Never knew of the Pomodoro method; will try it out!
I get up an walk around the library every twenty minutes for about 5 minutes at a time. I am always fascinated to see how many informational books and journals there are on useless or outdated topics.
+1 for the Pomodoro method.
Booze, disco, darts, food, crash
Serious question: How do you actually learn anything from flashcards/anki? That is a great strategy for memorization...but do you actually learn the concepts behind the things you study with anki? Like truly understand the concepts? I find that every time I try flash cards of any kind, even with anki, it just feels like I am cramming disjointed information in to my head. I prefer learning concepts of the entire system and just extrapolating specifics from a greater understanding.
I'm going to give my perspective on using it for undergrad since I'm not yet a med student. First off, you need to understand everything that you put into anki IN CONTEXT before you put it in. Anki just helps you retain the info so instead of cramming the weekend before an exam to re-learn everything, you still remember it all from lectures. As far as how you put content in, that's up to the individual. For simple memorization like learning amino acids, it's straightforward. For more complex stuff, it needs to be catered to the individual and to the course. Sometimes I prefer cloze style cards where you essentially turn all of your notes into cards with omitted words (cards should always invoke active recall). Other times I will use lots of diagrams. I've even had times when I got lazy with making cards and would literally just write "draw out X pathway" or "describe Y process" and then include where I can find the answer in my notes/book. That way anki would literally just act as a study scheduler and it still worked well. The key is to make everything active recall and stick to the review schedule.
And see, I do that without the formal organization. Like I will just re-read all of my notes from the day prior, draw anything that can be drawn and then at the end of the week I will write it all out on a big whiteboard (Or, if I can draw it, I will draw it). So anki is mostly useful for students who don't necessarily know what direction they should go with their own studying and need a format to stick to?
That’s a little too simplistic. Many people who use Anki know exactly what direction their studying is going, it’s more that Anki does two things: 1) helps you cement the factual knowledge base needed to connect the dots conceptually, and 2) uses a Spaced Repetition algorithm that knows which facts you have cemented and which ones you haven’t (and therefore need to continue to review).
Yeah i used to do that. Anki is just more efficient. Rereading is also low yeild. Active recall is king
Ya I think those that lack working study habits would benefit the most from it but those that just want to be more efficient in their studying can also enjoy it, as it is designed to give maximum results for minimum study time; however, it also takes time to make cards, so you have to find your own balance with it. I started out using it only for strict fact memorization like learning pka values, vocabulary in foreign languages, etc. Then I gradually expanded into turning almost all of the content from all of my classes into anki cards. This was super effective in terms of grades, as I was knocking out 100s on every test I was taking, but it was also quite time consuming to make all the cards. Now I've dialed it back quite a bit, using it for memorization stuff while for more conceptual stuff I'll use a mix of anki, practice problems, and cramming for certain content that I don't want to remember past the exam. Ultimately I think finding that hybrid balance is ideal. One of the best things about anki, IMO, is mobility with the phone app. I knock out all of my anki reviews in the little chunks of free time that I get here and there like walking to class, eating lunch, etc. That way when I'm actually sitting down for dedicated study, it's really just a short trip through conceptual stuff and off to bed. I don't think it's for everyone, and if you already have a good study strategy stick with it. As for OP, I was mostly joking about the anki dopamine thing, as it doesn't make content any more interesting, but it could help you in terms of reducing overall study time and diversifying your study media a bit.
Once you have your account linked to both computer and phone you can both create and review content from either device, however, it is much easier and quicker to create cards from your computer. Then just click sync so that it updates your ankiWeb account. From there you can review cards on either laptop or phone with ease, and as long as you keep your devices synced, you won't be "double reviewing" anything.
The data is downloaded to your phone so that it can be used offline but it uses very little memory. Mine is sitting at 20 mb right now with over 3000 cards. This however may vary if you find yourself attaching larger media files. For instance for learning sign language I would make cards using .gif's of each sign, and it worked really well except for the fact that my phone started filling up after only a couple hundred cards, so what I did was created a separate profile on the desktop app for sign language. The phone only syncs to one profile so this let me do all my sign language stuff solely on my desktop while still having my linked account for everything else in the other profile. You can always link another device later so I would say try it out on your phone and if you have problems later down the line consider a 2nd device.
Thank you for explaining - friends of mine in med school switched from paper/pen based to Anki and said it was a gift from the heavens; hearing it for MCAT has made me a believer, so I'm trying it out - anything that helps!
Sorry I have no experience with that
. TBH for equations I usually use the windows SHIFT+WINDOWS+S combo to instantly copy a screen grab to my clipboard and then just paste into anki. It's quicker than typing them out, but not sure if there's something similar for Mac if you're a Mac user. There's also an extensive user manual on the anki website that may be helpful. It's worth a read regardless, at least the parts about creating cards and adjusting your review interval to increase or decrease your retention rate
