How to Remember What You Learn: 5 Study Habits Backed by Science

You read a whole chapter. It all made sense. A week later you can barely remember what it was about. Sound familiar? That's not because you're bad at learning. It's how memory works, and once you understand it, you can work with it instead of against it.

Learning new things keeps your mind active and curious, which is what intellectual wellness is all about. Here's how to make that learning stick.

Why we forget so fast

In the 1880s, German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus tested his own memory of nonsense syllables and charted how quickly he forgot them. His "forgetting curve" showed memory drops off steeply at first, then levels out. Later research has generally backed up the basic pattern: without review, we lose a lot of new information quickly.

The fix isn't studying harder. It's studying smarter.

1. Test yourself instead of rereading

This is the big one. Retrieval practice means pulling information out of your memory, not just putting it in.

In a well-known 2006 study, psychologists Henry Roediger and Jeffrey Karpicke had students either reread a passage or take practice tests on it. On a test a week later, the students who practiced recalling the material remembered noticeably more than those who simply reread it, even though rereading felt more effective at the time.

How to do it:

• After reading a section, close the book and write down everything you remember.
• Make flashcards with a question on one side.
• Explain what you learned to someone else, or out loud to an empty room.

It feels harder than rereading. That effort is exactly what makes it work.

2. Space it out

Cramming everything into one long session works for tomorrow's test and fails for next month. Spreading the same amount of practice over several days leads to much better long-term memory. This is called the spacing effect, and it's one of the most reliable findings in learning research.

Try reviewing new material after one day, then three days, then a week. Many flashcard apps schedule this for you automatically.

3. Mix it up

When you practice different types of problems or skills in one session, instead of drilling one at a time, you learn to tell them apart. Researchers call this interleaving. A guitar student might switch between chords, scales and a song rather than doing 30 minutes of scales in a row.

4. Connect it to what you already know

New information sticks better when you hook it onto something familiar. Ask yourself: How is this like something I already understand? Where would I use this? Can I think of an example from my own life?

5. Sleep on it

Sleep plays an important role in turning the day's learning into lasting memory. Pulling an all-nighter to study works against you. If you're learning something important, protecting your sleep is part of the plan.

Ideas for lifelong learning

You don't need to be in school to keep learning. Some ideas that feed intellectual wellness:

• learn a language with a free app, 10 minutes a day
• take up an instrument
• join a book club or start a podcast habit
• take a free online course in something you've always wondered about
• do puzzles, crosswords or strategy games with friends
• learn a new recipe each week

Intellectual wellness is one of the eight dimensions on our wellness wheel quiz. See how yours compares in two minutes.