How Spaced Repetition Changed the Game

- Hello guys, it's Mike and Matty. Today we talk about spatial

repetition

. It is one of the best scientifically proven study strategies that will help you retain information in the long term so that you can pass your exams. So we'll talk about what it is and then at the end of the video we'll show you how to use it in your study sessions. - And if you're new to the channel, definitely hit the subscribe button. We will be publishing productivity and study tips weekly. (camera shutter) (ambient, upbeat music) (white noise) - Spatial

repetition

is best explained by a graph.

So here let's call the x-axis time and the y-axis how well you know something. When you finish learning or going to class, your mastery of the information will be very high, because it is fresh in your mind and you know it very well. Naturally, over time you will start to forget that information, no matter how well you learned it the first time. Science finds that the rate at which most people forget is exponential, which means it will look like this on the graph. This is, of course, if we never review that information again. Then, when we review the material again, we see another jump to the top and the cycle repeats.

But the more you review a topic, we start to see that the distance it falls slowly increases over time. And this is because our brain is beginning to consolidate that information into long-term memory. So practice makes perfect, right? Keep reviewing your notes over and over again until you master everything. Well, sure, but that's not really the smartest way to learn. Especially if you have 20 credits and a ton of homework to do every night. Spatial repetition plays on the fact that you only need to review material just when you're about to forget it. And that way, you won't waste time reviewing things you already know.

If you study the same topic five days in a row and then take a test 25 days later, you probably won't do very well. This is because you haven't allowed your brain to consolidate that information into long-term memory. However, if you spend more than 30 days review time, you will probably do much better, even if you spent the same total time reviewing that topic. Simply put, for something you know very well, review it less frequently, space it out. And if there is something you don't know well, review it more often. Practice does not make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect.

This is the perfect way to study. The smart way to study, so you can master all the information in all your classes, in the most efficient way possible. You don't need to review everything every day, just the things you're about to forget. - Now that you understand the concept behind this, I want to give you an example of how you can use spatial repetition in your studies. So to get the most out of the strategy, you need to make sure you fully understand the material the first time you learn it. A good way to do this is by reteaching or using the protected effect or the Feynman technique.

If you're not sure what any of these strategies are, definitely watch this video here once you're done with this one. You will then begin to use spatial repetition after your first pass through the material. Then, a day later, you'll want to review your notes again to review the material. And I know a lot of students like to take a little time right after their classes to review their notes again, to really solidify the information, and I think that's a really good idea. But remember, you should at least check it a day after your first pass, and three days later you should check it again.

And then a week later, and then a month later, keep spacing out the amount of time you're going to review your notes. But if at any point during this process you are unsure of the information, you may have forgotten it, so you will want to restart the cycle someday again. But you can see that if you maintain this consistency, all the information you know very well will be widely

spaced

and you will visit it less frequently, and all the information you do not know well, you will see it much more often. So, as you can imagine, if you're in school and keeping up with all your reading and homework, it can be very difficult to keep track of every day and what topics you need to review.

And that is why I recommend that you use applications like Anki or RemNote. Both are flashcard apps that have spacing software built into their interface, so they take all the guesswork and work out of spacing your own studies. And being flashcard apps, they also use active recall, which is another scientifically superior study strategy. And if you don't know what active withdrawal is, we cover it in a different video, which you can find here. And what's more, RemNote can be used as a note-taking app, making everything much easier by combining all your study needs into one tool.

So definitely check out these programs, Anki and RemNote. We will leave you some useful links in the description below. That, in a nutshell, is spatial repetition and how you can use it in your study sessions. If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments below and don't forget to visit our website, mikeandmatty.com. We have a complete library of free study guides and eBooks that you can download today. We'll leave a link in the description below and at the end of the video, so definitely check it out and thank you so much for watching.

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