Day Three and Something Useful

Now at last on day three some really valuable help.

Its something I try to do but continually forget.

We all set out with a strategy when learning a language but all too often we keep that as a mental note rather than writing down a strategy.

I'm not sure you can really learn a language fast unless you commit to drilling in vocabulary and conjugated forms of verbs at regular intervals during the day and as the  Erbinghaus Forgetting Curve shows, it has to be repeated regularly.

Any way here is the information for you

You may be a diligent student who devotes a lot of time to learning new things everyday, and you might also have a lot of many wonderful memory techniques at your disposal...

But those are not enough.
It is only natural that you will end up gradually forgetting what you have learned. There are many reasons that contribute to forgetting a particular word, such as the nature of the word (e.g. concrete vs. abstract) and the strength of your mental associations created for the foreign word.
Here is something called "The Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve" established by Hermann Ebbinghaus in 1885:

Or more specifically:

Elapsed Time Since Learning	Retention (100%)
Immediately	100
20 minutes	58
1 hour	44
9 hours	36
1 day	33
2 days	28
6 days	25
31 days	21

According to the Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve, you’ll forget more than half of what you learned within 1 hour, so you have to consciously review what you have learned within just an hour of learning it!

Not many language learners do that.

How about after the first revision within an hour?

The rule of thumb here is to review at least 3 times on the first day. And then revise within the next 24 hours, the next 3 days, next week, and next month.

The truth is, reviewing what you have learned within a short time is an excellent investment of your time and is a few more times effective than reviewing later on. And if you don't regularly revise your material you will end up spending a lot more time re-learning what you have already learned and forgotten.

So how exactly do you go about this?

One way is to learn 10 words at a time on a vocabulary list. Review the last two lists before each new one is learned. Review the words several times on the same day and again over the next two days as well.

Another good way is to keep a vocabulary journal. I personally prefer this approach to using software tools as it is a lot easier for you to manage and you can review at any time. But if you use your computer on a regular basis then it's your call.