Don’t exhaust yourself, use the spacing effect
It is easy to fall victim to procrastination and decide to cram a study session right before an exam. Procrastinating will only give you mediocre scores and a whole Lotta stress. Our brain can memorize information much more successfully when studying is spaced out across hours, days, or even weeks. Studying too much over a short period can lead to overstimulation of neurons and mental fatigue. If you want to get great exam scores while still being able to go out and enjoy yourself try out the spacing effect. Even if you only study for ten minutes every day for a week, you’ll have more success in memorizing the implementation than you would if you studied for two hours only once. You don’t have to give up your weekends to succeed.
How does it work?
The spacing effect is a cognitive phenomenon in which our memory is enhanced when study sessions are distributed across time rather than being presented in one session1 .Studies have shown that the longer the gaps are between study sessions the better the retention you’ll have of the material and for a longer period of time. If you space out shorter study sessions for a short period of time such as six small sessions in one day, the information will be more present in your mind, but not for long2 . The results of a study in which scientists examined long-term memories and repetitive representation of material showed that presenting any information on a repeated schedule will make it more concrete in your memory3. I said before, the time between each session of studying could be just hours. Studying a little bit over a longer period of time is a lot less overwhelming and a lot more beneficial to your long-term memory of the material. No matter what schedule you use to apply the spacing effect to your study routine It’ll help you improve your retention of the material from your class.
Why are short repetitive session more effective
It has been shown in many tests that repetitive testing of yourself on material leads to an increase in the retrieval of information4. This could help on those exams where there’s no word bank and you have to pull the information right out of your memory. This technique could help you remember your class information or even help you excel at a new job. Studies have shown improvement in material recall in students from middle school to adulthood. One way to apply this technique into your academic routine could be studying previous material while reviewing current material. This could mean while your teacher is going over chapter five of the textbook you make notes and add in tidbits from chapter four in order to process the information once more. If you have a cumulative final exam, this will help you remember all the information from each previous chapter of this semester and have a higher chance of recalling old information on exam day2.
It’s not only important to look over an exam in the information you’re given in a class, but it’s important to be able to recall it and use it freely. Truly knowing the material makes it much easier to apply the information you learn in college classes to your future career and personal life.
Don’t exhaust yourself
One of the many reasons that the spacing effect is so beneficial to memory and information recall for students is that mental fatigue can lead to insufficient memory expression. It is harder for our brain to consolidate memories and information when our neurons are not able to work effectively due to overstimulation. Overstimulation of our neurons can be caused by mass learning, also known as cramming. At a neuronal level there is a production, uptake, release, and disposal of neurotransmitters that are activating memory traces and responding to stimuli such as your study items. Spacing out your study sessions can help to avoid mental fatigue and help us remember our information material much more sufficiently5.
Success is easier than you think
It’s easy to avoid studying material until it’s absolutely necessary. It may seem more overwhelming at first to break down an examin your entire year overtime because you just want to put it off, but this concept is harmful. As a student we have all fallen victim to procrastination, probably on multiple occasions. A cram session may be successful for some situations, but overall it’s harmful to your memory and your academic success. Providing our brain the recovery time and ability to transform memories into long-term rather than short term gives us the ability to truly apply the information we learn in school to our life and our career once we graduate. Sometimes it feels as though you aren’t really learning much during your classes, but that might be because you’re not allowing yourself to process it sufficiently. If you’re looking to ace your exams and have an easier time recalling the important information for your big exams and even later in your life apply the spacing effect to your study routine.
- Vlach, Haley A., et al. “The spacing effect in children’s memory and category induction.” Cognition, vol. 109, no. 1, Oct. 2008, pp. 163–167, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2008.07.013.
- Carpenter, Shana K., et al. “Using spacing to enhance diverse forms of learning: Review of recent research and implications for instruction.” Educational Psychology Review, vol. 24, no. 3, 4 Aug. 2012, pp. 369–378, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-012-9205-z.
- Shaughnessy, John J. “Long-term retention and the spacing effect in free-recall and frequency judgments.” The American Journal of Psychology, vol. 90, no. 4, Dec. 1977, p. 587, https://doi.org/10.2307/1421733.
- Whitten, William B., and Robert A. Bjork. “Learning from tests: Effects of spacing.” Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, vol. 16, no. 4, Aug. 1977, pp. 465–478, https://doi.org/10.1016/s0022-5371(77)80040-6.
- Yuan, Xuechen. “Evidence of the spacing effect and influences on perceptions of learning and science curricula.” Cureus, 13 Jan. 2022, https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.21201.