A Little Bit Everyday

Guest Image: ThunderCougarFalconBird

The following is a guest post by ThunderCougarFalconBird about his experience with language learning and spaced repetition techniques.

It was the night before the first midterm in a university course for Mandarin Chinese and I found myself trying to cram 10 chapters in 12 hours. It was terrible, and I swore that I would never do it again.

And so, I began using Anki everyday, a spaced repetition software (SRS). SRS is basically a set of flashcards, but with an algorithm that continuously schedules familiar cards to be reviewed less often while unfamiliar ones are reviewed more often. I did this for the remainder of the course and in the end I only spent about two hours studying for the final and was able to take the exam with a high degree of confidence.

I now study Korean, and every week my classmates cram for the weekly vocabulary quiz while I only spend 15 minutes a day on the commute to school. This not only prepares me for the quizzes, but also seals in vocabulary in the long term. Cramming last minute is great for storing it in the short term, but the information may not remain for long.

Of course, SRS is only one part of language learning; we must not forget to use the language itself.

It's also worth mentioning that spaced repetition has much research behind it. For decades now, different algorithms have been tested, developed, and optimized for better learning; see Wikipedia for more information.