klvik wrote:For the medical Anki cards:
1. Take advantage of the cram mode. Make sure you include plenty of tags so that you can select a set of cards to cram. Only put things into your SRS queue if you really need to do so. You don't have time to SRS everything so only SRS cards that are very difficult or very important. You could add tags such as 'easy' or 'important' so that it's easier to focus your cram decks to the high yield cards.
2. Try to present the difficult material multiple ways. For example: List the symptoms as the question and name the disease as the answer versus name the disease as the question and write the list of symptoms for the answer.
3. Include cards that require a descriptive answer and say the answer out loud. Even better - practice these with a study partner, it will help a lot with the oral portion of your exam.
-Good luck
Thanks! I'll try the points 1 and 2 for sure.
1:I need to explore the cram mode more. And hope for the best.
2:I am trying to present everything in multiple ways, asking differently, chopping stuff in smaller pieces fitting together. This is actually something I plan to do with language cards too, working not only with word cards but also sentences. But I haven't thought it out in detail yet, one challenge at a time
3:And talking to myself, I am already doing that and the results are not that great for not (but saying stuff out loud works nicely with the language cards). But it is impossible to do this with a study partner. Very few czechs use anki. And people are not gonna change their six years old study methods to help me.
I should probably mention I am not holding that againt them or think any less of them for this. My faculty simply doesn't support or require long term learning, which is the point of Anki. The prefered method (and the only one possible) is memorising stuff really fast, then also memorising (usually illegally) known past multiple choice tests (because you cannot pass most tests without this, the test is usually simply too different from the rest of the subject. even the teachers know about this), regurgitating the memorised stuff at the oral exam (and using the version that your particular examiner requires. Some of them disagree with textbooks or last two decades of research or just their colleague across the hall),
and then forgetting it while you memorise new stuff. The best joke are teachers, who now tell us we shouldn't complain about too little time for a huge exam, we should remember it all really well from the past years.
That's why it looks like new stuff pushing old stuff out, as if memory was really limited. No, just our stupid organisation is not meant to leave long term results. And you see why it is so hard to prepare for an exam, where I'll be competing against people educated with this exam on mind and with long term kind of preparation.
I want to make this work and to get all the three kinds of results. Short term cramming, mid-term for passing the czech exams, and long term for the french exam and my professional life. That's one of the main reasons for choosing SRS.
PeterMollenburg wrote:The Italian article had me pondering, should I return to Anki, to which my answer was no, simply because I don't like it. I did too much of it, and the thought of doing it now makes me, well, not want to do it at all.
What does too much mean?
I don't particularly like it. But I hope the results will make me dislike it much less
rdearman wrote:I'm surprised that smallwhite didn't mention her method of using a spreadsheet for learning vocabulary. Not for the medical stuff probably, but you can cram vocabulary using a spreadsheet.
I'll study her log, thanks for the idea!
Whodathunkitz wrote:....a long and awesome post I am responding to, just a few tiny bits left, so that my whole post doesn't take half forum...
Thirdly when I had to cram for IT exams, I used pomodoro (25 minutes, 5 minutes break - tea) for 1 to 14 hours a day. Pretty unhealthy and unsustainable for more than 3 months (but I finally got enough tea - actually finding I did have an upper limit).
....
Both of these cramming scenarios had one element - the same material from different courses where the key material was repeated (and therefore given extra weight) and also greater breadth as the courses overlapped but also added a bit more that was unique or triggered a link with previous material that made it 'click' and be understood. I felt like a wave of knowledge and let it just pass over me and not do my usual panic/fret mode. On reflection, this linking from course to course may have been beneficial too.
....
I've never really crammed before - but this worked for ME.
......
