The Forgetting Curve Has a Cure

What do you remember from your last training?
The way we’ve been learning is all wrong. Remember cramming for tests? I do, and while I usually did well on my exams, I didn’t retain much of anything. I’ve heard for years that people forget 70 percent of what they learn in a professional training class within 24 hours of the event. That isn’t learning at all. It’s a total waste of time and a monumental waste of money. And sales organizations don’t have either to spare.
So, what does work? Art Kohn’s article, “Brain Science: Overcoming the Forgetting Curve,”pointed me to a book called Make It Stick by Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger III, and Mark A. McDaniel. Their research is fascinating and upends how we thought we learned. Studying by reading, re-reading, and repetition affects short-term memory only. The way to embed learning and actually remember information is to use