And in the end, Gates had his ratio. “In general,” he concluded, “the best results are obtained by introducing recitation after devoting about 40 percent of the time to reading. Introducing recitation too early or too late leads to poorer results,” Gates wrote. In the older grades, the percentage was even smaller, closer to a third. “The superiority of optimal reading and retention over reading alone is about 30 percent.” The quickest way to download that St. Crispin’s Day speech, in other words, is to spend the first third of your time memorizing it, and the remaining two thirds reciting from
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