[ GLOSSARY ]
What is spaced practice?
Definition
Learning scienceSpaced practice
Spaced practice means spreading practice of the same skill over days or weeks instead of massing it into one session.
Why it matters for schools
Spaced retrieval beats massed study, g = 0.74 across 29 studies; expanding the gaps worked no better than even gaps (Latimier, Peyre and Ramus, 2020). Personalized spacing can do better still: in one middle-school semester, personalized review raised retention 16.5% over massed study and 10.0% over one-size spacing (Lindsey et al., 2014).
In practice
Mix earlier skills into each week's work, and schedule a recheck a few weeks after a unit ends; a recheck within a single week does not show retention.
[ FAQ ]
Questions and answers
Is spaced practice better than cramming?
Yes. Spaced retrieval beats massed study, g = 0.74 across 29 studies.
Do the gaps need to get longer each time?
Not necessarily. Expanding gaps worked no better than even gaps in one meta-analysis.
How do you add spaced practice to homework?
Include a few problems from earlier units in each assignment, and recheck a unit's skills two to four weeks later.
[ SOURCES ]
Sources
Facts checked Oct 18, 2026.
- 1
- 2Lindsey et al., personalized spaced review, Psychological ScienceJan 20, 2014 · doi.org
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