SuperMemo

Have you ever heard of flashcards? A lot of learners use them to memorize vocabulary. They write a word in their native language on one side of the card and the corresponding word in the language they're learning on the other side. Then they test themselves on them.

Well, flashcards certainly help if you have to learn 100 words for next week's test. But I just can't imagine anyone carrying them around for longer than several weeks. And when you learn a foreign language it's not enough to remember a word for a short time - you have to remember it for your whole life!

Instead of using flashcards, I tried writing down my new words in a notebook. After a few months there were more than 1000 items in it. To make sure I didn't forget them, I had to review the list from time to time. But it took a long time. Some words I would remember better, and some I would forget very quickly. But still I had to review all of them.

SuperMemo, a computer program for speed-learning, was exactly what I needed. The principles are simple. You create your personal database of items and the program tests you on them. But that's not all! Each time you answer a question you grade how well you remembered the answer. SuperMemo schedules the next repetitions of the item based on your grades. This way, you repeat the well-known items less and less often and at the same time make sure you won't forget the problematic ones. And you save lots of time! Today my collection contains more than 8000 items, but I only need to spend about twenty minutes a day to retain them in my head.