How to Learn and Not Forget.
Get ready to dump the habit of rereading.
Just yesterday, you read about the citric acid cycle. Today, you can’t even remember that the only enzyme of the cycle not found in the mitochondrial matrix is succinate dehydrogenase.
In situations like these, we tend to ‘beat up' our brain for simply doing it’s job. As surprising as it may seem, forgetting is nearly as important as remembering. Here’s why.
One study published in the Journal of Comparative Psychology, suggested that forgetting may promote the ability to think creatively by making information that is no longer useful less accessible, so it does not interfere with access to new information or ideas. Simply put, our day-to-day lives are usually cluttered with tons of needless details. So the brain has the hard task of filtering out these “useless” information from time to time.
The only problem here is that the brain may sometimes not be able to perfectly differentiate what is really important from what isn’t. It’s like sacrificing a few seemingly good parts while cutting out the bad parts of a fruit. This explains why many important details are often easily forgotten or hard to retrieve from storage.
But is there a way to hack that process and help our brain continually recognize what really matters form what doesn’t?
The good news is Yes.
The bad? It’s just not so much of a straightforward way.
Along with rereading, here are some other strategies we might often resort to in tackling this problem:
- Highlighting/Underlining notes or textbooks.
- Summarizing textbooks.
- Taking elaborate lecture notes.
- Rereading large chunks of pages in textbooks & notes. (About 80% of students do this according to a survey data).
What is common to all these strategies? They are all LOW EFFICACY strategies that may seem to be the natural solution, but are only of minimal value for learning and recall. It’s these kind of strategies that make the situation described at the onset all too common.
The best/high efficacy strategies to boost retention and information retrieval are:
· Practice testing
· Distributed practice
· Elaboration/self explanation
· Utilizing Mnemonics
Culled from a research by Dunlosky, John and others.
These and numerous researched-backed reasons why rereading is very inefficient are discussed in the highly cerebral book, Make it Stick by Peter Abrahams.
The first two are the most effective. And that is exactly what the Anki software which this article will introduce you to is mainly based on.
Anki is a Spaced Repetition Software (SRS) created by Damien Elmes back in 2006.
To better understand the concept of spaced repetition, consider the theory proposed by Herman Ebbinghuas in 1886: The forgetting curve theory.
According to this theory, after our first exposure to a material, we tend to forget much of what we learnt really fast. But subsequent reviews of the material at the right intervals not only reinforces the memory but also flattens out the rate of memory loss.
Distributed practice in the form of spaced repetition disrupts and flattens out the forgetting curves (makes it harder for us to forget).
And review here does not mean going back to a previously read part of a textbook and simply rereading it, as that would be very passive.
Instead, use practice testing to discover your weaknesses and help you refocus your learning. This is beneficial because testing not only allows you to gauge your knowledge but also helps in long term retention of material. The harder it is to recall the information during testing, the better the long-term retention.
Now that was just one big paragraph of impersonal grammar, right?
To break it down, after studying a section of your textbook or lecture notes for example, instead of simply rereading that part during subsequent revisions, you should simply find questions related to that section and attempt them. Or even better, discuss that section with your study buddies. Then after discovering your weak points, refocus your review and maybe even create flashcards based on these points.
But after creating paper flashcards, keeping track of what you have studied and when you may have to review it will become really hard in the long term. Heck, not all of us may even have the time to make even just 50 cards.
That’s where Anki comes into play. It basically works in the form of a flashcard app. You simply create cards based on what you have learnt and review them periodically.
But what are cards in Anki?
For now, you just have to learn a little about the important card types.
- The basic card type is the good old flashcard format. A question on one side of the card and the answer on the other. Just like the one below:
Although this is the easiest to create, it’s the least efficient type.
- The Cloze deletion format is arguably the most important format for concept-heavy courses like Physiology and even Biochemistry to an extent. Here’s what a cloze deletion format of the above basic card type would look like:
Notice that cloze deletion cards are able to target specific parts of a note; helping you to review those little areas of extra weakness a little more than the rest of the note, unlike basic cards.
- Then there’s the Image Occlusion format which is just superb for image heavy courses like Anatomy and the numerous pathways of Biochemistry. In this card, some parts of an image are covered and you’re made to guess the covered part. Some special image occlusion cards provide a labelled picture and ask you to name the labelled parts. Just like the one below:
This is the hardest card type to create though, and can only be done with the PC version.
But where does Spaced Repetition Come into all this?
This the main reason why you should use Anki.
Let’s say I create a card to remember how some anatomical structures form during the somite period in an embryo.
After completing my first review, Anki automatically suggests two or more due dates for a subsequent review based. I then choose any of them based on how well I was able to answer the question on the card.
