Why we forget 

By  Lysette Offley

Why we forget - diagram of forgetting cyrveYour brain automatically tends to let go of older information in favour of more recent information. On top of that your brain filters out information based on what it believes to be important in the moment, in other words what’s important to your survival. So even though you are receiving something like 10,000 bits of information every second, you’re not aware of most of it because your brain is getting rid of it as fast as it arrives.

A good example of this is when you’re crossing the road. You are far more likely to be aware of the speed of the oncoming traffic then you are of the colour of the skirt on the woman walking the dog on the pavement behind you. Another time that might be just the thing that takes your attention, but not right now, not when your safety is at stake.

Of course, your revision does not come under the category of essential to your survival, and so it automatically becomes one of the first things that your brain will filter out and let go off. And that’s why you need to compensate for this by paying enough attention to the 3 Keys to Learning.

1. Spend enough time with information

2. Make brain-friendly notes

3. Revisit the information regularly

Here is a graph showing you how easily we forget what we’ve learned for the financial services exams. The pink area at the bottom shows you what happens to most people when they revise. As you can see, they forget most of what they’ve learnt within a very short period of time. Most of it has gone within 24 hours and it continues to disappear after that.

However, if you follow the Genius Material system, the blue area of the graph shows you that you’ll remember 80% and more of what you’ve revised – forever. That’s the way to pass exams!

So, what is the Genius Material system?

It’s really simple. And anyone can follow it. Basically, you need to pay attention to the 3 Keys to Learning.

The 3 Keys to Learning

1. You have to spend enough time with the information in the first place for your brain to make a pattern of it and send it your long-term memory.

2. You need to make revision notes in a style that is friendly to your brain, in a form your brain likes.

3. You need to revisit your revision on a regular basis.

And that’s all there is to it. That’s all you have to do to remember your revision so that all your hard work is rewarded with good, solid passes in your exams.


Lysette Offley


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