Overwhelmingly common, this pattern permeates learning systems across the globe. Learners become saturated with minutiae interspersed with what they’re actually supposed to focus on, or, even worse, there is so very much information—all relevant, important, and necessary to remember—that students’ brains fizz and burn out. Most course curricula are too long, preventing the learner from being able to absorb and process the information without it evaporation just moments after it was utilized in a quiz or exam. If it was remembered for that long at all.

Most learning systems—and teachers too—are ignorant to the workings of memory, which in turn leads to lacking preparation regarding size and structure of the content. Structure is a major component of the failure inherent in these leaning systems: too much of the material is presented in an ineffective manner. Solution: simplify.