MD Can someone please explain to me how spaced repition works (without anki) ?

[alaaz]

How does spaced repeatition actually work ? (Without anki)

I spend sometimez reading my lecture slides over and over and not memorising it

And i also hear some people say thah you neee only to go over slides ( 2-3 times )

I can't remember a paragraph even if i read it 10 times in a row

I am feeling really stupid

Does it mean that after reading my slides for the first time . Even if i do not remember a damn thing i will remember it if i read it again the next day and read it again in the third dayw each time reading it only once ?

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[deleted645092]

At it's core it follows the principle that the more times you see something, the more you'll remember at "x" time from the last time you saw it, and the longer you can go without reviewing it to retain the same amount of information plus some more.

This is true no matter what strategy you use to review the material, but some strategies are exponentially more efficient than others; simply reading it < reading and talking about it to yourself < reading a part and then filling the blanks for the rest < drawing < active recall < questions, from least to most efficient.

The benefit of Anki is that it arranges your material review schedule for you, and as far as I know, it's the only one that actively does this. While there are people who use paper flashcards or programs like Quizlet, it takes more time to arrange your study schedule to make sure you're getting in good repetition and if you fall behind, you have to completely recalculate it. On top of keeping up on all the reviews, it gets even harder when you are adding new stuff every day and trying to keep track of what's new vs. Review. It might be okay for a few days but once you have 30 lectures, it becomes a beast.

On top of this, you won't get the maximal benefit from just reading something every day because you don't allow any time for your brain to synthesize all of this info and retain it, hence why you might do it again 4 days out, then 1 week, 2 weeks, and so on.

 

[7331poas]

Join the Anki life dude

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Join the Anki life dude

Yeah for reelz. I was not on the anki train until I tried it in earnest. Best way to do spaced repetition if you don’t have anki is to get anki.

 

[Aerus]

It's very simple and can be broken down into two concepts:

1) The more times you review something, the longer you will retain it and the greater the mastery you'll have over that content.

2) The more spaced out each time you learn something is, the better you'll learn it and the longer you'll remember it for next time.

However, to implement it into a "study strategy" requires you to really understand how it works and why Anki is so successful. Let's pretend you have two people (X and Y) who are of equal intelligence and work equally as hard. There are 10 weeks in one block:

X does 4 passes of something , one pass every 2.5 weeks. Y does 2 passes of something, one pass per 5 weeks. Who will have greater mastery over the material? Easy, it's X. He's had more passes over it.

Now, let's change the scenario a bit:

X AND Y both do 4 passes over the same material in the block. X does one pass every 2.5 weeks. Y does not do anything the first 9 weeks and does all 4 passes every 1-2 days the last week. Who will overall have greater mastery over the material and overall retain it longer? X will.

The lesson is to get in MORE passes, but to ALSO space them out. Your brain does a lot of the learning for you unconsciously while you're doing other tasks or sleeping, so take advantage of that. If you do a bunch of passes in quick succession, you're really not getting the full bang for your buck from each pass of the material. Learn it consciously, then learn it unconsciously with "spaced timing". Even if your first pass is super quick and dirty, just get that first pass in so your brain can do some learning and processing, then give your brain a lot of time to handle the learning itself, then come back to it much later. You'll find that second pass much easier a few days later than if you did that second pass a day later. Most people think that X number of passes = X number of passes, but it really makes a difference if you space them out.

Hence why it's called "spaced" repetition, and not just "repetition".

 

[PathoTurnUp1865]

Lol anki for life. If you aren’t doing it, you aren’t doing Med school right.

 

[alaaz]

The problem is with anki , i did try it once but i ddn't figure out how to use it

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

The problem is with anki , i did try it once but i ddn't figure out how to use it

There are YouTube videos. It really is worth learning it. I hate flash cards and have never been able to learn using them. I tried anki for the first time last semester and it has changed my whole study method. It’s amazing.

 

[kb1900]

Lol anki for life. If you aren’t doing it, you aren’t doing Med school right.

I wouldn’t go as far as to say this. I know plenty of people that scores wildly high on step without the huge investment into anki.


Having said that, it has certainly made my life so much easier

 

[Med Ed]

Does it mean that after reading my slides for the first time . Even if i do not remember a damn thing i will remember it if i read it again the next day and read it again in the third dayw each time reading it only once ?

No, just reading something over and over again will not be very effective.

The reason Anki works is that it forces you to recall information. Recall (or retrieval) is active, whereas reading is passive. If you want spaced repetition to work then you have to figure out something active to do on a regular basis. If you don't want to use Anki, then it could be a simple as writing out everything you can remember from the slides, and then looking at them to fill in any missed details.

 

[Osteosaur]

Went from a block of high 70's/low 80's to 90's and a 100 when I switched to Anki.

