Spaced revision scheduler

Why this works

A review of 317 experiments found that spreading study over time beats cramming it into one sitting, and that the longer you need to remember something, the longer the best gap between sessions (Cepeda and colleagues, 2006).

A study of over 1,350 people found the best gap was about 20 to 40% of the time until the test when the test was a week away, and about 5 to 10% when it was a year away (Cepeda and colleagues, 2008). With an exam date, the scheduler sets each gap from that finding.

A wider review rated spreading practice out as one of only two highly useful study techniques (Dunlosky and colleagues, 2013). The preset schedules, such as 1, 3, 7, 14 and 30 days, are common conventions; the research supports spacing, not those exact days.

• Source: Cepeda, N. J., Pashler, H., Vul, E., Wixted, J. T., & Rohrer, D. (2006). Distributed practice in verbal recall tasks: A review and quantitative synthesis. Psychological Bulletin, 132(3), 354-380. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.132.3.354
• Source: Cepeda, N. J., Vul, E., Rohrer, D., Wixted, J. T., & Pashler, H. (2008). Spacing effects in learning: A temporal ridgeline of optimal retention. Psychological Science, 19(11), 1095-1102. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02209.x
• Source: Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J., & Willingham, D. T. (2013). Improving students' learning with effective learning techniques: Promising directions from cognitive and educational psychology. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1), 4-58. doi:10.1177/1529100612453266

Worked example

Related tools

Everything you enter stays in this browser. Sign up to keep it in sync across devices.