If you were shown a random list of unrelated words and you were asked to recall the words in 5 minutes how do you think you would fare? How about in 5 hours? How about 5 days? In 1885, a scientist by the name of Hermann Ebbinghaus did this exact experiment. Here we will discuss his findings. 

Ebbinghaus' results are widely accepted as a general theory for how we learn and retain information. He developed a formula for how long items remain in our memory. Sure, some people may remember better than others, (and certain things stick in our memory better) but the general trend for how long we retain information is roughly the same.

The graph above shows memory retention over time. This is after having learnt a new concept without any revision or repetition. We can see that in the days following the learning event, the majority of content is already forgotten. Students who did not review their notes at all following their class recalled less than 50% of the information covered during the lecture after one day, and only slightly more than 20% of the information nine weeks later. After a few months this tapers down to 10-15% and before you know it we've forgotten everything completely. No wonder we go 'blank' come exam time!

There is an easy way to hack this memory decay. Through revision and repetition.

This could involve reviewing notes in detail before and after each class. Then reviewing at regular intervals leading up to large, multi topic assessments. Doing so will greatly increase your ability to recall what you've learned, and avoid the time-costly need to relearn content. This regular revision is a habit that we see in many successful students.

At the end of nine weeks, students who reviewed their notes within a day and then again within the next week recalled about 75% of what they'd been taught. This is compared to remembering 20% without any revision.

While reviewing your notes we recommend that you annotate and add any additional information you recall or add questions in the margins of your notes to help you study the material later. During this review you may also find that you don't understand some of the information you wrote down. This is the time to query your peers, teacher or private tutor.

In the long run, regular revision of content saves time because it avoids the need to relearn. It gives us a deeper understanding of the knowledge and it avoids much of the risk of going blank in an assessment. It's SS (Simple Science!)

We hope this post has helped you understand the makings of a successful student. As always, this post was written by an Indigo Education Tutor. If you have any questions or you wanted to make an inquiry please don't hesitate to contact us and we'll get back to you. 

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