Study skills
Spaced repetition: a simple study plan
Review just before you forget: how to space your revision so it lasts until the exam.
How to do it
- Learn a topic today and test yourself on it.
- Review it again after 1 day.
- Then after about 3 days, then a week, then a few weeks.
- If you get a card wrong, bring it back sooner.
Why it works
Spacing reviews out takes less total time than cramming and lasts longer. A card system can schedule this for you so you only see what is due.
A worked example: a 6-week plan before an exam
Suppose your pharmacology exam is six weeks away and you learn one new topic each weekday. Here is how a single topic, say diuretics, moves through the plan:
- Monday, week 1: learn it and make 8–10 cards.
- Tuesday: first review. Expect to miss a few.
- Friday: second review, about three days later.
- Following Friday: third review, a week later.
- Week 4 and week 6: final reviews. Cards you still miss come back the next day.
Each day you only review what is due, so the daily load stays small even as the number of topics grows.
Mistakes that break the schedule
- Skipping days, then binge-reviewing. A short daily review is better than a long catch-up session.
- Adding too many new cards at once. New cards today become reviews tomorrow. Twenty a day is plenty for most students.
- Marking a card right when you were unsure. Be honest: a lucky guess should come back soon.
- Starting a week before the exam. Spacing needs time. Even three or four weeks makes a real difference.
Doing it without an app
Use five envelopes or boxes labelled 1 day, 3 days, 1 week, 2 weeks and 1 month. A card you get right moves to the next box; a card you get wrong goes back to the first. Each day, review the boxes that are due. An app does the same thing and keeps the dates for you.
Common questions
How far apart should reviews be?
There is no single perfect gap. As a rule of thumb, start at one day and roughly double or triple the gap each time you get a card right, and bring it back sooner when you get it wrong.
Can I combine spacing with active recall?
Yes, and you should: each review is a recall attempt. Spacing decides when you practise; active recall decides how.
What if I fall behind?
Do the most overdue cards first and add no new cards until you have caught up.
Research behind this guide
- Cepeda, N. J. and others (2006). Distributed practice in verbal recall tasks: a review and quantitative synthesis. Psychological Bulletin, 132(3), 354–380. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.132.3.354
- Dunlosky, J. and others (2013). Improving students’ learning with effective learning techniques. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1), 4–58. doi:10.1177/1529100612453266