Study Techniques (part 2): Why do we forget things?

Use it or lose it - “The forgetting curve”

"I always forget things I just learned! I have a brain like a sieve…" Those were my thoughts for many, many, very frustrating, and very discouraging years.

First, let me tell you the bad news: this is how it often is! We forget things! Second, let me also tell you the good news that nobody had told me at school: you can do something about it. (And also, why do very few schools worldwide teach this???)

A little bit of history: Mr. Ebbinghaus (a German psychologist) was baffled by how easily he forgot things. Well, some things, and yet others stuck in his brain. So, between 1880 and 1885, he had nothing better to do than experiment on himself. Over those 5 years, he tried different methods of remembering information (crazy, nonsensical syllables) and, without boring you too much, he came up with the following: there is a reason why we forget things. He called this "The Forgetting Curve"! This curve explained the how, why, and when of forgetting information.

This curve indicates that we rapidly lose learned knowledge within hours, days, and weeks if we don’t repeat it. Numbers: we lose about 50% of the new info within just one hour and forget about 60 - 70% within the first 24 hours. This is bad news!

Of course, this all depends on several factors, such as memory strength, the material's meaningfulness, the presentation, and also personal stress. 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, here is the curve:

As you can see, the steepest drop happens within the first hours (the green curve), there is a rapid initial decline. 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, then revising it in intervals, because if you do this, the curve still drops, but less severely each time.

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

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 it gives it importance. The solution: make a learning and 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've seen this so many times now, I've got it!”

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

Here is an example where we had to adapt the idea because the girl I did this with had only 3 days before the exam:

The teen girl I did this activity with was thrilled with the end result. Not only that, she was proud of herself because she felt studying was managable und she went into the math exam "quite relaxed" (her own words). So, yeah!

Try this out! If you need some help, book a free 30-minute coaching discovery session to find out how I can support you or your daughter.

Kindly,

Andrea

P.S.: Check out my study techniques part 1 blog here. There's more info on the length of study sessions and how to best break down big tasks...