Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • As a student, you have a lot of information to understand and memorize for your tests.

  • If you have powerful photographic memory, your job is much easier.

  • But if you're one of us mere mortals, then you face two issues: first, you don't remember

  • everything you should, and second, it takes too much time to memorize!

  • What if I told you you could have your cake and eat it too?

  • Here's how you can boost your memory, memorize more facts, and spend less time doing it.

  • Dr. Jubbal, MedSchoolInsiders.com.

  • For more lessons, insights, and tips, follow me on Instagram @medschoolinsiders.

  • Now there are different types of memory, such as procedural memory, like knowing how to

  • swing a golf club, and declarative memory, like being able to recite and draw the cervical

  • plexus for your anatomy exam.

  • We care about semantic memory, which is a type of declarative memory, which is what's going to help you

  • get an A on your chemistry final and a 525 on the MCAT.

  • From examining neural networks in sea snails to caring for amnesic patients with localized

  • lesions, neuroscientists have learned a great deal as to how human memory works and how

  • to squeeze the most utility out of our hippocampi. The hippocampi are the centers in our brain that store

  • long term memory.

  • Looking back over a century ago, we can thank the psychologist Herman Ebbinghaus for studying

  • his own memory and generating what is now known as the Forgetting Curve.

  • In its simplest terms, the Forgetting Curve demonstrates that after forming a memory,

  • we gradually forget more and more of it as time elapses.

  • Retrieving memories is a separate process from storing them, and this too is imperfect.

  • That's why eye witness reports are notoriously unreliable.

  • We know from neuroscience fundamentals that repetition potentiates neural connections

  • and allows us to remember information more effectively.

  • The problem is that we have far too much information to learn - we can't repeat every fact we

  • need to know on a daily basis.

  • Enter the Spacing Effect.

  • By repeated exposures to a piece of information at increasing intervals between each repetition,

  • we can optimize memorization and retain the most information in the least amount of time.

  • The key here is that you must recall the information, and not simply recognize it.

  • Recall refers to being given a cue and retrieving the relevant information on your own.

  • Recognition refers to seeing a piece of information and finding it familiar, thinkingoh yeah

  • I know that.”

  • For memory purposes, recall is far superior to recognition.

  • This is correlate to the testing effect, whereby being tested and having to recall a piece

  • of information strengthens the memory encoding process.

  • The Spacing Effect is most powerful when the timing is just right.

  • If too little time elapses between repetitions, the information is not reinforced as strongly.

  • If too much time passes, you forget and are unable to recall the desired information.

  • Medical students are tasked with learning insane amounts of information in a very short

  • time frame.

  • Through necessity, many have turned to less common study tools to aid them in overcoming

  • this seemingly insurmountable feat of knowledge.

  • Enter spaced repetition software, the king of which is Anki.

  • Anki and other spaced repetition software automate the process of scheduling facts that

  • you need to learn in the form of flashcards.

  • While far from perfect, Anki is the best option we have right now.

  • I have no affiliation with Anki, but I used it heavily as a medical student and ascribe

  • much of my own success to using it properly.

  • It's cross platform and syncs across all your devices, which is important for reasons

  • I will get to shortly.

  • Inevitably, many students ask me whether or not they should create their own cards or

  • if using a pre-made deck is ok.

  • There are pros and cons to each approach.

  • If you make your own flashcards, you are implementing a form of active learning, and therefore you

  • will learn the information on those flashcards faster and more effectively.

  • Second, if you create the cards, they are in your own words, and you'll have no difficulty

  • understanding them.

  • Lastly, you can practice good flashcard principles and best practices, which most students do

  • not follow in creating their flashcards.

  • Creating these ineffective andbadflashcards is the most common mistake and main reason

  • that students end up dropping Anki altogether.

  • The main benefit to using a pre-made deck is that you'll save time on the card creation

  • process.

  • However, if you are following the principles from this channel, you should be efficient

  • enough to create your own cards and reap those additional benefits.

  • As a medical student, I always created my own flashcards.

  • That being said, if you find a high quality deck with high quality cards, one could justify

  • taking the hit in active learning for the benefits in time savings.

  • When learning memorization-heavy information, like studying for the MCAT or USMLE Step 1,

  • using Anki will not only help you learn the information faster, but also retain it for

  • longer periods of time.

  • By using Anki in your biology or psych classes as a freshman, you'll remember more information

  • 2 years later when you're studying for the MCAT.

  • But not all information is created equal, and for some classes I would recommend Anki,

  • but for others you may not need it, or you may find yourself making only a few cards.

  • For information heavy but conceptually light courses, like biology, sociology, or psych,

  • your Anki reliance should be higher.

  • Other courses, like physics and organic chemistry, are more conceptual heavy.

  • There is still use for flashcards for all of these subjects, but I would make fewer

  • cards here and prioritize doing more practice problems instead.

  • Some people suggest creating multiple choice practice problem cards, but I advise agains

  • this, as you may find yourself simply memorizing the answer to the question, rather than reinforcing

  • the information and concepts you need to learn.

