The Importance Of Reviewing What You Learned and How To Review
Why You Need To Review
When you first learn information, it might seem like you have it down and there is no way you could forget it, but you would be wrong! The more time that has passed since you learned the information, the more you forget. If you never review the information, you will eventually “forget” the information. I say “forget” because I believe everything you have ever learned or seen is in your memory but just needs the right trigger for you to remember it.
Reviewing information is a must! When you review information, you are bringing it back to your attention and making the connections in your brain stronger. You are starting to make the transition from short term memory into long term memory. The more times you review, the easier it is for you to recall the information, and the information is becoming more long term. Soon enough, you will never forget the information! I haven’t forgot my name in 18 years! Hah
You can think of reviewing like walking over a path in the forest. When you first learn information, the path is all cleared and really easy to walk through. To recall the information, all you have to do is go down the path which will be quick since it is cleared. But say you don’t review the information at all, then the path starts to get overgrown with plants.
When a lot of time has passed and you haven’t reviewed, you can’t even find the path anymore so the information is lost. A path that isn’t walked on eventually goes away, but reviewing ensures that the path will still be there. Every time you review the information it is like walking the path and keeping it clear so it can never be lost. I hope this analogy makes it clear why you need to review information!
Space Repetition/Reviewing
You might be wondering how often you have to review information in order to make sure you can remember the it. This really depends on how long you want to remember the information for, what the information is, and when you need to use it. I am going to give you an example of how much reviewing you might do depending on the situation.
Studying For A Test
It is safe to say that you would probably have at least a month before you have to take the test. You should review new information you learn that day as soon as possible. This will allow you to know if you got all the points or need to look them up. You should also review the information from the day before to make sure it sticks. Then you should set one day at the end of the week to review all the information you learned for the week. For the next week, you do the same process but with a twist.
When you get to the end of the week, you will review all the information from the current week and the previous week. You will keep doing this process until the day of the test, but you should review all the information a day or two before the test just to make sure you have it all. The reason you review this way is because you have a lot of information to remember and if you keep bringing the information back up, it will get easier and easier to recall the information. Plus reviewing and studying information this way is better then studying for 20+ hours the day before the test!
Hopefully, you got an idea of how you could set up your reviews. Take a moment and look at what you are learning then you start planning out how much you need to review to remember it all. You can see how reviewing will save you time in the long run and allow you to easily remember what you learned. It makes no sense to put time and energy in learning something just to forget it. Reviewing might seem like a pain in the beginning but if you make effort to do it, you will make it a habit and will barely notice that you are doing it!
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