SRS: Spaced Repetition System
If you’ve read through the Onboarding Series (hint, hint), then you’ve seen us going on about something called the SRS. But what the heck is an SRS?
Stay awhile and listen, young durtles, and all will be revealed.
SRS stands for Spaced Repetition System, which is based on the spacing effect.
The spacing effect basically says that you learn better when things are spread out over a greater period of time instead of jammed into a few hours or days.
Spaced repetition is a learning technique that adjusts your time between reviews for individual items so that your recall is tested at the most ideal time for your memory. The goal is to show you a review just before you would forget it. The better you know an item, the longer it will be until it comes up again for review. If you keep getting something wrong, the time between reviews will go down, meaning you’ll see it more often.
Not only is this kind of flexible spacing more efficient (you can memorize an item with fewer total reviews), but it better matches the way your actual memory works as well.
WaniKani combines this technique with interleaving and mnemonics to teach you kanji in the most effective way possible. If you want to know more, check out Koichi’s guide to spaced repetition over on Tofugu.