Forget practising for hours on end or cramming the night before an exam. Here are some pointers to help you get top results

The old saying, “If at first you don’t succeed: try, try again”, might need rewriting. Because, according to new research, even if you do succeed, you should still try, try again. “Overlearning”, scientists say, could be the key to remembering what you have learned.

In a study of 183 volunteers, participants were asked to spot the orientation of a pattern in an image. It is a task that took eight 20-minute rounds of training to master. Some volunteers, however, were asked to carry on for a further 16 20-minute blocks to “overlearn” before being moved on to another task. When tested the next day, they had retained the ability better than those who had mastered it and then stopped learning.

Continue reading…https://www.theguardian.com/science/shortcuts/2017/jan/31/overlearning-to-going-barefoot-how-to-learn-better