Spending less time revising, while learning better, a tempting promise, isn't it? We have known for a very long time how the memorization capacity of our brain works, however, we only apply very little of the techniques that would allow us to memorize a greater amount of information more quickly.This is because we rarely take the time to learn how to learn.This essential skill is useful at any age.Whether you are a student.e, in the revision phase for the patent or already at university, in medical school, dived.e in your revisions of PASS (PACES), or already in the active life, where the occasions of having to declaim a speech in front of an audience are still numerous, the following method will certainly interest you.The reading time for this article is approximately 3 minutes.Three short minutes that will allow you to save precious hours of revisions!

What is the spaced repetition method of revision?

The spaced repetition method of revision consists in better distributing our learning time.Concretely, it is a question of gradually increasing the time interval between each of your revision sessions and of revising at a given moment only the concepts whose acquisition is the least complete.

One of the great advantages of this method is therefore that it complements all the other learning techniques that you already use.Decades of research in cognitive science also allow us to affirm that it is adapted to the functioning of everyone, whether one has a visual or auditory memory.

It is therefore particularly suitable with flashcards or revision sheets.In this case, the process is very simple: you just need to create five stacks of cards:

• The cards in stack #1 will need to be reviewed every day: these are the least learned concepts.
• The files present in pile n°2, every two days.
• Those in pile #3, once a week.
• Stack #4, every two weeks.
• Finally, the index cards for battery no. 5, the day before the exam.These are the perfectly acquired cards.

On the first day, all your files will therefore be in stack no.You will self-question or you will be questioned on all the cards.Correctly memorized cards will go to the next pile, while cards that have not yet been acquired will go back to pile no. 1, regardless of their starting position.You will continue in this way from day to day, according to the rhythm established by your batteries.

This method invites you to optimize your revision schedule to free up more time.Time you can use to learn more or just relax before your exams or meeting.

What is this technique based on and where does it come from?

The spaced-repetition method of revision uses a memorization lever known as the "spacing effect".Numerous scientific studies have in fact shown that regardless of the effective review time, the number and quality of neural connections we create increase as we spread our learning over time.It is therefore more effective to revise thirty minutes on Monday, thirty minutes on Tuesday and thirty minutes on Wednesday rather than revise two hours on Wednesday.Yes, you read that right, it's official and scientifically proven: revising the day before the exam is not a good strategy!

This phenomenon has been known since the end of the 19th century.It was brought to light by the German philosopher Hermann Ebbinghaus, one of the founders of memory science.In order to understand how the latter worked, he carried out numerous tests on his own person.Among these, he had to memorize (very) long lists of syllables.This experience notably led to the discovery of the forgetting curve.

The consequences of this discovery were numerous since it allowed us to better understand the phenomenon of forgetting and its essential role in the memorization process.It was from this that Ebbinghaus devised the mnemonic technique of spaced repetition.

Why will this technique help you revise more effectively?

Imagine that your memory is a huge library (you can even play this playlist to get in the mood and dive into it)… Every new knowledge you acquire comes, like a book , put away a shelf.Over the years, knowledge accumulates... And it never stops! Throughout your life you continue to accumulate new knowledge, most often without even realizing it.

One day, while you are at a dinner with friends, the discussion drifts and comes to address the period of the Glorious Thirties.Ah, this reminds you with nostalgia of your middle school history lessons! What were they saying about it already? You would like to participate in this conversation, but you cannot: the book on this period, which you stored in your mental library years ago, has since been buried under volumes and volumes of other diverse and varied knowledge. .And these were never put away or labeled.The knowledge is there, you know it, but you can't get it.

Memory is therefore above all a question of accessibility.You've read this flash card on the oral cavity 20 times, but you still can't remember what those little papillae on the tip of your tongue are called... And to think that it's precisely on the tip of your tongue what is the information, but it won't come out! Frustrating, isn't it?

