AnnaMarie Houlis
There are a thousand ways to study. Cramming is not the best one.
Distributed practice, however, is up there.
When you try to take in a lot of information all at once, you’re less likely to actually absorb that information. But distributed practice (also called spaced learning) is a scientifically-backed method of learning that’s proven to work.
Let’s take a deeper dive into strategy, why it works and how to incorporate distributed practice into your own study routine.
What Is Distributed Practice?
Distributed practice involves taking breaks between study sessions. After you receive the information for the first time, you “distribute” your time studying it. Maybe you review it every few days, weeks or months, for example.
For example, say you are taking a language course every Monday. Maybe you take Wednesdays to review the material you learn on Mondays, and then you take a quiz every Friday. You’re distributing your practice, or spacing it out.
Distributed practice basically gives your brain a break so you can recharge. Then you relearn the same information again and again until it sticks in your long-term memory.
Distributed Practice vs Massed Practice
Distributed practice is a heck of a lot better than cramming everything into your head at once. There’s a name for that, too: massed practice.
Massed practice involves learning a lot of information all at once—and revisiting it less often. When you do revisit it though, you spend more time on it.
For example, say you still study that language every Monday. Maybe you study for a few hours longer this time and skip your Wednesday practice.
Studying in this way may seem more efficient, but it’s not necessarily more productive. After all, when you cram, you’re less likely to retain the information you want to learn.
Nevertheless, massed practice is common in classrooms and the workplace. Students may be required to sit in long study halls, and they tend to study several subjects super intensely just before finals.
What the Research Says about Distributed Practice
German psychologist and cognitive scientist, Hermann Ebbinghaus, came up with the “forgetting curve.” He said that you lose almost 70% of what you learn within a day of learning it.
But there’s a catch: You can disrupt the learning curve.
By spacing out your learning sessions over time, you can retain more and more of the knowledge.
In fact, just by reviewing your class notes a week after taking them, you can boost your test score by half a letter grade and help students retain 200% more information long-term.
Research shows that distributed learning also helps you apply that knowledge to new situations. College students who space out their study sessions more effectively apply knowledge to new situations than those who cram.
Why Does Distributed Learning Work?
The science behind why distributed learning works continues to evolve. However, a few theories may shed light as to why it’s effective.
Study-phase retrieval theory suggests that each time you review information, your brain attempts to retrieve information. By taking long gaps between recalls, you expend more effort on recall. Then, when you successfully retrieve information, you build a “resistance” to forgetting again.
Distributed learning may also engage “contextual variability.” Essentially, when you initially encode information, your context (what you’re wearing, feeling, etc.) is filed away, too. Later, you can use these context cues to help retrieve information. But if you always learn and study in the same time and place, your context never changes, depriving you of contextual variability.
Distributed practice may also rely on other powerful cognitive tools, like the following:
- Priming: Your initial learning builds the baseline for future understanding.
- Complex thinking: Retrieval across study sessions requires paying more attention and using complex thought to recall.
- Procedural memory: Repeating something enough times trains your brain to remember it faster each time.
How to Use Distributed Practice to Study
Now that you know distributed practice works, you need to know how to make it work for you. Consider the following tips to add it to your study schedule:
Schedule Your Study Sessions
Distributed practice requires smaller study sessions spread over time. Whether you’re in college, a workplace learning course, or just curious about life, setting a study schedule is a great place to start. You might set aside a 50-minute study session daily, two hours a week or one day per month. Don’t be afraid to tweak your schedule over time to adjust each subject’s requirements.
Take breaks
Not taking time to relax, rest and sleep actively harms your learning process. Aside from taking mental rest days, it’s important to break up your study sessions, too.
While ideal times vary between students, a good rule of thumb is to take a 5 minute break for every 30 minutes of studying. Be sure to walk around, get your blood flowing and let your mind chew over your review information.
Then, come back to finish your study session, or even move onto a new topic.
Review the Same Subject
Many people who rely on distributed practice are students, meaning that each passing week dumps more knowledge onto your plate. But distributed practice relies on reviewing the same subjects repeatedly.
So, early in your study regimen, be sure to keep reviewing information learned early in your semester. Then, you can add more information over time. By building a solid foundation immediately, you’ll find that piling on more knowledge gets faster and easier.
Soon, you’ll be able to apply early knowledge to new, complex situations with confidence.
Give Yourself Time to Learn
One groundbreaking study compared the effects of different spacing methods on memory retention. The findings show that, after an initial learning period, the optimal gap between review sessions ranges between 10 to 30 percent of the amount of time between learning and testing.
For instance, if you have seven days between initial learning and testing, then you should review every one to two days until you test. But if you have 60 days between learning and testing, you should review every six to 12 days.
For topics that require more learning sessions (such as more complex or math-based topics), an alternative spacing method is to review two to four days per 20-day period.
Tools and Resources That Can Help
In the modern age, technology has become an effective tool for encouraging distributed practice. The following apps and resources may help:
Dorothy
Dorothy is a memorization tool that predicts to the day when you’re going to forget something and sends a handy reminder. With Dorothy, you can optimize your learning through scientifically-backed distributed practice methods. Whether you want to learn a new language, prepare for exam time, or study for a work certification, Dorothy can help you learn on the go.
Eidetic
Eidetic is another spaced repetition learning app designed to help improve your long-term recall. Eidetic sends reminder notification when it’s time to test yourself. You can choose various intensity levels, from “cramming” to “casual.” Eidetic also includes built-in flash-cards to make it easy to add items.
Zorbi
Zorbi is a browser extension that lets you take in-browser notes while you’re watching lectures or studying online. You can use Zorbi to create flashcards and set your “smart learning profile” to determine how frequently you should study. There’s even a special profile for med school students who may require a more intensive regimen.
SuperMemo
SuperMemo is unique in that it’s a spaced learning platform designed specifically for learning new languages. They host 194 languages with distributed practice lessons that help build your vocabulary, grammar and more. Plus, it works both online and offline, syncing your progress each time you connect to the internet.
Benefits and Drawbacks of Distributed Practice
Distributed practice can benefit your learning by:
- Priming your brain. Once you initially learn a subject, repeated recall helps the information stick.
- Enhancing memory complexity. With repeated recall, you build more complex mental “bridges” over time.
- Relying on contextual learning. Changing your clothes, location and gum flavor between study sessions adds “context clues” to your learning.
- Reducing exhaustion. Practicing and studying over time requires less mental energy than cramming before a test.
- Adding rest times. Sleeping and relaxing between learning and recall can promote “stickier” memories.
- Boosting long-term retention and recall. Over time, distributed practice means that you hold onto more information, more effectively.
Drawbacks of distributed practice include:
- Difficult to achieve if you need to cram. Simply put, you need to study information over longer time periods. If you’re on a tight class or work schedule, that can make distributed learning difficult to achieve.
- Requiring more scheduling. It’s hard to know the “optimal” rest time between study sessions, as that varies between students and subjects.
- Less entertaining. Over time, you might grow bored by returning the same information time and again.
- Less effective for quick memorization or technique-based skills. If you need to learn in a hurry (such as the day before a test) or practice a physical technique (like chopping onions), massed practice can be more effective.
Summary
Distributed practice is one of the many tools that you can leverage in the classroom to study smarter, not harder. Spacing out your study sessions over time can help you move information from your short-term memory to your long-term memory so you absorb more.
Dorothy can help you implement distributed practice into your studying. Download the app to see how it can help boost your memory retention.