Spaced Repition

When I started my UPSC preparation,I was a beginner struggling to retain the vast amount of information one needs to remember. To improve my revision efficiency, I began using spaced repetition.

For example, if I studied a topic like the President of India today, I would revise it the next day (i.e., tomorrow), then again after 3 days, 7 days, and finally after 1 month — following a spaced revision pattern.

I used a Google Sheet to track my revision schedule. Every time I studied a new topic, I’d enter it into a column along with the scheduled revision dates. Each morning, I’d search for that day’s date on the sheet (say, June 10) to find out which topics needed to be revised that day, and I’d go ahead with the revision.

If there were too many topics to revise on a particular day, I prioritized the ones I felt weak in and sometimes skipped the stronger ones.

However, I used this method only during the first year of my preparation, as I didn’t feel the need for such intensive revision in the later stages.