Long term retention. No flashcards

[Arewestilldoingphrasing?]

Whats the best way to retain info from earlier blocks in a true systems curriculum without flash cards (I have tried every version of them, and I get nothing from them)? I figure the best thing I can do is maybe do ten to fifteen questions each week from USMLE-RX on things we have covered and review the subjects that come up. Does this sound like a decent approach?

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[Giovanotto]

Truth is, you simply can't. Learn to let some of it go, and pick it back up at a later time.

 

[coldcase331]

Truth is, you simply can't. Learn to let some of it go, and pick it back up at a later time.

This 100%. When you get closer to step, you’ll be fascinated at how much material you have retained, while also realizing how much you’ve forgotten. It’s simply impossible to have it all in your head at one time for more than ~2 months (step time)


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[kb1900]

IMO it’s posdible but 15-20 questions a week doesn’t even come close to cutting it. If I spend 2 hours a day doing anki reviews of old material, I’d say at least an hour of questions daily would go a long way.

 

[mvenus929]

You can read up on some learning theories like Make It Stick. Lots of strategies for long term knowledge retrieval.

 

[Newyawk]

Long term retention is directly related to a bunch of factors. Top 3 imo are time invested, innate ability, and last but not least the methods/resources used.
If youre not investing enough time into the enormous volume of information we must know, you will not succeed.
Now to your actual question - find the resource that, after using it, you look back and say "wow i learned a lot just now" or "wow that was challenging". I think for long term retention you have to really be challenged in your learning. Just my 2 cents

 

[libertyyne]

How do I put this screw in the wall, no screw drivers or drills .

 

[Aerus]

Spaced repetition. It doesn't have to be using flashcards. You need to space your passes of the material apart. Two passes, each one back to back is not going to be very beneficial compared to two passes, but each one a week apart. Then, keep spacing your passes further and further apart. Half of your learning is done subconsciously by your brain while you're not thinking about it, so why are we not taking advantage of this?

 

[Giovanotto]

Spaced repetition. It doesn't have to be using flashcards. You need to space your passes of the material apart. Two passes, each one back to back is not going to be very beneficial compared to two passes, but each one a week apart. Then, keep spacing your passes further and further apart. Half of your learning is done subconsciously by your brain while you're not thinking about it, so why are we not taking advantage of this?

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[Aerus]

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If anything, Anki would hate me for recommending their concept without flashcards.

 

[Deleted member 737595]

If anything, Anki would hate me for recommending their concept without flashcards.

Do you make a point of scheduling the spacing without flashcards? Like Anki does it for you, do you manually say "okay, today I learned this, tomorrow I will review it, and then a week from today."?

 

[libertyyne]

Do you make a point of scheduling the spacing without flashcards? Like Anki does it for you, do you manually say "okay, today I learned this, tomorrow I will review it, and then a week from today."?

you have the ability to modify intervals.

 

[Goro]

Whats the best way to retain info from earlier blocks in a true systems curriculum without flash cards (I have tried every version of them, and I get nothing from them)? I figure the best thing I can do is maybe do ten to fifteen questions each week from USMLE-RX on things we have covered and review the subjects that come up. Does this sound like a decent approach?

Repetition drives learning.

Read case histories too. "You never forget a patient", one of my students taught me

 

[Aerus]

Do you make a point of scheduling the spacing without flashcards? Like Anki does it for you, do you manually say "okay, today I learned this, tomorrow I will review it, and then a week from today."?

Yeah, you sort of learn to do it by winging it. Generally, if you review everything in order, the passes get spaced out themselves. If you learned something the first week and it takes you 5 weeks to go through all the material, the 6th week is when you see the second pass and so on. But if you have more frequent exams, then adjust and schedule to review stuff accordingly.

 

[siliso]

Do you have to remember every detail of everything at all times? I’m not sure that is a goal worthy of several hours a day for years. If you nailed everything down for exams then the basic structure is in there somewhere and you’ll just need to bring the details back into focus for the purposes of cumulative exams - with questions, review materials, whatever.

Like I don’t need to be able to draw out the urea cycle on a moments notice, and devoting myself to repetitively embed it in my working memory along with 19 million other factoids would be a waste of my life. However I know what the urea cycle is, how it might go wrong, what happens if it goes wrong, and if I had to be able to reproduce it from memory I have crammed it before and could cram it once again in the space of a couple hours.

 

[Deleted member 737595]

Do you have to remember every detail of everything at all times? I’m not sure that is a goal worthy of several hours a day for years. If you nailed everything down for exams then the basic structure is in there somewhere and you’ll just need to bring the details back into focus for the purposes of cumulative exams - with questions, review materials, whatever.

Like I don’t need to be able to draw out the urea cycle on a moments notice, and devoting myself to repetitively embed it in my working memory along with 19 million other factoids would be a waste of my life. However I know what the urea cycle is, how it might go wrong, what happens if it goes wrong, and if I had to be able to reproduce it from memory I have crammed it before and could cram it once again in the space of a couple hours.

Amen. That makes me freak out less about that. I guess my concern was more of a philosophical one: if we are cramming, is this really the 'right' way of learning? But you are right, the minutiae of Glycolysis and names of enzymes are really just minutiae to know for exams that can be forgotten without risking losing knowledge which may be useful clinically.

My issue with Anki is that it seems disconnected to memorize factoids out of context of a process or pathway, and its more efficient to learn a process as a whole when needed as opposed to memorizing millions of factoids as you say, which out of context are useless.

 

[coldcase331]

My issue with Anki is that it seems disconnected to memorize factoids out of context of a process or pathway, and its more efficient to learn a process as a whole when needed as opposed to memorizing millions of factoids as you say, which out of context are useless.

That's always been my issue with Anki and why I avoided the premade decks. I personally find that learning the process as a whole allows me to have better retention of the material, with the added bonus of being able to tie different systems together.

Example: Why would cushing syndrome cause low K+ levels and a metabolic alkalosis?
Answer: Cushing-->high Cortisol. High doses acts as a mineral corticoid (endocrine), Aldosterone in kidney causes increased Na+ resorption, while dumping K+/H+ (renal).

 

[libertyyne]

That's always been my issue with Anki and why I avoided the premade decks. I personally find that learning the process as a whole allows me to have better retention of the material, with the added bonus of being able to tie different systems together.

Example: Why would cushing syndrome cause low K+ levels and a metabolic alkalosis?
Answer: Cushing-->high Cortisol. High doses acts as a mineral corticoid (endocrine), Aldosterone in kidney causes increased Na+ resorption, while dumping K+/H+ (renal).

These things are not mutually exclusive. You retain the facts in your head and create cohorent overarching view by using the facts that are now drilled into your head. Plus you should understand content before you start hammering it into your brain, no use in just anking and not understanding because it will make it harder to stick.

And in the time it takes you to reason through a multistep process I have already answered the question and moved on.