Actually learn things

Studying is a waste of your time if it all gets forgotten. You could settle for ‘bums on seats’, but to actually learn academic content, attendance isn’t enough. Honestly, you may as well spend your time doing something else. (You’ll likely learn plenty doing something you enjoy, anyway.)

If you do choose to study, or if you’re responsible for helping someone else make educational progress, here’s a two-step track-and-stick plan to make the most of your time:

1. Track it

• Record what’s been done. If you’re following a curriculum, you’ll know what you’ve covered. If you’re being monitored by an institution, you’ll need to prove your progress. It’s also useful if you follow a more meandering path towards knowledge, and want to be able to synthesise that which you’ve chanced upon at the end of the year. It’s a study diary, to help you organise and reflect on your journey.

2. Make it stick

• Make flash cards of what you’ve learned. Review them daily. There’s loads of information on the web about the effectiveness of spaced repetition as a way to make knowledge stick in memory. You’ll own the knowledge, beyond exams, forever.

How does this website help?

I don't know. All I know is: it helps me. I’m the developer, and the mother of a home educated child. I wrote this website to track our progress, and to make sure that my and my child’s time isn’t wasted. If you want to be able to use it, too, you can sign up for free, but with no warranty or promise that it will help. (And with no guarantee that this website will be maintained after we finish our home ed journey, around 2026-28.) Everyone's different and this is what works for us, but it is entirely possible that it will not work for you. In addition, I cannot provide any support, take any feature requests or promise to engage in any correspondence about this website, I'm afraid.

You don't need a website to track-and-stick, anyway. It just makes it more organised. Good luck with your learning!