This article is about the theory behind SRS, and the benefits of spaced repetition. Practical concerns (study time, type of material...) will be the subject of another article.
What is an SRS?
SRS stands for "spaced-repetition software". An SRS is a program you feed information you want to remember; the program quizzes you on it at the most efficient time so you remember it with minimum effort.
If you have ever used paper flashcards, this is similar, only much, much more powerful.
How and why does it work?
Every time you are reminded of something you are trying to remember, its memory is consolidated, and forgetting happens more slowly (see Forgetting curve on Wikipedia).
The program shows you the item you want to remember as late (and close to forgetting) as possible. This ensures you spend as little time studying the item as possible, while still getting all the benefits of spaced repetition.
Popular SRS includes: SuperMemo (the one which started it all; paid software), Mnemosyne (tied to a research project; free), Anki (arguably the most promising; free). I use Anki and love it to bits.
There are other implementations of spaced repetition, usually online, but they are of limited use over the long-term.
If it is that good, why is it not popular?
People who hear about spaced repetition and do not use it do it for one of two reasons: some do not recognise the value of such a tool, and do not think they can improve their study methods; others agree using an SRS would bring them many benefits, but lack the necessary motivation to incorporate spaced repetition into their daily routine.
While the technology is becoming increasingly popular, and some teachers have started using it in their classrooms, education policy is hardly science-based and it is not surprising it has largely ignored SRS (and other effective study tools) so far.
Most people have therefore never tried spaced repetition and have yet to be convinced of its usefulness. This is a vicious circle: until SRS becomes popular, it will be suspected of being useless, since very few people use it.
I am this or that type of learner; I don't think it would work for me
Spaced repetition is based on our knowledge of the mechanisms of forgetting; while we are all slightly different, the principle behind spaced repetition is universal. In other words: it works for everyone. It WILL work for you, and drastically increase the amount of information you can remember, if you try it.
Learning styles, on the other hand, are "neuromyths" - widely held beliefs about the brain that are also false.
While we all are different, we also all share some fundamental similarities. We can really say that memory works about the same for everyone (excluding rare medical conditions, obviously).
In my experience, people who fail at using a study method which takes advantage of how the brain works usually do so because they have been using the method improperly (e.g. irregular reviewing with an SRS), for too short a period of time to notice any benefits (e.g. listening to foreign language material for a few days before giving up), or because they are very biased against the method in the first place. This last point is, in my experience, very common amongst language learners - "other people have been very successful with this, but I don't see how it can work/I don't like the sound of it". The rejection of mnemonics to learn Chinese or Japanese characters is a very good illustration of this type of bias.
What spaced-repetition did for me
I started using spaced repetition to learn the 4,000 most frequent words in the German language. This took me a few months. My knowledge of those words was very imperfect, but this was enough to understand newspaper articles, a feat normally achieved only by the best students after 5 years of study in my native country (this only demonstrates how ineffective standard education is!).
I then used spaced repetition to learn vocabulary lists in Dutch at university (a few thousand words). This never seemed like a lot of work to me, and I also learned words we encountered during classes that were not on the list. Needless to say, students using traditional methods struggled to learn the list alone. I ended up acing all my Dutch exams.
To keep it brief, I used spaced repetition for all of my classes at university (English, Dutch and German but also history, literature and linguistics) and breezed through them. This took me about an hour of study every day; much less than my hard-working friends, for similar results. I also remember all the material from those years, when they had to constantly fend off forgetting.
I am now using spaced repetition to go through a biology textbook (Campbell Biology) on my own, while doing some psychology and history on the side (and reviewing English words).
A few words of conclusion
Spaced repetition has taught me learning can feel incredibly rewarding and satisfying. Being free from the burden of forgetting is invaluable; it means everything you study is worth it and will stay with you, ready to be built upon further. I wish I had started using spaced repetition at school: imagine remembering everything you were taught as a child; history, chemistry, geography, physics, art, literature, biology, languages...!
People sometimes ask me how I got so good at language study (they have yet to ask me about biology and psychology - I'm still only a humble beginner ;) ). When told about spaced-repetition, their reaction is invariably the same: "oh, but the way I study works for me."
I'm glad I didn't believe that!
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