For what it’s worth:
Though I do not claim to be a perfect user of SRS flashcards, I used them intensively for 3 years of medical school, constantly refining my technique. Many people here have suggested ways to improve my strategies. I have not yet seen an idea that I have not already tried extensively. Though I’m far from perfect, I think it’s safe to say I have a better understanding than most beginners. There certainly is room for me to improve, but not much. If someone is considering using SRS long term for high volumes in medical school, here is my advice: it is possible a Perfect SRS User could use it more effectively than I did, but if you haven’t already used SRS for years, you aren’t such a person.
I never read that article, but I figured out many of those on my own. I agree with many of them, disagree with some. My input, for those that use it:
-Cloze deletion is simple, but to me, it is far too easy to “guess the teacher’s password” using that technique, and is of limited use. It’s great for high-school level fact regurgitation, but less useful for post-graduate stuff. You will quickly become good at the deck, but it does not strongly help your understanding of the material. That’s an important point: your skill at answering questions in the deck does not necessarily translate to your skill at answering questions in real life.
-Graphic deletion—I used to do this all the time, but it is really time consuming to set up. I consider myself fast with an image-editor, but it’s still a big drain. (Again, this is more of an issue in high volume) It also runs into the Cloze deletion problem.
-Use imagery: heck yes. I highly agree, in any situation (flashcards or no)
-Any technique splitting a larger whole into many smaller flashcards (the article lists several): This is possibly the WORST suggestion for high volume. While this is certainly very useful, again, when you use it in high volume I have found mental fatigue to become an issue. If you don’t include the entire whole, you miss out on the big picture in a situation where the big picture truly is important. If you DO include the whole, you run into the cloze deletion “guessing the teacher’s password” problem. That said, it has its uses in smaller volume, but I will never again use it in a high-volume deck.
To give an example:
As the article suggests, I used to take a diagram, set up graphic deletion (make a series of images where a single element was blotted out), and run through the cards.
1) this takes a lot of startup time
2) Even ignoring the time to make the cards, I found reviewing the cards to be more time consuming than simply looking at the diagram, covering up the lables, and attempting to recall.
3) You get no practice recalling the diagram from memory
4) This technique is most effective if you will later see that exact diagram in real life/on the test, I argue it is a pitfall for guessing the teacher’s password and provides less intuitive understanding of the diagram.
The strength in SRS comes from not wasting time on the easy parts and only spending time on the hard parts of the diagram. The theory is, after the first two cycles, you’re only reviewing the “hard” parts of the diagram. On the other hand, you’ve spent more time making the cards, more time for the first and second card cycles, you’re taking a big hit to the “big picture” style, and have no practice conjuring the diagram itself from memory. Ignoring the big picture and general understanding elements: if SRS provides any time benefit for the rote memorization vs going without SRS cards, i would only expect the benefit to “catch up” in 3 weeks BARE minimum; for me (for fatigue reasons in high volume) I pin the crossing point at 3 to 6 months, assuming it’s an unintuitive diagram I use infrequently enough that I will forget it without review. I also argue that it provides a weaker general understanding of the diagram as a whole.
Just to comment on the last bit:
It seems odd to me that you stress the “3 weeks BARE minimum” and the “crossing point at 3 to 6 months” as a con, while you have used SRS for three years. Given that SRS is used for retention, and assuming that 6 months is the “crossing point”, one would think that after three years of consistent SRS use you’d reap a very nice yield.
I know it’s a metaphoric language, but it seems additionally ironic that the “BARE minimum” you stress equals to your frequency of exams, while you disfavor the cloze deletion’s tendency to teach “guessing the teacher’s password”.
Is the advice perhaps against using SRS to learn/cram complex knowledge under a very limited time?
For what it’s worth: Though I do not claim to be a perfect user of SRS flashcards, I used them intensively for 3 years of medical school, constantly refining my technique. Many people here have suggested ways to improve my strategies. I have not yet seen an idea that I have not already tried extensively. Though I’m far from perfect, I think it’s safe to say I have a better understanding than most beginners. There certainly is room for me to improve, but not much. If someone is considering using SRS long term for high volumes in medical school, here is my advice: it is possible a Perfect SRS User could use it more effectively than I did, but if you haven’t already used SRS for years, you aren’t such a person.
I never read that article, but I figured out many of those on my own. I agree with many of them, disagree with some. My input, for those that use it:
-Cloze deletion is simple, but to me, it is far too easy to “guess the teacher’s password” using that technique, and is of limited use. It’s great for high-school level fact regurgitation, but less useful for post-graduate stuff. You will quickly become good at the deck, but it does not strongly help your understanding of the material. That’s an important point: your skill at answering questions in the deck does not necessarily translate to your skill at answering questions in real life.
-Graphic deletion—I used to do this all the time, but it is really time consuming to set up. I consider myself fast with an image-editor, but it’s still a big drain. (Again, this is more of an issue in high volume) It also runs into the Cloze deletion problem.
-Use imagery: heck yes. I highly agree, in any situation (flashcards or no)
-Any technique splitting a larger whole into many smaller flashcards (the article lists several): This is possibly the WORST suggestion for high volume. While this is certainly very useful, again, when you use it in high volume I have found mental fatigue to become an issue. If you don’t include the entire whole, you miss out on the big picture in a situation where the big picture truly is important. If you DO include the whole, you run into the cloze deletion “guessing the teacher’s password” problem. That said, it has its uses in smaller volume, but I will never again use it in a high-volume deck.
To give an example: As the article suggests, I used to take a diagram, set up graphic deletion (make a series of images where a single element was blotted out), and run through the cards.
1) this takes a lot of startup time
2) Even ignoring the time to make the cards, I found reviewing the cards to be more time consuming than simply looking at the diagram, covering up the lables, and attempting to recall.
3) You get no practice recalling the diagram from memory
4) This technique is most effective if you will later see that exact diagram in real life/on the test, I argue it is a pitfall for guessing the teacher’s password and provides less intuitive understanding of the diagram.
The strength in SRS comes from not wasting time on the easy parts and only spending time on the hard parts of the diagram. The theory is, after the first two cycles, you’re only reviewing the “hard” parts of the diagram. On the other hand, you’ve spent more time making the cards, more time for the first and second card cycles, you’re taking a big hit to the “big picture” style, and have no practice conjuring the diagram itself from memory. Ignoring the big picture and general understanding elements: if SRS provides any time benefit for the rote memorization vs going without SRS cards, i would only expect the benefit to “catch up” in 3 weeks BARE minimum; for me (for fatigue reasons in high volume) I pin the crossing point at 3 to 6 months, assuming it’s an unintuitive diagram I use infrequently enough that I will forget it without review. I also argue that it provides a weaker general understanding of the diagram as a whole.
Just to comment on the last bit: It seems odd to me that you stress the “3 weeks BARE minimum” and the “crossing point at 3 to 6 months” as a con, while you have used SRS for three years. Given that SRS is used for retention, and assuming that 6 months is the “crossing point”, one would think that after three years of consistent SRS use you’d reap a very nice yield.
I know it’s a metaphoric language, but it seems additionally ironic that the “BARE minimum” you stress equals to your frequency of exams, while you disfavor the cloze deletion’s tendency to teach “guessing the teacher’s password”.
Is the advice perhaps against using SRS to learn/cram complex knowledge under a very limited time?