How do you rate your memory?
What was the question again?
Terrible! I have the memory of a baboon!
It's alright, I occasionally lose some things here and there
It's pretty good!
Throughout your academic journey, there's a ton to memorize. This challenge becomes easier if you have a strong photographic memory. If you are a mere mortal, however, your job is much more difficult. This is how you can improve your memory, remember more facts, save time, and increase your ability to retain them.
Imperfect Memory
There are two types of memory: procedural memory is like knowing how to play golf or declarative. This means that you can recite the cervical plexus and draw it for your anatomy exam. We are concerned about semantic memories, which is a type declarative memory. This will help you get an A in your chemistry final or a 525 on MCAT. Neuroscientists have a lot to learn about how memory works, and how to get the most out of our hippocampi. These are the brain centers that store long-term memories.
We can look back on a century ago and thank Herman Ebbinghaus, a psychologist who studied his memory and created what is now called the Forgetting Curve. The Forgetting Curve, in its simplest form, shows that as we age, our memories become less and less useful. The process of retrieving memories is different from the storage of them. This too is imperfect.
Neuroscience fundamentals have shown that repetition can strengthen neural connections and allow us to retain information better. We have too much information to remember - it's impossible to recall all the facts we need on a regular basis.
The Spacing Effect is a way to optimize memorization. We can increase the number of exposures to the same piece of information at increasing intervals. This allows us to retain more information in a shorter time. It is important to remember all information. Not recognize all of it. The ability to recall information by being given a cue, and then retrieving it on your own. Recognition is when you see a piece or information and find it familiar. This is better for memory than recognition. This is a correlate to the testing effect. Being tested and then having to recall the information increases the memory encoding process.
The Spacing Effect works best when timing is perfect. The information will not be reinforced as strongly if there is too much time between repetitions because you'll lose the ability to recall the information.
How to Implement the Spacing Effect
Professional healthcare students have to learn a lot of information in a short amount of time. Many people have turned to less popular study tools to help them overcome this seemingly impossible achievement of knowledge.
The king of spaced repetition software is Anki. Anki and other spaced repetition Software automate scheduling facts you need in the form flashcards. Anki, while not perfect, is the best available option right now. It syncs across all devices and platforms, which is very important for reasons that we will soon discuss.
Many students will ask me if they should make their own cards or use a pre-made deck. Each approach has its own pros and cons. Making your own flashcards is a form active learning. You will be able to learn the information faster and more effectively if you do so. The second benefit is that the cards are written in your own words so you will be able to understand them. You can also practice flashcard best practices and principles that are useful for creating flashcards. This is something most students don't do. This is the biggest mistake students make and leads to them dropping Anki.
The primary benefit of using pre-made decks is the time saved on card creation. If you follow the principles in this blog, however, you will be able to create your own cards and enjoy those extra benefits.
When Is Anki Useful?
Anki is a great tool for memorization-intensive information such as the MCAT and USMLE step 1. It will help you retain the information for longer periods of times. Anki will help you remember more information when you are studying for the MCAT in biology and psych classes.
Not all information is equal. I recommend Anki for certain classes, but you might not need it for others. Or you might find that you only use a handful of cards. Anki should be more reliant on information-heavy courses like sociology, biology, and psych. Some courses, such as physics and organic chemical, are more conceptually heavy. Flashcards are still useful for many of these subjects. However, we suggest making fewer cards and focus on more practice problems.
Many people recommend creating multiple-choice practice problem cards but this is something I do not recommend. You may end up memorizing the answer rather than strengthening the information and concepts that you need to know. Part two will cover card creation best practices. Flashcards are a great tool for medical students. The benefits of Anki can only be as good as the flashcards that you create.
How to Use Anki?
Recommendations
As a student you may review between 50 and 300 cards each day. To be able to go through all of those cards quickly, you must make the most of any downtime. Anki cards can be reviewed in a matter of minutes, which is different from studying a lecture.
This means you can read through 10-20 cards at a time while waiting for breakfast, waiting for an elevator or walking between buildings. Although it isn't glamorous or easy, you may find that practicing cards in this way allows you to retain the most information in a short period of time.
We don't suggest using Anki for longer than 30-60 minutes. For example, on the weekends, you can do a 25-minute Pomodoro to break up the monotony. This is a great way to increase your mental endurance throughout the day. It is much easier to play four sessions of 75 cards instead of one session of 300 cards.
Avoid getting behind on your cards
Eventually, there will come a time when you fall behind. There will be a day you skip. This should not be the norm. You will lose more utility from Anki the more you skip days.
It is a good idea to play catch-up for a few days to get through all your cards. Avoid skipping days or resetting cards as you are losing important interval information which ultimately helps to consolidate semantic memory.
Do it every day
Anki uses an algorithm that optimizes for learning information. However, it can be difficult to plan days ahead. It doesn't matter if your sick, vacation, or even if it's relaxing. You must make sure you practice your flashcards each day. As you begin to build the habit, this can be difficult in the first few weeks. This is when your review burden increases, which means that you have to review more cards each day.
Be honest with Recognition vs Recall
This algorithm and the spacing effect work best with recognition. Don't cheat yourself. If you can't get a card right without flipping it to see the back, mark that card.
Students are often forced to cheat on cards in order to avoid an unreasonable review burden. This can be resolved by creating better flashcards. You can also forget one word or a small detail on a card. Don't worry if it happens again.
Do not make too many cards
Students are most likely to abandon Anki because they create poor flashcards. Many students get too excited about Anki when they first use it. They create hundreds of cards in one lecture. Each card you create will be a card that you will need to refer back to in the future. You can practice constraints by creating cards that contain more important information and omit the details that are less important.
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