Why Learning 10 Minutes Is Better Than Learning 60 Minutes

Sounds too good to be true?

Here’s the catch. Learning 10 minutes a day for 6 days is better than learning the same subject matter for 60 minutes in one day.

As parents and teachers, we focus on how long our kids study and feel satisfied when they study for long hours. However, we are missing the key point–’ what have they actually internalized? Without internalizing, there is no point in studying for long hours. So it comes down to how EFFECTIVELY students study rather than HOW LONG  they study.

So how can a student study effectively?

Studies suggest that students who learn in a spaced manner retain what they learn. I will not ask you to rely on research alone, but to try it yourself. Ask your student to read an article for 60 minutes on the 1st day, and on the 8th day ask them to recollect the main points and write them on a piece of paper. Ask the same student to read another similar article for 10 minutes every day for 6 days (they can stop reading after 10 minutes and resume the next day). Once again, on the 8th day, ask them to write down what they remember. By comparing the results, you can reach a conclusion without doubt. You can extend this experiment for more days as well. Ask the student to read 2 articles: the first for 60 minutes straight, and the second for 10 minutes for 6 days. Ask the student to write about the articles after 30 days. Evaluate which article the student retains better.

When a child is repeatedly exposed to the same topic, the brain focuses better on it. This helps the brain get more and more involved in the topic and activate and store the data in a better way, even without our knowledge. Have you ever wondered how we learn the lines of our favorite songs effortlessly? It is a classic example of spaced learning in action. 

So the solution is simple. To master a topic, we need to engage with it consistently for a few days, which leads to effective learning and retention.

Let us explore how we can make the best use of spaced learning. Theories suggest that the human brain forgets 90% of what it has learned within a week!!! So how do we remember what we have learned? REVISION IS THE MAGIC WAND! I will help you devise effective ways to study and revise. This has worked for me, so it will definitely work for you too. 

Suppose you are studying a topic that requires 2 hours of study.

1. After spending the required hours ,write a summary of the whole topic. This will help you in structuring the topic in your mind.

2. fter 24 hours, review the topic by skimming through the text and going through the brief in 1 hour.

3. After 2 more days, go through the brief in half an hour.After one week,you have to go through the brief again.

4. If need be, you can repeat step 3 after one month..

From then on, this topic is embedded in your brain forever. Whenever you need it, you can retreive it. This is the power of spaced learning.

If you don’t revise, your retention is going to be low.

With the help of more revision, you will be able to retain more.

This is definitely one technique you can suggest to your children to improve their studies.

Now I would like to show you one of the chapters from 9th grade that I used with one of my students. You can see how we can make it so short that it becomes very easy for the students to revise it later.

A TOTAL OF 56 PAGES ALTOGETHER...WITH A LOT OF THEOREMS TO MEMORIZE !!!

The three pages below show the whole chapter in a condensed form. Any student who has studied the topic well can easily revise the whole chapter by going through these 3 sheets. If needed, you can shorten it further without losing the essence. A topic that spans across 50 pages is condensed into just 2 or 3 pages!!!

  This way of learning and revising makes learning easy, and effective for students for the rest of their lives.