Learning & Education
Memory That Sticks: Plan Reviews on the Forgetting Curve
Intermediate | 1 whiteboard page · Task board: 5 columns (5 parent tasks, 10 subtasks)
Intermediate: Method names appear, but the whiteboard explains the key points. Use the examples as a guide and fill it in, thinking it through for your own situation.
A spaced repetition template for vocabulary and key terms, opened the day a quiz takes down a set you thought you knew, so you redesign your review days instead of piling on more items. The whiteboard holds your targets and daily cap, a five-step reminder plan along the forgetting curve out to a month later, a grid of next review dates and recall rates, and a matrix ranking items by how often they are tested against how well they stick. The task board covers the audit, daily cap, first pass, review schedule and sorting, and each card moves one column right when its alert fires.
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Forgetting Curve Review Planner
How to use: (1) Set your total volume and the five review intervals on the whiteboard → (2) Move each card to the column its alert calls for
What to memorize, how much of it, and the daily cap
- Targets and total volume 1,200 words, 400 terms, 80 formulas: 1,680 items in all (example). Count what you need, then divide by the days left.
- Daily cap 50 new and 100 reviews at most. Once you hit the cap, stop new items and run reviews only, so the intervals stay intact.
- When the plan slips On days your evening disappears, set new items to zero. Shrink reviews to ten minutes, but never skip the interval.
Five reminders along the forgetting curve
- First pass Say the meaning aloud, attach one cue, and move on
- Next day Cover the answers, test the meaning, and requeue only what stalls
- Day 3 Revisit only the misses and promote the clean hits to week one
- Week 1 Run the full set and send anything hit twice in a row to monthly
- Month 1 Rewrite the set from a blank page and send the gaps back to the first pass
Next review and recall rate per resource
| Next review | Recall rate | |
|---|---|---|
| Word cards | 50 new cards tomorrow | 72%, 18 to redo |
| Key terms | 20 terms in 3 days | 85%, 5 frequent terms weak |
| Formulas & signs | Rewrite in one week | 60%, sign slips lead |
| Diagrams & timelines | Redraw it in a month | 78%, dates still swap order |
Matrix for the order you learn in
Vertical axis: How well it sticks for you (low to high) / Horizontal axis: How often it is tested (low to high)
- Monthly check only Instant recall already and rarely tested. One blank-page check a month, off the daily count.
- Protect the scorers Tested every time and still instant. One full pass a week holds the three-second recall.
- Leave for later Weak but rarely tested. Do not touch it until the higher tiers clear, then skim key points.
- Run these first Where the losses come from. Revisit daily, pausing new items, until two clean hits in a row.
Why it slipped
- Read it once and moved straight on
- Studied lookalike items together
- Left a gap of more than two days
What brings it back
- A scene image pulls the meaning back
- First letters strung into one word
- Paired with its opposite meaning
Signs it stuck
- Meaning arrives within three seconds
- Rebuilt 80 percent from a blank page
- Still held at the monthly check
Task board contents
Not started 15 items
List memory targets
Count every item you need to memorize per resource and put the total and the days left on one sheet. Without it, the daily cap is guesswork.
Pick one resource
Commit to one app, card deck, or notebook as your main resource and stop adding others.
Count total items
Add up the items per chapter, then divide the total by the days left to get a daily figure.
Set a daily cap
Cap new plus review items per day and pause new items the moment you hit it. Holding the cap is what keeps the intervals intact.
Time ten items
Run ten items for real, time it, and work the cap back from the study time you can protect.
Split new vs review
Give a third of the cap to new items and the rest to reviews, and drop new items to zero when reviews overflow.
Run the first pass
The first time through a set. Say the meaning aloud and attach one cue, such as an image or initials, before moving on.
Say each item aloud
Read every item aloud and restate the meaning in your own words before you flip the card.
Attach one cue
Add exactly one cue, a scene image or initials or an opposite, to give recall a way in.
Schedule review days
Book all four follow-ups, from the next day out to a month later, the moment the first pass ends. A review that is not on the calendar does not happen.
Set five reminders
Register all five alerts per set, and revisit only that set on the day its alert fires.
Absorb missed days
Move a skipped review to the front of the next day instead of stretching the interval.
Sort by recall rate
Log recall once a week, promote anything answered twice in a row to the monthly check, and send misses back to the next-day slot.
Log recall weekly
Write down hits and misses per resource and update the recall rate column in the grid.
Retire solid items
Move items answered within three seconds twice in a row to the monthly check, off the daily count.
