Exams often tempt students to cram the night before. But ask yourself — how much do you really remember after hours of rushed revision? The truth is, cramming may help you recall facts for a day, but most of it disappears soon after. A smarter way, especially during exam season, is to use spaced repetition.
The idea is simple. Instead of reading the same chapter again and again in one sitting, you spread your revision over days. On Day 1, you study a topic carefully. On Day 2, you quickly review it for a few minutes. After a few days, you test yourself again. Each review session becomes shorter, but because your brain has to dig out the information repeatedly, the memory grows stronger.
Psychologists call this the “spacing effect.” Each time you recall something after a gap, your brain rewires the information, making it stick. It’s like lifting weights — the more you repeat with short rests in between, the stronger the muscle gets. Memory works the same way.
During exams, spaced repetition doesn’t mean making new timetables from scratch. It simply means revising in cycles. For example, if you study history on Monday, go back to it on Wednesday for a short review, and again on Saturday for a quick test. By the time the exam arrives, you’ve strengthened your recall far better than by one marathon cram session.
So instead of filling your head in one go, think of revision as planting seeds. Water them a little every day, and by exam time, your memory will be ready to bloom.
Forgetting curve
Without review, people forget nearly 70% of new information within 24 hours.
Flashcard power
Students using spaced repetition with flashcards often double their retention compared to cramming.
Apps for revision
Tools like Anki and Quizlet are built on spaced repetition and are widely used by medical and engineering students.