Retain 90% of everything you learn - Smart Updates

Listening or reading something is just listening or reading. It's not real learning. Real learning comes from making mistakes. And mistakes come from implementation. And that's how you retain 90% of everything you learn.

Simple steps on how to retain 90% of everything you learn

Spaced repetition: Review material over and over again over incremental time intervals. Review your materials intermittently to slow down the deterioration of your memory as time passes.

Active reiteration: To really embed the facts you are reading into your mind, teach them to someone else.

By teaching, you are forced to summarise, condense, investigate, and draw conclusions – promoting a deeper personal understanding. Explain concepts in the simplest terms possible to anyone who would listen, a fellow classmate, roommate or to empty beer cans.

Directed note-taking: Ask yourself what you don’t understand about a certain topic. Really get to the root of the problem and dig your way out of it.

First, spot the problem areas. Second, design a question which addresses this area. Third, answer your question. Use all your lecture notes, library books, and even Google Search. Don’t move on until you are confident with your answer and rest assured, you will understand the concepts better by going through this route.

Reading on paper: Paper removes one of the top factors for students losing focus: distraction. Without the Internet, there won’t be an infinite number of websites tempting our eyes away from much-needed study time and breaking our focus, which is crucial to retaining memory. Unlike computer screens, reading on paper also helps with spatial memory – you can recall a certain bit of information by where it was placed on a book.

Time your study: If you have to cram, do it smartly. Set 25-30 minute chunks of intense study and rest for five minutes after. After all, our ability to retain information tapers after 30 minutes anyway.

Sleep and exercise: Our brain absorbs information best right before sleep or right after exercise.

Research have shown that those who study before sleeping or napping have higher memory recall or higher activity in the hippocampus, the part of the brain which forms new memories.