EVALUATING THE EFFICACY OF SPACED REPETITION AND OPTIMAL TIMING FOR ANATOMY KNOWLEDGE RETENTION IN FIRST-YEAR MEDICAL STUDENTS

Abstract

Background: The volume of information in medical education, particularly in foundational sciences, poses a significant retention challenge for students. Spaced repetition, a learning strategy grounded in cognitive psychology, involves reviewing information at systematically increasing intervals to counter memory decay. This study investigates the impact of a structured spaced repetition module and seeks to identify the most effective interval for reinforcing Anatomy knowledge among medical undergraduates. Methods: A one-month prospective interventional study was conducted with 250 first-year MBBS students. Participants were randomly assigned to one of five experimental groups, each corresponding to a different revision interval: 1, 2, 4, 7, or 14 days. All groups underwent an initial learning session, followed by a single revision session on their designated day. Knowledge retention was assessed through three timed tests: immediately after the initial learning, immediately before the revision session, and after the revision session. Standardized multiple-choice questionnaires on selected Anatomy topics were administered digitally. Results: The 7-day interval group (Group D) exhibited the most pronounced improvement in knowledge retention. While their pre-revision performance was moderate (58% of students scoring ≥8/10), it surged to 87% post-revision. This gain was the highest observed. Statistical analysis confirmed significant differences between groups (one-way ANOVA, p < 0.001). Post-hoc Tukey's HSD test identified the 7-day interval as statistically superior to all other intervals (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Spaced repetition is a highly effective pedagogical tool for enhancing long-term memory retention in medical education. The findings indicate that a seven-day interval is optimal for reviewing Anatomy concepts, as it effectively balances the need for some forgetting to occur—thereby making retrieval effortful and strengthening memory traces—without allowing knowledge loss to become too substantial. Integrating optimally-timed spaced repetition into medical curricula is strongly recommended.