Spaced Repetition Explained: Remember More by Studying Less
Why cramming fades and spacing sticks: a plain-English guide to spaced repetition and a simple review schedule you can start this week.
You can cram a topic the night before and remember it the next morning. A week later, most of it is gone. Spaced repetition fixes this by reviewing material at growing intervals, right before you'd forget it.
Why spacing works
Memories fade quickly at first, then more slowly. Each time you successfully recall something just as it's starting to fade, the memory gets stronger and fades more slowly next time. The gaps between reviews can then get longer and longer.
A simple schedule to start with
- Day 1: learn the material and test yourself once.
- Day 2: review it.
- Day 4: review again.
- Day 8: review again.
- Day 16 and beyond: keep doubling the gap for anything you still know well.
If you get a card wrong, it goes back to the start of the schedule. Easy cards drift further apart; hard cards come back often.
Combine it with active recall
Spacing tells you when to review; active recall tells you how. Reviewing by re-reading on a perfect schedule still won't help much. Test yourself every time.
Twenty minutes of spaced review a day beats a whole weekend of cramming.
Keeping track of all those intervals by hand is tedious. MagicalTutor's flashcards schedule every review automatically, so you just open the app and study what's due.