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Tried anki in college, found that creating the cards took too much time and doing them was boring. What did work for me was really simple. A single 8 1/2 by 1

by a-dub 6y ago

Tried anki in college, found that creating the cards took too much time and doing them was boring. What did work for me was really simple. A single 8 1/2 by 11 double sided sheet of paper could usually fit everything I needed to memorize at one given time. I'd write out a cheat sheet (a very valuable exercise in condensing and distilling while reviewing) and then reproduce it from memory before and after bed three days in a row allowing a tapered amount of cheating/peeking (with the first few being pretty much all peeking). After three days, it was pretty much good as memorized.

Normal_gaussian 6y ago
and many years later? As I understand it the benefit is to have strong recall over longer than just an exam or university course; more like for an entire career stage. How far into your career are you, and how much of the material you learned in this way have you retained? Have you fairly tested the retention?
- a-dub 6y ago
  like anything it's use it or lose it. memorization works for short term, continued application in different settings is what makes it stick.
  - BeetleB 6y ago
    Memorization works well in the long term if you use flash cards, which was the point of the question.
sah55 6y ago
This is just memorization through brute repetition without the SRS optimization. Less efficient, and more time consuming.
- BeetleB 6y ago
  That's a bit harsh. As someone who regularly uses flash cards, creating them really is a bottleneck. It's a lot quicker to handwrite something on a paper. It's not as effective, but it definitely is faster.
  - a-dub 6y ago
    i also find that spatial layout and a fixed sequence can help with recall. flash cards are supposed to improve on that, but for me, personally, the spatial component is helpful- especially when related concepts are near each other.
  - eska 6y ago
    Then get better at it. I'd constantly add 3 words real quick while I was in some restaurant's bathroom. Using templates for various kind of information makes it so you're only typing in information, no formating. Also don't forget to calculate in all the work of having to actually store, organize, and carry around all that paper. Suddenly the digital version doesn't sound like more work anymore.

by a-dub 6y ago

Normal_gaussian 6y ago

and many years later? As I understand it the benefit is to have strong recall over longer than just an exam or university course; more like for an entire career stage. How far into your career are you, and how much of the material you learned in this way have you retained? Have you fairly tested the retention?

a-dub 6y ago
like anything it's use it or lose it. memorization works for short term, continued application in different settings is what makes it stick.
- BeetleB 6y ago
  Memorization works well in the long term if you use flash cards, which was the point of the question.

sah55 6y ago

This is just memorization through brute repetition without the SRS optimization. Less efficient, and more time consuming.

BeetleB 6y ago
That's a bit harsh. As someone who regularly uses flash cards, creating them really is a bottleneck. It's a lot quicker to handwrite something on a paper. It's not as effective, but it definitely is faster.
- a-dub 6y ago
  i also find that spatial layout and a fixed sequence can help with recall. flash cards are supposed to improve on that, but for me, personally, the spatial component is helpful- especially when related concepts are near each other.
- eska 6y ago
  Then get better at it. I'd constantly add 3 words real quick while I was in some restaurant's bathroom. Using templates for various kind of information makes it so you're only typing in information, no formating. Also don't forget to calculate in all the work of having to actually store, organize, and carry around all that paper. Suddenly the digital version doesn't sound like more work anymore.