Leitner Study System: An effective memorisation technique for school goers 

Let’s face it: Memorisation isn’t a cakewalk for many students. What makes it worse is, many of them try mugging up definitions and concepts without understanding them. This simply takes away the joy of learning. To cope with this problem, Sebastian Leitner, a German science journalist, created the flashcard study method called the Leitner System. It helps students in effectively memorising things. Read on to know more. 

What is Leitner Study System? 

The Leitner System is a flashcard-based learning method developed by German science journalist called Sebastian Leitner. It's a simple application of the spaced repetition principle, in which cards are evaluated at increasing intervals. Instead of cramming information into the learner’s brain all at once, spaced repetition through Leitner system encourages students to spread out their learning across time. They use this method to devote different time periods to studying specific flashcards and ideas, depending on their requirements or preferences. 

How does Leitner Study System work? 

The Leitner method is comprised of three flashcard boxes. By default, all cards are placed in box number one. Then, as children begin to study the flashcards, they'll start to re-arrange them based on whether they were able to correctly answer the questions on the card or not. Box 1 contains new cards that were recently added into the system as well as cards from Box 2 that were answered incorrectly. The cards in Box 1 have to be studied every day.  On the other hand, Box 2 carries cards from Box 1 that were answered correctly and cards from Box 3 that were answered wrongly by the learners. These cards have to be studied every other day. Box 3 holds cards from Box 2 and Box 3 that were answered correctly. These cards have to be reviewed once a week.  

To put it another way, students attempt to recall the solution from a flashcard. They send the card to the next group if they succeed. They send it back to the first group if they fail. The student gets a longer time before having to revisit the cards in each subsequent group.  

Going back in time, the size of the partitions in the learning box determined the schedule of repetition in Leitner's original approach, which he published in his book 'So lernt man Lernen'. The sizes were 1, 2, 5, 8, and 14 cm. The student could only review parts of the cards in a partition once it was full, shifting them forward or back based on whether they remembered them. 

What is the benefit of using Leitner Study System? 

The method's real strength is revealed in its continual rearranging of the cards. The system has the capacity to increase or reduce the spacing intervals of a given card based on the performance of the learners. This ensures that the most challenging cards are studied frequently, while easy-to-recall cards are studied less frequently. It is a faster method that ensures efficiency, particularly in theoretical topics such as history, business studies, and political science. The approach excels at using the power of spaced repetition and stressing the most important cards. This results in a well-optimised learning schedule because each flashcard box is reviewed at a pre-determined practice interval.