Why Cramming Fails: The Power of Distributed Practice

What is Distributed Practice?

Distributed practice (also known as spaced repetition) is a learning strategy that involves spacing out your learning over multiple sessions, rather than cramming it all into a single session. It helps to slow forgetting by consolidating memorized information into long-term memory.

The most effective way to create long-term memories is to re-engage with material at progressively greater intervals (a phenomenon known as the spacing effect). The opposite strategy is called massed practice (also known as cramming), which involves fewer, longer study sessions, and is a less effective method for learning.

Does Distributed Practice Work?

Over the years, you have probably had many teachers warn you against cramming right before the test. They instead advise you to space out your studying over time. But are they right? Studies say yes.

In one study, students in elementary school were assigned one of three study methods:

• Massed: Four lessons in a single day
• Clumped: Two lessons on one day, two more the next
• Spaced: One lesson per day over four days

The spaced group achieved the highest performance, with the clumped group performing better than the massed group.

The results highlight that spaced learning works better than cramming, especially for complex topics.

Why Does Distributed Practice Work?

Newly learned information tends to fade quickly from memory if no effort is made to retain it. The percentage of information retained, as a function of time, forms a characteristic pattern called a forgetting curve.

Spaced repetition is a great way to slow down the process of forgetting. This method, based on the spacing effect, minimizes the time spent learning the material, while maximizing the amount you remember.

By periodically revisiting the information, at intervals of increasing duration, you help your brain hold on to it in the long term. While initial reviews should happen fairly quickly after initially learning the information (within a few days), further reviews can be spaced out over much longer periods of time.

The durations between reviews can be adjusted absed on how much you remembered from last time. If you had trouble recalling the information, that's an indication that you waited too long for the review, and you should schedule your next one within a shorter period of time. If you got the material right, then you can wait a longer amount of time before quizzing yourself again.

Why Does Cramming Fail?

If you're anything like the average student, you ignored your teachers' the advice to space out your studying, and made a habit of cramming before tests. Right now you're probably thinking about the times you procrastinated all semester, crammed the night before the exam, and did just fine. If you've survived so far by cramming, why does everyone recommend against it?

To answer that question, we can look at another study. This one examined how well university students performed on a reading comprehension test under 3 different conditions:

• Single: Read the text once
• Massed: Read the text twice in one session
• Distributed: Read the text twice with a one-week gap

When tested immediately, the massed group performed best. However, after a two-day delay, the distributed group outperformed the others.

So if you just want to perform as well as possible on one exam, cramming is an effective strategy. But if you want to truly learn the content, your best bet is to space out your studying over time.

How to Apply Distributed Practice

If you'd like to incorporate distributed practice into your studying routine, you can create a learning schedule. Make sure to emphasize finding time to practice a little bit every day or every few days instead of cramming all your learning into the last few days before your exam.

If creating a schedule sounds like a hassle, you can use an app like anki to space out your studying for you. Anki will schedule how often you see your flashcards, and adjust the intervals based on how well you know the material.

If you'd like to try the anki method, but with AI-generated flashcards, give Study Buddy AI a try!

Further Reading

If you're interested in learning more about distributed practice, you can check out these links:

• Memory: A contribution to experimental psychology.
• Individual differences in associative learning and forgetting.
• The Spacing Effect: How to Improve Learning and Maximize Retention
• Spaced Repetition
• The Influence of Length and Frequency of Training Session on the Rate of Learning to Type