You may have noticed that when you have to actively recall information in response to a question, your brain learns it better. For example, when I'm watching Bones and the scientists are all like, "The hyoid isn't broken! So it can't have been suicide," and I say, "What's a hyoid?" and look it up and discover that it's a bone in the neck near the larynx, then my odds of retaining that information are much, much better than if I just read a list of bones in the neck in some medical textbook, without integrating that knowledge into a specific context.
It also turns out that there are some other psychological effects you can also exploit which enhance your odds of remembering things without increasing the amount of effort you put into it, and so-called "spaced learning" software exists to help you with this.
The idea is that if you're only going to view a given piece of information like a random list of digits ("555-5452") 5 times, your long-term odds of being able to recall that information ("how many fives are in that number?") are low if you view it 5 times in a row right now, but much higher if you view it now, in an hour, tomorrow, next week, and next month. So if you want to efficiently learn things without having to view the same information hundreds of times, you need something that keeps track of your intended learning and shows it to you only when it's time to give your memory a boost.
Here's the theory: https://www.gwern.net/Spaced-repetition#spacing-effect
Here's a very basic tutorial for Anki (a free flashcard program using spaced learning) to show you how easy it is to get started. Essentially you just take screenshots or type in whatever you want to test yourself on, then it shows you the flashcard and shows you the answer when you're ready, and you tell it if you got it right so it knows how long to wait before showing you the same card again. Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9GtFLAI2RU
-Max
It also turns out that there are some other psychological effects you can also exploit which enhance your odds of remembering things without increasing the amount of effort you put into it, and so-called "spaced learning" software exists to help you with this.
The idea is that if you're only going to view a given piece of information like a random list of digits ("555-5452") 5 times, your long-term odds of being able to recall that information ("how many fives are in that number?") are low if you view it 5 times in a row right now, but much higher if you view it now, in an hour, tomorrow, next week, and next month. So if you want to efficiently learn things without having to view the same information hundreds of times, you need something that keeps track of your intended learning and shows it to you only when it's time to give your memory a boost.
Here's the theory: https://www.gwern.net/Spaced-repetition#spacing-effect
Here's a very basic tutorial for Anki (a free flashcard program using spaced learning) to show you how easy it is to get started. Essentially you just take screenshots or type in whatever you want to test yourself on, then it shows you the flashcard and shows you the answer when you're ready, and you tell it if you got it right so it knows how long to wait before showing you the same card again. Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9GtFLAI2RU
-Max
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I could not love thee dear, so much,
Loved I not honor more.
I could not love thee dear, so much,
Loved I not honor more.
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