I can’t remember my courses: what can I do?

Why do we forget what we have learned?

At the end of the 19th century, the psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus learned lists of meaningless syllables, then measured how long it took him to relearn them after different delays. His forgetting curve shows a fast loss at first, then a slower and slower one. In 2015, the researchers Murre and Dros redid the experiment: the second author, the only participant, spent 70 hours learning and relearning lists, after delays ranging from 20 minutes to 31 days, and the resulting curve looks like Ebbinghaus’s.

Those syllables had no meaning, which makes them particularly hard to remember. A course that you understand and link to what you already know is generally remembered better. The trend remains the same: without review, a large part of what you read on a Monday is no longer accessible a few days later.

The authors of the replication point out one detail: the curve goes back up slightly after a night, which research on sleep and memory would lead you to expect, although they think other experiments are needed to confirm it. Above all, remember that forgetting is normal and predictable, and that reviews at the right time slow it down.

Understanding and remembering: what is the difference?

Understanding means being able to explain why and how: redo a line of reasoning, give an example that the course does not contain, link two concepts. Remembering means being able to retrieve the information later, without the course in front of you. You can understand in class and find nothing a week later, just as you can recite a definition without knowing how to use it.

The diagnosis takes five minutes. Close your notes and explain the concept out loud, as if to a classmate who was absent that day. If you get stuck on the why, it is a comprehension problem: go back over the passage, look for an example, ask your teacher a precise question. If you can explain but forget the dates, the terms or the formulas, it is a memorization problem: you need questions and spaced reviews.

Why isn’t rereading enough to remember?

Rereading gives a misleading feeling: the text seems familiar, so you feel like you know it. But the exam asks you to produce the information, and recognizing it is not enough. In the experiment by Roediger and Karpicke, published in 2006, the students who reread felt more confident, and yet, a week later, they remembered less than those who had written down from memory what they recalled.

The 2013 review by John Dunlosky and colleagues also ranks rereading and highlighting among the techniques of low usefulness. Searching for an answer in your memory is training in itself, and every attempt, even a failed one, shows you precisely what to review. That is the principle of active recall: ask the question before looking at the answer.

These signs show that you mostly study passively:

• You reread the whole chapter at every session.
• You highlight more than half of the page.
• You stop when the text feels familiar, without having asked yourself a single question.
• You only find out what you don’t know when you read the exam paper.

How do you make your courses stick for good?

Turn each chapter into short questions: a definition, a date and what it triggers, a formula and its conditions of use, a diagram to redraw. Answer from memory, in writing or out loud, then correct yourself with your course notes. Set aside the questions you missed: those are the ones to review first.

Then come back to the same chapter several times, at intervals that get longer, for example the next day, three days later, then the following week. In Fichea, the flashcards created from your course notes are scheduled with a spaced repetition algorithm, FSRS, and the schedule shows the reviews planned over the next 14 days. A deck of paper cards sorted in a Leitner box applies the same principle by hand.

For what has to be exact (dates, vocabulary, formulas), flashcards are often enough. For reasoning, add varied exercises and explain the steps in your own words, because being able to recite a method does not guarantee being able to apply it.

A 30-minute session to memorize a chapter

Here is one way to organize a session on a chapter you have already seen in class. The durations are indicative; the order matters more: retrieve first, check afterwards.

This blank sheet at the start is sometimes called blurting. The first few times, it is uncomfortable, because it shows everything that is missing. Those gaps become your work list for the next ten minutes.

• 5 minutes: on a blank sheet, write everything you remember from the chapter, without looking.
• 10 minutes: compare with your notes and fill in what was missing in another color.
• 10 minutes: answer about ten questions or flashcards, and set aside the ones you miss.
• 5 minutes: note the concepts to review and the date of your next review.

Frequently asked questions