoach.com.