As an M1 Zanki felt beyond me and did not correlates with lecture. Instead I'd watch a recording, and make cards for high yield facts and concepts as they arose. I didn't do cloze deletion or make them like questions. I tried to be more conceptual about it. "Describe how Na+ is reabsorbed in the nephron" and then have transporter locations on the card.

It worked once. Hopefully will again. After this I'm just going to keep up with the deck until M2 and switch to Zanki. Hopefully that's a good plan?

 

[sinombre]

I wouldn’t go as far as to say this. I know plenty of people that scores wildly high on step without the huge investment into anki.


Having said that, it has certainly made my life so much easier

While I agree that there are plenty of people (probably most people actually) who score well on step 1 without using Anki, there is no “huge investment” in any sense of the word. It’s literally free, and it takes no longer to make the flash cards than it does to write notes or create whatever other study method you use.

I understand being skeptical of what’s repeated here, because this forum in particular seems to have a huge bandwagon mentality (I say that with confidence after having posted here before med school, for all 4 years of med school, and during residency), but Anki is a great program because it is free, and utilizes spaced repetition to maximize efficiency.

 

[PathoTurnUp1865]

I wouldn’t go as far as to say this. I know plenty of people that scores wildly high on step without the huge investment into anki.


Having said that, it has certainly made my life so much easier

Definitely makes life way easier

 

[PathoTurnUp1865]

While I agree that there are plenty of people (probably most people actually) who score well on step 1 without using Anki, there is no “huge investment” in any sense of the word. It’s literally free, and it takes no longer to make the flash cards than it does to write notes or create whatever other study method you use.

I understand being skeptical of what’s repeated here, because this forum in particular seems to have a huge bandwagon mentality (I say that with confidence after having posted here before med school, for all 4 years of med school, and during residency), but Anki is a great program because it is free, and utilizes spaced repetition to maximize efficiency.

It’s so easy to turn your PowerPoints/books/qbanks into flash cards too. Makes studying so much more efficient and effective compared to writing them out. Plus you can add diagrams/pictures. Can you do that on regular old flash cards? No you cannot lol

 

[alaaz]

It’s so easy to turn your PowerPoints/books/qbanks into flash cards too. Makes studying so much more efficient and effective compared to writing them out. Plus you can add diagrams/pictures. Can you do that on regular old flash cards? No you cannot lol

I never studied using flashcards all life , also in my med school , no one uses anki and yet they score very high and they never heard of such a thing.

 

[mehc012]

I never studied using flashcards all life , also in my med school , no one uses anki and yet they score very high and they never heard of such a thing.

Clearly the solution is to continue doing exactly what you have been doing, even though it isn't working for you. After all, the goal isn't to score well or learn the material, it's to score high while studying exactly the same way as your classmates do so they don't think you have to work harder or differently than them.
/s

 

[PathoTurnUp1865]

I never studied using flashcards all life , also in my med school , no one uses anki and yet they score very high and they never heard of such a thing.

Obviously you’re not at an American school then because lots of people use it here. I’d say at least a quarter to half.
Also if you’re not wanting to use flash cards, there’s not really another way to use spaced repetition. So this post is irrelevant.

 

[alaaz]

Yeah you are right you must do what actually works even if you are the only one doing it , but can anyone explain to me how to make anko card

I have read that you only need to make cards about high yield facts , but in my college there are no high yield facts , every thing can be on the exam , that's the reason why i do not use anki

 

[Gurby]

MOD NOTE: Post removed and warning sent for inappropriate post.
@Lee

 

[fldoctorgirl]

Yeah you are right you must do what actually works even if you are the only one doing it , but can anyone explain to me how to make anko card

I have read that you only need to make cards about high yield facts , but in my college there are no high yield facts , every thing can be on the exam , that's the reason why i do not use anki

Make cards based off of what you think will be important for your lecture, or things that you think will be hard for you to remember.

I use a combination of Zanki + my own decks since my professors like to focus on certain PhD-type things that Zanki brushes over. I'll watch a lecture, outline the lecture, and then pull important concepts or things that are hard for me to understand and turn them into Anki cards. Combine with practice questions, keeping up with all reviews from Zanki + my deck, and re-read my outline to myself every few days to make sure I'm not forgetting the big picture. Profit. My grades have gone up significantly since implementing this method.

 

[PathoTurnUp1865]

+2 zanki plus your own cards is a winner. I wished I would’ve done more of it 1st and 2nd year. It’s been perfect for driving in info for step 2/clinicals. Making your own helps for muscle memory too.

 

[Spectreman]

The problem is with anki , i did try it once but i ddn't figure out how to use it

Don’t give up, it’s a big learning curve, but totally worth it.