The spaced repetition revision method is based precisely on this forgetting curve.It consists of finding the moment T from which the effort you will have to provide to access knowledge will be sufficient enough to cause real learning.It helps you strike the perfect balance between re-reading a review sheet you already know by heart (useless) and desperately trying to remember something you've already buried deep in your mental library (frustrating).

It is based on the axiom that the greater the effort to access information, the more effective the memorization.The spaced repetition method of revision helps you find the optimal level of difficulty that will allow you to anchor the knowledge in your memory... and not to forget where you put it.

How to revise well using the spaced repetition method and the Foglietto revision sheets

From a practical point of view, there are several solutions for automatically setting up a revision schedule and revising in an optimal way.For this, review sheets are your best option.

And that's good, because at Foglietto, the cards know us! Foglietto allows you to maximize the potential of your flashcards and the spaced repetition review method in several ways.Here we have selected two for you.But the best is still to follow your instincts and adapt our tools in the way that will work best for you.These offer you unlimited flexibility, unlike a notebook, it will be a breeze!

According to this system, you will have to revise a little every day, with some days busier than others, since the "everyday" cards will sometimes be supplemented by the "once a week" cards.We therefore advise you to fix in advance these days, when you will know that you will have to devote more time to your revisions, in a calendar or an agenda.

1.How to revise well with our boxes and dividers

You can very easily set up your revision method using one of our wooden boxes, a few Foglietto cards (we advise you to use one card per concept or theme) and our dividers.This approach will allow you to review a large number of files (up to 600 with the "Archivio" box or up to 340 with the "Tesoro" box).

1. Take 5 dividers.Note on the first divider: "Every day" (1/1), on the second "Every other day" (1/2), "Once a week" (1/7), "Once every two weeks" (1/14) and "Before the exam" (D-1).
2. Store your dividers in the box and place all of your review sheets behind the first divider, labeled "Daily".
3. Question yourself or have yourself questioned, record by record.Place each properly revised card under the next divider (if your card was originally under "Daily" then it will go under "Every other day").Conversely, each card that is not yet fully acquired goes under the first divider ("Everyday"), regardless of its starting place.

Boost: use a color code, for example one color per subject or per type of concept, or create sub dividers for each subject.How ? Choose, for example, to write the revision intervals only on dividers with a central tab.Then write on side tab cards the name of each of your subjects, as many times as you have center dividers (i.e. five times for each subject, if you have followed the intervals given in example).Then place a divider of each material behind each interval divider.

2.How to revise well with our Kanban

This method will be particularly suitable if you have a visual memory.It will allow you to see at a glance all the sheets you have to revise, thus helping you to establish connections between each concept, which will also facilitate the creation of new neural networks at the base of any process of memorization.

1. Take your 5 Kanban shirts.Write on each divider a service interval, for example: "Every day" (1/1), on the second "Every other day" (1/2), "Once a week" (1/7), "Once every two weeks" (1/14) and "Before the exam" (D-1).Install one divider per shirt.
2. You will initially place all your cards in the first folder, which has the "Daily" divider.
3. Question yourself or have yourself questioned, record by record.Place each correctly reviewed card in the next folder (if your card was originally in the "Daily" folder, then it will go under the one labeled "Every other day").Conversely, each card that is not yet fully acquired returns to the first folder ("Everyday"), regardless of its starting place.

Boost: use a color code, for example one color per subject or per type of concept, or use one folder per subject and per revision interval.You can then assign a batch of shirts for your subject n°1, a second batch of shirts for your subject n°2, etc.By using the same divider color code each time for the revision time intervals.You will thus easily know that you will have to revise every day all the cards contained in the yellow divider folders.Effective!

In summary.

So we saw together what the spaced repetition method of revision consists of, what this technique is based on and according to which processes it allows us to effectively revise and easily learn a greater amount of information.We also saw how to apply it concretely, on a daily basis, using Foglietto.So you now have all the cards in hand to successfully pass your next exams!