Several times in the past few years, the NY Times has written about the growing importance of the iPhone and iPad in education.  On January 20th, Pam Belluck has now given further support of Brainscape’s learning delivery methods, in her recent article entitled “To Really Learn, Quit Studying & Take a Test.”

Belluck and her psychology colleagues argue that the study methods traditionally pushed by educators – including repeatedly re-reading pages and even creating “concept maps” with novel eLearning technologies – fail to truly cement learning for the long haul.  What is really needed is a solid regimen of “retrieval practice” that is similar to taking a test.  Every time we retrieve something, our brain is not merely playing back information but is rather establishing stronger neuron connections that will allow a faster retrieval the next time the cue is encountered.

Brainscape takes this practice to a whole new level by breaking knowledge into its most fundamental, “testable” building blocks, and maximizing the convenience and precision of retrieval practice through its confidence-based repetition methodology.  The Brainscape portal is easily accessible via the web or mobile phone.  When you study using Brainscape, you are presented a cue (“What does ‘tacit’ mean?”) and are challenged to think of the answer by assessing yourself on the answer (“implied or unspoken”), rather than simply recognizing it using multiple choice.  As implied in the NY Times article, such self-assessment is much more effective than multiple choice, and can have many additional learning benefits of its own.

Once the answer is displayed, Brainscape then asks to assess your own confidence in that piece of knowledge, by answering the question “how well did you know this?” on a scale of 1-5.  This confidence rating is used to determine how long until the next time that concept will be displayed again.   Not only does this system of efficient study time dramatically increase your speed of learning, but it also becomes a critical knowledge management tool as you acquire more and more content into your Brainscape platform.

Hopefully, the appreciation of this concept by the NY Times and its readers will continue to bring attention to the importance of the efficient use of study time.  As we have increasingly more to learn every year, and as the stakes get higher, we simply cannot afford to waste so many precious hours & days learning the wrong way.  Brainscape helps optimize learning for more and more subjects every day.