I feel like I'm done with Anki but I really don't want to be

[and 99 others]

I can spend hours on a relatively low number of cards just to make sure I'm studying the concepts properly but when it comes time to applying the knowledge, the things that I can answer in a second on Anki I have so much trouble with in the form of a test question. It really is not helping me with retention and I basically end up just memorizing the card in the little bubble within which I am interacting with it, but have such a hard time using it to synthesize concepts together.

I really don't want to stop using Anki because I can't think of how else I can retain the stuff I'm learning now longitudinally for step 1 and 2 but as it stands it is really hampering my learning because it swallows up so much of my time and I'm unable to deeply interact with a concept because I am falling behind with other lectures. Anyone have any tips on how I can transition to more application based studying while not completely abandoning anki. I know it has some benefit because it helped in my first two blocks but now that we're more systems based, I am really struggling with a comprehensive understanding of physio.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Deltasidearm]

Transition to or incorporate question banks, like Amboss or UWorld. Correctly using question banks involves analyzing each answer choice (yes, the incorrect choices are important too) and reviewing whatever concept it was representing. It also has the benefit of being an active learning method and will better prepare you to answer exam-style questions.

 

[ChordaEpiphany]

More than a conceptual study tool, Anki is a tool for converting things you can recall with effort into things you know inherently. It frees up space in your brain so you can work with the other details, effectively making you more intelligent and allowing you to focus on the next level of detail in a vignette.

For instance, let's say you study causes of painless vision loss for 1-2 hours to the point where you can recall (with significant effort) things like fundoscopic exam findings in CRVO vs. CRAO vs. ON etc... Then a week later you get a 3rd order question on CRVO. If you just studied to the point of recall, your brain is tapped out by the time you get to "okay, this patient definitely has CRVO," but if you studied with Anki you know it's CRVO reflexively. Now you can focus on the smaller details (e.g., "this patient has X allergy, so I should use drug Z instead of drug Y").

However, Anki can definitely throw you off. I overused Anki to a criminal extent for step 1 (full Zanki deck, probably 2-3 hours/day) and wound up scoring quite high but still significantly below my practice tests. I think this is because:

1) Pre-made Anki decks are made from study resources, so you are guaranteed to have seen all the material. On exam day, you'll see a ton of stuff never covered and you'll have to intuit answers based on general rather than specific knowledge.

2) Too much time on Anki takes away from time on question banks.

3) Knowing something on Anki doesn't mean you really know it. I think we all know the feeling when we can answer a card, but probably couldn't explain in greater depth when pressed. There's a temptation to just move forward because you want to finish your deck.

The happy medium is to start with a solid deck of ~5-10K cards (pre-clinical) or ~2K cards (clinical) and add your own cards as you learn more and make mistakes on question banks. By the time you are studying for meaningful tests (e.g., steps or shelf exams), Anki should be a <30 minute/day activity, with most effort focused on qbanks. Add cards for discrete clinical pearls and for annoying details you encounter in those qbank questions.

 

[and 99 others]

More than a conceptual study tool, Anki is a tool for converting things you can recall with effort into things you know inherently. It frees up space in your brain so you can work with the other details, effectively making you more intelligent and allowing you to focus on the next level of detail in a vignette.

For instance, let's say you study causes of painless vision loss for 1-2 hours to the point where you can recall (with significant effort) things like fundoscopic exam findings in CRVO vs. CRAO vs. ON etc... Then a week later you get a 3rd order question on CRVO. If you just studied to the point of recall, your brain is tapped out by the time you get to "okay, this patient definitely has CRVO," but if you studied with Anki you know it's CRVO reflexively. Now you can focus on the smaller details (e.g., "this patient has X allergy, so I should use drug Z instead of drug Y").

However, Anki can definitely throw you off. I overused Anki to a criminal extent for step 1 (full Zanki deck, probably 2-3 hours/day) and wound up scoring quite high but still significantly below my practice tests. I think this is because:

1) Pre-made Anki decks are made from study resources, so you are guaranteed to have seen all the material. On exam day, you'll see a ton of stuff never covered and you'll have to intuit answers based on general rather than specific knowledge.

2) Too much time on Anki takes away from time on question banks.

3) Knowing something on Anki doesn't mean you really know it. I think we all know the feeling when we can answer a card, but probably couldn't explain in greater depth when pressed. There's a temptation to just move forward because you want to finish your deck.

The happy medium is to start with a solid deck of ~5-10K cards (pre-clinical) or ~2K cards (clinical) and add your own cards as you learn more and make mistakes on question banks. By the time you are studying for meaningful tests (e.g., steps or shelf exams), Anki should be a <30 minute/day activity, with most effort focused on qbanks. Add cards for discrete clinical pearls and for annoying details you encounter in those qbank questions.

This is extremely helpful thank you.

On your point of Anki being <30 minutes/day, do you mean excluding reviews? If I am going to use qbanks as the guiding conceptual tool and then anki to spot weld and reach that higher order recall more quickly, I imagine that would require keeping up with a significant amount of reviews, at least eventually, especially if the plan is to use anki to keep earlier material fresh for when step studying comes around.

 

[ChordaEpiphany]

This is extremely helpful thank you.

On your point of Anki being <30 minutes/day, do you mean excluding reviews? If I am going to use qbanks as the guiding conceptual tool and then anki to spot weld and reach that higher order recall more quickly, I imagine that would require keeping up with a significant amount of reviews, at least eventually, especially if the plan is to use anki to keep earlier material fresh for when step studying comes around.

You want to finish new cards early, add new cards carefully and methodically, and reduce overall Anki burden to ~30 minutes/day or less. Maybe for preclinical 1 hour/day is more realistic since step 1 decks have way more cards and more random info.

Spending more time on Anki, like making sure you understand every detail of the card, is a waste compared to applying that sort of critical examination to a qbank question or video lecture. Anki is something you want to move through quickly and imperfectly, because you will almost always have cards you don't fully understand anyway. Better to encounter that concept in a qbank question and then go back and annotate the Anki card with your newfound understanding. Too much Anki will really scramble your brain. It's too sporadic and will not help you link concepts or gain a full conceptual framework of a particular differential. Use it as a memory tool, but spend no more than 10-20% of your study time on memory. Medicine places an unfortunate amount of emphasis on memorization, but I still think most of what the steps/shelf exams test involves at least 1-2 layers of conceptual understanding, and it's what separates good from great scores.