More advice on memory, and how to improve it! Last week I wrote a bit about improving memory for the bar. However, I want to dive a bit deeper into the topic.
I’m going to talk about three aspects of memory, that if used in your studying, can actually help you vastly improve what you are trying to memorize!
The forgetting curve says that we can predict when you will forget information, the spacing effect shows that if we study just before we would forget we can improve memory, and the testing effect tells us that testing ourselves improves memory. Using these three things together can really help! I’m going to particularly focus on the testing effect, as I think that’s something you can easily employ while you study.
The Forgetting Curve
It is almost universally accepted that memories decay over time. Researchers, over time, have discovered that we can predict when the memories will begin to decay. This is the forgetting curve. It was first discovered by psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus in 1885. He found that beginning just after a person learns information, their ability to remember the information, or recall, starts to decay. When he used nonsense syllables to test, it only took 20 minutes for the average test subject to have a less than 60% likelihood of recalling a syllable. An hour, it was less than 50%, and a day later, test subjects had lost nearly 70% of the information. A month later, learners retained only 20% of the material.
Ebbinghaus also discovered that while the initial rate of decline is fairly steep, the rate of decay declines with time. This means that memories that “survive” become less likely to be lost over time. This also means that the longer a student is able to retain a memory in the initial stage, the slower the information will decay over time.
Spacing Effect
The spacing effect says that if you properly space yours studying, this slows memory loss, or memory decay. Basically spacing out learning and review helps adjust the forgetting curve. If you allow longer periods of time in between review sessions, you’ll improve memory.
Now, the trouble with the spacing effect for things like the bar exam is that you really have too much learn, and not enough time! So, what can you do instead? You can still apply the concept, but use it with something called interleaving.
Interleaving is mixing subjects up as you study. So, normal, or “blocked” practice is the idea that you will study one concept, or topic, until you feel comfortable and then move on. Interleaving is the mixing of those subjects. This works particularly well with the bar exam. Interleaving ha been shown to be more effective than blocked practice for developing the skills of problem solving, and also leads to long term memory retention! Both things useful for the bar exam!
Interleaving forces the brain to continually retrieve information, since each practice prompt, is different from the last. This means your short term memory won’t help you. Interleaving also improves the brain’s ability to differentiate between concepts. Again, something you need for the bar exam! However, because interleaving involves retrieval practice, it feels more difficult than “blocked” practice. So, it’s going to feel worse. It’s going to feel like you aren’t getting concepts. So, it’s important to remember that this studying feels worse, but has better long term results.
So, each day study a variety of topics. Yes, there will be instances where it makes more sense to focus on one topic for a few hours. But if you are looking to increase your ability to recall the information, make sure you are switching in between torts and contracts, and then civ pro, and then property and so forth.
Something else you can do, which isn’t as effective, but still helpful, is to change how or what you are studying. Don’t spend one day on MBE, and another on essays. Or one day completely listening to videos, or reviewing outlines. Do 15 MBE questions, and then 1 essay, and then review some flaschards, and so forth.
Testing Effect
Finally, my favorite, the testing effect. I have mentioned before that testing increases memory. I hear students stress over getting questions wrong during practice and review. I understand why they might get frustrated, but they are missing the important fact that by testing yourself, you are actually increasing the odds that you remember a law.
Basically, people achieve higher rates of recall of information already learned when they have tested themselves, versus just passively observing. So, this is why I encourage you to do more questions instead of reviewing your outline. There is a time and space for passive review, but your memory really gets better each time you “test”. In addition, testing without feedback will help with recall, but the effect is stronger when the testing is associated with meaningful feedback. So, what does this mean? Make sure to fully review each and every answer!
Remember, as you practice for the bar, don’t think of doing practice questions as assessment, or an indicator of how much you know. They can be both of those things, but start thinking of practice questions as a way to increase long term memory!
Studies show that self-testing even a single time can be as effective as reviewing information five times. Think about that – do you want to do one multiple choice question, or review your flash card five times? A study used a group of students who were given schedules to learn vocabulary words – the schedules were studying OR testing, and another group that was given a schedule to study AND test. A week later, the students who did the testing remembered 80% of the vocabulary words, versus 35% of non testing students. Now, I should point out that memorizing vocabulary is easier than memorizing legal concepts. In addition, the bar exam is asking you to APPLY those legal concepts, which you can’t do with memory alone. But that’s another reason why the testing effect is so useful!
So, your overall takeaway form all of this should be that practice DOES make perfect, and does help memory. In addition, breaks are still a good idea!
(Melissa Hale)
Note: To write this I relied heavily on the following:
n.d. Bjork Learning and Forgetting Lab. Accessed June 15, 2020. https://bjorklab.psych.ucla.edu/.
Teninbaum, Gabriel H. 2017. "Spaced Repetition: A Method for Learning More Law in Less Time." Suffolk University Journal of High Technology Law.
