tips for people using anki for medschool/board prep?

[Leonidis I]

i see a lot of people using some form of spaced-repetition learning in med school with GT/FC and anki being the two big players. one of my friends also uses this weird mind-map spaced-repetition program but the learning curve on that is steep.

i highly prefer anki for reasons laid out in this post and i also offer some tips for other people using it: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?p=13685860#post13685860

any other tips that fellow anki users have found useful that they'd like to share?

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[achamess]

Hey,

I'm a long time Anki user. I've written a lot about how to use it here

Update 2015-08-08: I've written an entire book about how to put Anki, and a host of other evidence-based techniques, into practice in med school. Learning Medicine: An Evidence-Based Guide

Good luck!

 

[Leonidis I]

Hey,

I'm a long time Anki user. I've written a lot about how to use it here

Good luck!

how could i forget...stumbling upon your blog last spring was the reason i started using anki for med school in the first place!

btw congrats on your score and best of luck in your PhD years

 

[Total180]

Hey,

I'm a long time Anki user. I've written a lot about how to use it here

Good luck!

Did you use decks that were already made? I haven't used it that much, but it seems like you can just type in a subject and the decks pop up...which decks did you use and did you find errors?

 

[achamess]

Did you use decks that were already made? I haven't used it that much, but it seems like you can just type in a subject and the decks pop up...which decks did you use and did you find errors?

I used my own decks. Different people make their cards differently, and I had a particular way I wanted them. But there are decks out there (my own included) that you can use if they meet your needs. Making cards takes time, but I think it's worth it.

 

[chronicidal]

If the going gets rough, and you don't see the immediate rewards (because cramming is more effective at getting high scores on tests), remind yourself that what you are doing is for long-term retention and tons of research supports the method. Familiarize yourself with the literature on spaced repetition. When you're feeling lazy, when your review burden seems daunting, when you just want to take a weekend off, convince yourself that you are committed to evidence-based learning methods and that this is the best thing educational psychology has come up with in the last century.

http://people.duke.edu/~ab259/pubs/LarsenButler&Roediger(2008).pdf
http://lifeinthefastlane.com/2011/11/learning-by-spaced-repetition/