The Science

In the 1880s, a German psychologist named Herman Ebbinghaus discovered that within the of first hour of learning something new, we forget 50% of it. By the end of the day, it’s around 70%. After a week, we will have forgotten more than 90% of that knowledge!

He called it the ‘Forgetting Curve’.

To combat this, research suggests refreshing yourself on the newly learned information at strategic points during the ‘forgetting process’. Re-looping the work in smaller chunks, multiple times over the week, helps the knowledge to stick within the long-term memory.

Think of it like this, if you learn ten things today, by tomorrow you might only remember about three or four of them, and by next week, you might only recall one or two. That's why it's important to review and practice what you've learned to help keep it fresh in your memory.

The Tutorless approach to learning puts this philosophy at the centre of what we offer. We do away with intensive hour-long tutoring sessions that leave students forgetting most of what they’ve been taught by the end of the week and instead provide something that will really help knowledge stick.

References

  1. Ebbinghaus, H. (1885). "Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology." Available online at: https://archive.org/details/memorycontributi00ebbiuoft

  2. Carpenter, S. K., & DeLosh, E. L. (2005). Application of the testing and spacing effects to name learning. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 19(5), 619–636. DOI: 10.1002/acp.1093

  3. Rubin, D. C., & Wenzel, A. E. (1996). One hundred years of forgetting: A quantitative description of retention. Psychological Review, 103(4), 734–760. DOI: 10.1037/0033-295x.103.4.734

  4. Toppino, T. C., & Cohen, M. S. (2009). The testing effect and the retention interval: Questions and answers. Experimental Psychology, 56(4), 252–257. DOI: 10.1027/1618-3169.56.4.252