If you are preparing for UPSC exam, then you must have a lot of questions around you.
But the most pivotal one is - HOW TO PREPARE?
Right?
Everyone wants to crack UPSC, but is there any strategy to do that?
Yes!! There is one!
Spaced Repetition Learning!
Spaced repetition learning is a psychologically proven technique which traces its roots back to 1885, when German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus published an experimental study about memory called Memory: A contribution to experimental psychology.
By walking through further, you will learn everything about this technique.
So, let’s get started!
1. What is Spaced Repetition Learning?
You must have encountered scenarios where you have learned something. But as soon as you give the exam, the memory vanishes.
Have you ever thought about why your mind is not able to retain things for longer? Or why does this whole learning vanishes?
To understand this properly, you need to understand how our brain works?
If you want to retain something in your brain then you need to refresh it periodically with specific time intervals.
For instance, you read a line from an article, and as soon as you are done with the article you are likely to forget that line. But, if you keep on revising that line after some specific intervals then it will remain in your memory.
So here the major conclusion comes out to be, the more you encounter a piece of information, there are fewer chances that you need to refresh your memory of it. Therefore, spaced repetition learning for term-2 is the technique of reviewing the information at an increasing interval so that you can retain it.
Even if you keep on reading a text or a chapter regularly that you were unable to learn then also it won’t fetch any good results for you.
But, if you try to learn this chapter with spaced repetition learning for term-2 then you will encounter amazing results in no time.
2. Does it Work?
This technique is very effective and worth your time if applied properly.
There are two key factors that that will assist in learning and retaining information.
1. How much information do we want to retain?
2. How much effort we should spend to retain the information?
Let’s take an example.
When you were in 5th standard then you were not able to retain the entire amount of information taught in class.
As soon as you gave the test or as soon as you passed the class, you get involved in learning something new. When you were learning a new curriculum, you forgot most of the previous learning. This is when space learning comes to the rescue.
If you have a familiarity with the syllabus and are revising it at regular intervals, then you would never enconuter such problem.
So, when you are preparing for UPSC, then keep on revising concepts at regular intervals so that they stick to your memory.
3. How to Use?
This is one of the major questions that one to address that how often we can use this technique.
Every one of you must be thinking that frequency is playing a major part behind the spaced learning. But, it is not!!
The intensity of our emotion and intensity of our attention are the key areas that govern the effectiveness of this technique.
There is always a certain amount of information that we retain in our subconscious mind. So, the speeding repetition is not based on frequency but on our ability to recall things.
We may not be able to instantly recall those learning but when we encounter the events or the emotions related to that learning then we can easily recollect that learning.
Steps to Use Spaced Repetition Learning Effectively
While designing the study plan, make sure that you design a plan that is not too complicated. Make an achievable plan that you can easily work upon.
Have a look at how you can implement spaced repetition learning for UPSC.
1. Review Your Notes
Make sure that you make your handwritten notes. In the initial 20-24 hours of taking that information, make sure to review them for short-term retention.
Once you are done with that, you can just keep the notes aside and try to pull the information from your memory. This will help you to enhance your preparation for UPSC exam.
2. Recall the Information for the First Time
Once you are done with the notes, then try to recall all the information the very next day without the assistance of any notes.You can even make flashcards to retain the information in a better sense.
3. Recall the Information Again
You can recall the information collected for preparation after every 24-36 hours. This will make the retention stronger in your memory. You need not to spend a large amount of time on this task. You can even recall it while you are sitting idle or while you are walking.
4. Study Again
Once a few days have passed this way, then you can take out your study material and study it all over again. This will allow your brain to reprocess the concepts and make learning easy.
Final Thoughts
Speeding repetitive learning is a great and innovative approach that can help you extensively.
You are just in the beginning phase of UPSC preparations, and if you employ this technique in your preparation from the beginning, then you'll find amazing results ahead.
Just make sure to divide your revision schedule in such a way that you can have sufficient time to revise the concepts and see phenomenal results.
Stay focused on your preparation!
