It’s sunny outside yet you’re stuck studying. You must know this stuff for tomorrow. It gets worse. Your smart aleck friend walks by saying “You know you’ll only remember ten percent of what you’re reading right now.” She’s citing an oft-repeated study that shows that, six weeks later, you’ll only remember four percent of what you are passively learning by reading.
Yet that familiar study has been debunked. Or rather there never was a study that showed people remember:
10% of what they read
20% of what they hear
30% of what they see
50% of what they see and hear
70% of what they write and say
90% of what they say as they do something with the information
“People do NOT remember 10% of what they read, 20% of what they see, 30% of what they hear, etc.,” learning expert, Will Thalheimer emphatically explains.
So the percentages aren’t proven yet the levels for accelerating learning are. You do learn faster and remember more when you move from passive to active, meaningful, repeated engagement in what you are learning.
Your Useable insight
You’ll learn more and remember it longer when you:
• Actively and repeatedly practice what you are learning, as you are learning it, and when you continuously relate it to something concrete that matters to you.
• Teach others what we are learning.