Simple!

Pay attention to what time you study.

Loads of experiments have shown that by simply taking a quick nap after learning something new, whether it’s facts or skill, helps the brain to consolidate the memories created by that new learning. And it turns out that it doesn’t matter if it’s a long night’s sleep, or if it’s a quick zizz between study sessions.

In addition, you’re better off with lots of short bursts of study, than to attempt to learn it all in one sitting.

Also you need to return to the information you’ve learnt, later on. But not any old time later, because there is a direct correlation between the interval between sessions and the amount of information that you will remember.

Hal Pashler at the University of California, San Diego asserts there is a best time to go back to the information you’ve learnt.

He says you can discover this by working out how much time constitutes 10-20% of the interval between learning the information first time and taking the exam.

That’s all well and good if you’re leaving your revision to the last minute. But what if you’ve started learning now for exam a few months away?

We also know that most people normally forget 80% of what they’ve learnt within 2 weeks, and most of that within 24-hours of learning information in the first place.

So if you’re going to forget most of what you’ve learnt so quickly, then surely it is too late to go back to it say in a few weeks time because that represents 10-20% of your time between the initial learning and the exam?

Surely you’re better off remembering the 3rd Key to Learning and using a rock-solid process such as the Bucket System, to keep that information in your head?