h poor memory and only mediocre ability
generally can make up very much by hard work and by work that takes
advantage of all the laws of economical learning. But he can never
compete successfully with the person who works as hard as he does and
who has good powers of learning and retention.

The author has found that in a large class of a hundred or more, there
is usually a person who has good memory along with good mental ability
generally, and is also a hard worker. Such a person always does the best
work in the class. A person with poor memory and poor mental powers
generally cannot hope to compete with a person of good memory, good
mental powers generally, if that person is also a good worker.

=Learning and Remembering.= A popular fallacy is expressed in the saying
"Easy come, easy go." The person who is the best learner is also the
best in retaining what is learned, provided all other conditions are the
same. This matter was determined in the following way: A logical memory
test was given to all the children in a city school system. A story was
read to the pupils and then reproduced by them in writing. The papers
were corrected and graded and nothing more was said about the test for
one month. Then at the same time in every room, the teachers said, "You
remember the story I read to you some time ago and which I asked you to
reproduce. Well, I wish to see how much of the story you still
remember." The pupils were then required to write down all the story
that they could recall.

It was found that, in general, the children who write the most when the
story is first read to them, write the most after the lapse of a month,
and the poorest ones at first are the poorest ones at the end of the
month. Of course, the correspondence is not perfect, but in some cases,
in some grades, it is almost so.

The significance of this experiment is very great. It means that the
pupil who gets the most facts from a lesson will have the most facts at
any later time. This is true, of course, only if other things are equal.
If one pupil studies about the matter more, reflects upon it, repeats it
in his mind, of course this person will remember more, other things
being equal. But if neither reviews the matter, or if both do it to an
equal extent, then the one who learns the most in the first place,
remembers the most at a later time.

I have also tested the matter out in other ways. I have experimented
with a group of men and women,