So in short,
I used existing material (relying on true experts close to the IT company; I'm lazy; memrise - child minding or otherwise doing stuff at the same time)
I let it flow over me, not stressing (pomodoro, lots of tea**, sometimes bavorak/g&t) - double speed video and multi-tasking memrise
I did multiple similar courses which reinforced key concepts but also added breadth and context / tips
I TRIED treating it all as a game. I realise this will be hard and indeed when I took redundancy and needed another job, it was hard to regard it as a game.
Lastly - I wish you the very best of luck and success.
** your theanine limits may vary - green tea is 1/3 theanine of black tea and I drink very strong builders' tea - don't try it with Czech / Turkish / Dutch coffee....
CRAMMING is an important part of this. I am so far behind the ideal plan that I need to cram for months to make up for it.
Thanks for lots of valuable notes, this is one of the posts I will return to several times, it seems.
How much time would you spend on those thousands of cards? How much time were you able to keep putting in every day without burning out?
I think a part of my "not new" advantage is the fact most subjects are more or less intertwined with the others, some more and some less. And I know a part of almost all the subjects, I get around 30% in the tests for the french exam (I need to get over 80% or ideally 90% to have a good chance of not having a horrible results in the exam week with all the nervosity), I can talk about a lot of stuff at least superficially. I don't have the details. In some areas, I know more. In some, I haven't touched the subject yet. It is really varied.
On MAKING cards. I have a trouble with it, it takes a lot of time. Did you find any way to make it more efficient or less of a torture, or did you just settle for the already made decks instead, to not waste time?
14 hours! wow! and for 3 months. That is a wonderful example, one of the things I had been hoping to read. Experience of others and an idea of what is realistic and what could be the limits. Pomodoro is great, I experimented with the times a bit, but the original 25/5 is probably the best. I somehow don't get enough "immersion" during just 20 minutes, despite the difference not being that huge.
It is hard to ask people about the time they are putting in studying. Most are either exagerrating or trying to look more cool by saying lower numbers. And you cannot ask like "and out of the 8 hours, how much did you spend on facebook and instagram?". When you tell me about Pomodory, I know what you are talking about without further asking. I still don't know how to survive such an intensive plan though
About the video material: there is some in French and in English. In French, it covers just a small part of the curriculum, only some subjects. In English, I get to a similar problem like with the non-French books. But I'll trying playing more with it. The speed idea looks very interesting but I guess it would depend on the kind of video and speech included. Students of IT or maths are very fortunate to have so much video material on youtube. It really looks like both (and also other fields, sure) have a lot of students and teachers who love the subject and love to share.
The overlaps are something I am sure to benefit from too. An example: the hypertension is being treated in the overall intern medicine, in cardiology, in nephrology, and I think also in endocrinology. Also, it is logical most of the subjects overlap, it is still one body they are talking about. But it is even worse, when I cannot remember something that I have seen so many times.
I need more reviews.
For languages, it is similar. Perhaps instead of fighting it and trying to find a way to make a master list of vocabulary out of all my sources without repetitions, I should just embrace it and make more lists. And if I let something in for the second or third time, I obviously need to see more of it. Thanks for leading me to this thought.
I am not be a newbie crammer. (heh, vast majority of my studies has been cramming. and I remember a lot, considering the cramming attitude). But I need to do it on a scale I could have hardly imagined before. I hate myself for not having been a better student, but there were also valid reasons for it. There is no point in wasting time on regretting the lost time, I need to cram now.
I am lucky I can afford relying on official materials by experts, my dad is supporting me in my studies and providing even for my textbook needs. But still, no expert is likely to know my particular weaknesses better than me, so the cards made by myself are a must this time.
Thank you for your good wishes. **during the times of intensive studying, I drink two liters of filtered coffee per day. Or several espressos (cappuccino or latte during the winter or for breakfast). I don't drink the Turkish coffee and I hope the "Czech coffee" is safely buried in the prehistory, with the rest of the 20th century
Tea is awesome, I am more for the black one, but I am considering switching to green. I like it too, I just somehow cannot get myself to it. Is it really good for memory?