You don't mind going into a little more detail about using RecallPlus.
I went to the website and it seems like it would be more cumbersome to make the maps than they are worth. How are you using it?
You can use paper index cards if you want to keep things simple. Any flashcard program would probably do ok. I like RecallPlus because it's specifically designed for memorizing information such as medical school basic science material. I don't use all the fancy features. I wouldn't focus so much on the marketing glitz. Fundamentally it's a good tool and the core of the program encourages you to put in just enough so that you are memorizing what is core to the material and what you will forget. If you have to enter every detail in your course you are sunk with this program. I think it's pretty much expected in med school that you'll be able to remember certain things just having heard them one time. The harder important items get drilled over and over.
Keep it very simple and the program is fast if you're quick on a laptop. Is it slower than OneNote? Yes, but after you are done, you have something in a form that can be memorized. OneNote is just a transcript. If that's all you need to memorize, then you don't need flash cards. I find I need to work pretty hard to memorize and remember all these med school details. I like the fact that it keeps track of what you know / don't know and coaches you with memorization methods that are supposedly are used by memorization champions like these guys/gals (
http://www.slate.com/id/2114925/)
When was the last time that you had a professor that could memorize 1000 digits in an hour or the precise order of 10 shuffled decks? People who compete in these kind of memory games are very good with encoding information for recall and use all kinds of strategies. RecallPlus is designed with those kinds of strategies in mind. If you already have a good system that works, I would go with what you have. I like the RecallPlus system and the hints they give. I would only recommend RecallPlus to someone who already takes fairly sophisticated notes on a laptop during class (can type at lecture speed). If you are using pen and paper, paper index flash cards would probably be a much better choice.
I thought this was pretty cool (from the slate link above):
"There are five events in the U.S. Memory Championships. First, contestants are given 15 minutes to memorize 99 names and faces, and 20 minutes to recall them. Next, the contestants have to memorize an unpublished 50-line poem (this year titled, "The Tapestry of Me") in 15 minutes, followed by a series of random digits, a list of random words, and finally a shuffled deck of playing cards. The best memorizers in the world—who almost all hail from Europe—can memorize a pack of cards in less than a minute. A few have begun to approach the 30-second mark, considered the "four-minute mile of memory."
Here are the world memory rankings:
http://www.worldmemorychampionships.com/world_rankings.asp
Here is another free program you can try to build your memory and concentration (pretty fun too):
http://www.lumosity.com/
