Spacing out learning over time leads to drastically improved retention.
Via Annie Murphy Paul at Time:
In more than two dozen studies published over the past five years, he
has demonstrated that spaced repetition works, increasing knowledge
retention by up to 50 percent. And Kerfoot's method is easily adapted
by anyone who needs to learn and remember, not just those pursuing MDs.
And there's an easy way to implement this technique:
How can you learn like one of Kerfoot's Harvard Medical School
residents? Most email programs allow you to schedule the sending of
messages, making it easy to create a spaced-repetition course for
yourself. Divide up what you need to know—the text of a speech, the
material on an exam—into smaller units, no more than a few sentences
long. Then put the information into emails scheduled to be sent to
yourself at weekly intervals. To achieve the greatest memory-
strengthening effect, mix up old and new material, and put the
information in the form of a question to which you'll have to recall
the answer. You'll find that your email is making you smarter—no all-
nighters necessary.
http://www.bakadesuyo.com/what-can-you-learn-about-learning-from-harvar
