THOUGHT: Testing BackwardsTREND: Reinforcement WorksTOOL: Math Academy - Built Different

American schools drown in standardized tests. Testing became synonymous with accountability theater—measuring schools, not helping students learn.

Justin Skycak, who leads curriculum at Math Academy, observes that "'Testing' and 'repetition' have become dirty words in education"

Yet he also notes that self-testing—where students quiz themselves to pull information from memory—is one of the most effective learning techniques.

The irony is that if schools used the kind of testing that actually builds learning, students would ace the accountability tests without trying.

Read Justin's full post

Students who test themselves retain up to 80% more than those who just re-read material.

The classic experiment went like this: Take college students learning prose passages. Split them into groups. One group studies the material four times (SSSS). Another studies three times and takes one test (SSST). A third studies once and takes three tests (STTT).

Five minutes later, the study-only group performs best. But check back in a week, and the test-heavy group retains 61% while the study-only group drops to 40%.

Without reinforcement, 70% of information vanishes within 24 hours.

This is one of the most robust findings in education research. It's been replicated over and over since the early 1900s, and the latest study confirmed it again: practice tests boost retention AND help students transfer knowledge to new problems.

Tl;dr: Self-testing beats studying for long-term retention.

Math Academy built a platform around cognitive science instead of arbitrary test scores or feel-good approaches that shun testing altogether.

The core principle is 'Fractional Implicit Repetition.' Traditional flashcard apps treat every topic as independent. But math doesn't work that way. When you practice algebra, you're implicitly practicing arithmetic. Math Academy tracks these relationships and cuts total review time by skipping the redundant quizzing on foundations you're already reinforcing.

Users–including a PhD datascientist–report extraordinary results. At $49/month, it's not cheap—but it might be worth it if your child is forgetting what you thought they learned last week.

 Explore Math Academy

Stay tuned for the answer on Friday (and be prepared to show your work).