I’d have to schedule it to 15 minutes time, if I feel I didn’t get it right by hitting the “Again” button as shown below.
On the other hand, if I hit “Good”, Anki’s algorithm schedules the next review to the next day. If I felt it was a piece of cake, the “Easy” button schedules the review in 10 days (This is my personal setting from research, instead of 4 days as in the default Anki settings).
The review intervals keep increasing with each successful review of that particular card and can span months and even years! As you can see in the picture above, hitting “good” will schedule it 12 days from today.
But creating Cards Can Become a Really Strenuous Process
This can be much of a problem in the long run; especially when not done in the right way.
This is partially solved by Shared Decks; decks of cards created by other Anki users available on the Anki website or directly shared from one user to the next. But there’s a catch: Most experienced Anki Users advice that you create your own cards. They often suggest that it is a more active process that helps you filter really important information from those that are not worth remembering.
Fortunately, I was able to devise a way to enjoy the best of both worlds. I did extensive research and downloaded some really great decks; including one with virtually all the diagrams from Netter’s Anatomy Flashcards textbook.
Although I spend most of my time creating my own cards, I sometimes search these decks for cards containing stuff related to what I may have already studied and personalize them to my taste. For example, cards containing labels of muscles and associated structures or radiographic images of bones in the Netter’s Anatomy Flashcard Deck. Check out these two below:
And last but not the least...
Anki is the best SRS software for a few reasons: It is widely available in Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS versions, totally free (except um... the iOS version), and extremely customizable according to the book Anki Essentials by Alex Vermeer.
It isn’t an entirely perfect tool, but it sure is better than rereading those numerous textbook pages for exams, months after completely forgetting most of what you have initially learnt.
As always, this may not work for everyone. But it sure does work for me though. During my first year, most of my concept-heavy courses, like biology, chemistry, General Studies and even a computer Science course were just a breeze due to Anki. It also contributed a little to my grades in courses with lots of equations and formulas like Physics, Math & certain aspects of Chemistry, but not as much as the concept-heavy courses. Although medical courses are an entirely different ball game, so far, I just feel Anki was specially made for them.
But as an inexperienced newcomer to this med school business, I do occasionally catch myself creating cards on too many little and unimportant details sometimes and end up deleting them. Thankfully, the mentoring system is great in my school, as in any other med school. So I’ve got seniors to guide me every step of the way. Not in the Anki aspect, obviously, as the idea is completely alien to most.
Despite using Anki for nearly two years now, I still pretty much consider myself a novice user due to it’s steep learning curve. You may simply just want to give up on it at times. I even had to resort to having good ol' Mavis Beacon give me a little boost to my typing speed so I could create cards faster. But be rest assured that you don’t have to learn everything about the software to be able to use it effectively.
The only regret I have is that I only discovered it right after my secondary school days, not earlier. Because although I’m really great at making connections, I kinda sucked at memorization - until Anki came along. But who cares? I have it now, and there has never been a better time to put it to good use. So I can actually focus on learning and passing those grueling exams at least. Maybe even acing them!
There are tons of other great articles on the web about Anki. It’s time to learn more about this great tool that has significantly reduced med school workload abroad but is still largely unknown to most students in Nigeria.
But since all information weren’t created equal, I have laid out some of the best articles and YouTube videos out there discussing most of what I didn’t discuss here and how you can start using it.
- improveism.com/anki/ (Make sure to download the free Anki Intro book on this page. The writer claims it contains the real stuff you may need to know about Anki, which I think is mostly true).
- Shamim’s Guide to Medical School Using Anki (A detailed and thorough intro on setting up Anki [Take note that although the article is mainly based on the PC or Mac version, most of the tips can be applied in the mobile versions as well] Try to also check out other articles in this website. )
- MED SCHOOL ANKI: MAKE (OR FIND) USMLE-CRUSHING FLASHCARDS (An article mainly to further convince you of the efficacy of Anki. Most points are based on preparing for the USMLE: the biggest hurdle of US med school students. Be careful with some of it’s tips though, as the writer is just trying to convince you to buy his really expensive deck).
- 6 Steps to Make High Yield Anki Cards for Medical School (For tips on how to make efficient Anki cards)
- How to Make Effective Anki Cards to Prepare for the USMLE (More tips on making efficient cards. Some may oppose tips presented on the other article, but it’s all left for you to decide which one works best for you or use a mix of both, just like me!)
- Anking (If you’re the video type, this is the one of the best Youtube channels out there to learn more about Anki).
- And last but not the least, here’s the link to the much talked-about Netter’s Anatomy Flashcards Deck.