Distributed Practice

It takes repeated exposure in a variety of formats for information to become firmly implanted in your long-term memory.    This is why cramming for hours the night before an exam does not work.  To truly learn information, you should:

• ·         Review often
• ·         Use a variety of study strategies

Distributed Practice means that you are spreading out your studying and reviewing over an extended period of time.   This is above and beyond the regular reading and lecture note review that happens on a class by class basis.  If there is something that you are finding difficult, or if there is a large amount of information to learn, the best thing you can do is spread the learning out over time.

For example, you might make study cards for your Spanish class, and review them 20 minutes at least 5-6 days per week.   If History is the class you are struggling in, you could use the same time frame and:

• ·         make and review study cards for that class,
• ·         make a review chart and use recitation to remember what goes in each category,
• ·         take one topic a day from your notes and review that using recitation, or
• ·         outline or write the information in the learning objectives from the beginning of each chapter and then recite.

The possibilities are endless.  The important thing is that you are reviewing for about 20 minutes almost every day of the week during the semester.  AGAIN, above and beyond your regular reading and reviewing!