  • More on card creation best practices in the part two video.

  • If you're a medical student, know that most of your subjects will be quite conducive to

  • flashcards.

  • I have an entire playlist on how to use Anki most effectively.

  • If you aren't already familiar with the program, these short videos will get you up

  • to speed in no time.

  • In next week's part two video, we'll cover specific best practices on how to create good

  • flashcards.

  • Remember, the benefits of Anki are only as good as the flashcards you create.

  • Now while creating good flashcards is key, the proper daily use of Anki is equally important.

  • Here's how to realistically achieve a daily practice.

  • First, Review Strategically

  • As a medical student, I was reviewing between 50-300 cards daily for months at a time.

  • As someone who went into an ultra competitive surgical specialty, there were many early

  • mornings and late nights, limiting the amount of time I had to review my Anki deck.

  • So to reasonably get through all my cards and make this habit sustainable, I learned to

  • use any down time I had to review flashcards.

  • Unlike studying an entire lecture, Anki cards are self-contained, meaning reviewing even

  • 5 cards in the course of one or two minutes is a good use of your time.

  • That meant cranking through 10 or 20 cards while waiting in line for breakfast, while

  • waiting for the elevator, or even while walking between buildings.

  • These few cards here and there added up quickly, allowing me to complete most of my reviews

  • before I got back home for the day.

  • It's not glamorous and it's not easy, but practicing cards in such a manner was

  • one of the key factors allowing me to crush my boards and impress attending surgeons on

  • my audition rotations.

  • I personally am not a fan of doing Anki for more than 30 or 60 minutes straight.

  • Therefore, if it was a weekend and I was spending most of the day studying, I would set a single

  • 25 minute Pomodoro of Anki to break up the monotony from other studying.

  • This is a great trick to enhance your mental endurance over the course of the day.

  • It's ultimately much easier to do four chunks of 75 cards than a single session of 300 cards.

  • Number two, Practice Every Single Day

  • Anki runs on an algorithm which optimizes for learning information, but it is not easy

  • to schedule days off.

  • It doesn't care if you are sick, if you want to relax, or if you're on vacation.

  • It's therefore critical you do your flashcards every single day.

  • This is challenging in the first few weeks as you're building the habit.

  • During this time, your review burden also builds, meaning the number of cards you are

  • assigned to review each day.

  • Number three, Avoid Getting Behind on Cards

  • Inevitably, you will fall behind.

  • You will skip a day here or there.

  • Understand that this should be an exception, not the rule.

  • The more often you skip days, the harder it is to keep up, and the less utility you will

  • get from Anki.

  • When you do fall behind, your best bet is to take a couple days playing catch up to power through your overdue cards.

  • Avoid skipping days and avoid resetting the cards, as you're losing valuable interval

  • information that ultimately helps to consolidate your semantic memory.

  • Number four, Don't Make Too Many Cards

  • The two biggest reasons students fail to stick with Anki is creating poor flashcards, which

  • we'll talk about in part 2, and creating too many flashcards, resulting in an unrealistic

  • daily review burden.

  • Students often get carried away when first using Anki, sometimes creating over one hundred

  • cards for a single lecture.

  • Understand that each card you create is a card that you'll have to review in the future.

  • Practice some constraint and create cards for more important information while leaving

  • out the less important details.

  • We go over how exactly to do this in a previous video.

  • And lastly, Be Honest with Recall vs Recognition

  • Remember, this algorithm and the spacing effect works best with recall, not recognition.

  • So don't cheat yourself.

  • If you aren't able to get a card correct without flipping to see the back, then mark

  • the card as incorrect.

  • Often times students are forced into a situation where they must cheat on cards for fear of

  • an unrealistic review burden.

  • In most instances, this can be solved by creating better flashcards.

  • On the other extreme, if you forget a single word or a minor detail on a card, don't

  • be so hard on yourself that you never get past the 1 day interval.

  • In the part two video, we'll cover the art and science of how to create good Anki flashcards.

  • While a big part of doing well on your tests comes down to improving your memory, there

  • are several other important factors you need to optimize.

  • Our tutors at MedSchoolInsiders.com can help you crush the MCAT, USMLE Step 1, or any other

  • pre-med or medical school test you need help with.

  • They've scored in the top percentiles and can help you do the same.

  • If you regularly watch our YouTube videos, chances are you know how heavily we emphasize

  • the importance of systems in creating desirable results.

  • Our tutoring is no different.

  • We have painstakingly taken months crafting the systems in place to provide the best quality

  • tutoring.

  • We examine your test taking strategies, study methods, road blocks and sticking points,

  • and customize a tailored plan to optimize your performance on test day.

  • Visit MedSchoolInsiders.com to learn more.

  • Thank you all so much for watching.

  • If you enjoyed the video, let me know when a thumbs up, and comment down below if you

  • have any questions.

  • New videos every Saturday morning, so hit subscribe if you have not already, and make

  • sure you have the notification bell enabled.

  • Much love to you all, and I will see you guys in that next one.

As a student, you have a lot of information to understand and memorize for your tests.

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it