Learning box
The learning box is very efficient at repeating. It consists of 5 partitions (or boxes) in different sizes. In these partitions are index- cards which contains e.g. vocabularies or other stuff you want to learn. You start with putting new index- cards into the first and smallest partition. Then you go through the cards in the same order you've put the cards in.
So you can find out if you already know the vocabularies or not.
[Example: front side - English word, back side - German word]
If your answer was correct, you can put the card into the next (the 2nd partition), which is a bit larger than the first one. If the answer was not correct, you have to put the card into the 1st partition on the last position of the cards.
If the cards of the 1st partition are done once, you can refill it with new cards. Keep on doing it till the 2nd partition is nearly full. And again: correct answer - put the card into the 3rd partition (one further), wrong answer - put the card back to the beginning. And that is how it works for all partitions: right - one further, wrong - back into the 1st
- Vocabularies you didn't remember get repeated more often. Already learned vocabularies pass the card box easily.
- If a vocabulary-card reaches the last partition, you've had this special vocabulary in your mind for weeks. And that means probably forever.
There are a very few disadvantages of the learning box: The box has to be build, contents have to be prepared for the cards, the cards need to be written and regularly seen through, the user has to decide if wrong or right answer, and the box is big and clumsy and should not be dropped, otherwise the cards loose their positions.
The learning box is known since the middle 60s from the book "How to learn (So lernt man lernen)" by the learn- psychologist Sebastian Leitner. Unfortunately the use of the learning box is not very wide-spread. On one hand it is because of the mentioned disadvantages on the other hand it's easier for teachers (although they recommend the learning box) to look through an exercise-book with vocabularies.
The (free) "memomo learning box" takes Leitner's learning box as a model. The advantages of the memomo learning box are: better possibilities in analyzing the learning, less things to do if you start learning with the learning box, index-cards which are "dynamic", multimedia support for learning in several channels, hyperlinks for explanations and further details and you can use it wherever and whenever as long as you have internet connection.