It so happens that every six or seven months an article like this pops up, and revives my interest in Anki for a short while. So far, it has never stuck with me, but maybe this time…
I’m preparing for a bunch of Maths (linear algebra, analysis, automata and grammars, and the like) and Biology (molecular bio, immunology, genetics) exams, all due in June. I haven’t seen/used any of the subjects in question for at least a year, although I have passed each of them with perfect marks back then.
Is it too late to construct the cards now as part of the refresh/relearning process?
If it is, what other learning routine would you recommend? I usually just go through a book and try to connect everything to everything else. I’ve also adopted Zettelkasten notes for some of the subjects, formalising this notion of connecting things.
If it isn’t, how granular should I be wirh the cards?
A card for every definition, every theorem, and the main lemmas? (there’s literally hundreds of those)
Or just a few high level cards like “explain the matrix subspaces” and “what are the eigenvectors about”?
Or should the granularity be chosen relative to the expected granularity of the exam? (They probably won’t ask me to proove every little theorem)
Definitely not too late to make cards. I’ve learned a great deal of basic chemistry in the last month or so, just studying for random 30-minute chunks and binging interesting-looking wikipedia articles. A month+ is plenty of time for spaced repetition to work its magic.
For math, I recommend Anki; for non-Latex-intensive subjects like biology, I recommend SuperMemo for fast card creation while you read and review material. Unfortunately, I have yet to write up my thoughts on the latter.
I like to look at the “cheat sheets” for courses and ensure I know how to reason using the key concepts. Add cards for the key concepts you find in course review notes. For definitions and concepts, I like cloze deletions—they’re easy to make and easy to learn. For exercises, add small practice problems for the key concepts and the items you know will be on the tests.
A month+ is plenty of time for spaced repetition to work its magic.
Thanks, that sounds encouraging.
For math, I recommend Anki; for non-Latex-intensive subjects like biology, I recommend SuperMemo for fast card creation while you read and review material.
I have to admit, I despise Anki. I love well-designed tools, to the point it’s probably detrimental to my life. But alas, it is like it is — and so every time I see Anki (and I’ve made around 300 cards for it past the last few years), I have an urge to throw the computer out of the window.
But, that’s just a detail. I plan to use Mochi, by the way.
I like to look at the “cheat sheets” for courses and ensure I know how to reason using the key concepts. Add cards for the key concepts you find in course review notes.
Ok, so the main advice is: don’t make a card for everything, just the important concepts. And those concepts can be found in “cheatsheets” and “course review notes”, it seems — unfortunately, I don’t have any of those things.
So, I’d be grateful if you could illustrate what do you think constitutes a major, Anki-worthy piece of information. Let’s say you’re trying to revise (in the context of my current exam prep) a base chapter on vector spaces from Linear algebra done right. You probably want a card with the VS axioms. What else do you view as important enough?
Ok, so the main advice is: don’t make a card for everything, just the important concepts. And those concepts can be found in “cheatsheets” and “course review notes”, it seems — unfortunately, I don’t have any of those things.
If the plan was to understand the given subject, then yes, that would work. And of course, that is the ultimate plan.
However, the more pressing matter are the exams. I would be afraid that the intersection of the two programs won’t contain all of the important concepts; that’s my experience with “other” textbooks (meaning, other than the few recommend ones), at least.
It so happens that every six or seven months an article like this pops up, and revives my interest in Anki for a short while. So far, it has never stuck with me, but maybe this time…
I’m preparing for a bunch of Maths (linear algebra, analysis, automata and grammars, and the like) and Biology (molecular bio, immunology, genetics) exams, all due in June. I haven’t seen/used any of the subjects in question for at least a year, although I have passed each of them with perfect marks back then.
Is it too late to construct the cards now as part of the refresh/relearning process?
If it is, what other learning routine would you recommend? I usually just go through a book and try to connect everything to everything else. I’ve also adopted Zettelkasten notes for some of the subjects, formalising this notion of connecting things.
If it isn’t, how granular should I be wirh the cards?
A card for every definition, every theorem, and the main lemmas? (there’s literally hundreds of those)
Or just a few high level cards like “explain the matrix subspaces” and “what are the eigenvectors about”?
Or should the granularity be chosen relative to the expected granularity of the exam? (They probably won’t ask me to proove every little theorem)
Definitely not too late to make cards. I’ve learned a great deal of basic chemistry in the last month or so, just studying for random 30-minute chunks and binging interesting-looking wikipedia articles. A month+ is plenty of time for spaced repetition to work its magic.
For math, I recommend Anki; for non-Latex-intensive subjects like biology, I recommend SuperMemo for fast card creation while you read and review material. Unfortunately, I have yet to write up my thoughts on the latter.
I like to look at the “cheat sheets” for courses and ensure I know how to reason using the key concepts. Add cards for the key concepts you find in course review notes. For definitions and concepts, I like cloze deletions—they’re easy to make and easy to learn. For exercises, add small practice problems for the key concepts and the items you know will be on the tests.
Don’t learn every definition and theorem.
Thanks, that sounds encouraging.
I have to admit, I despise Anki. I love well-designed tools, to the point it’s probably detrimental to my life. But alas, it is like it is — and so every time I see Anki (and I’ve made around 300 cards for it past the last few years), I have an urge to throw the computer out of the window.
But, that’s just a detail. I plan to use Mochi, by the way.
Ok, so the main advice is: don’t make a card for everything, just the important concepts. And those concepts can be found in “cheatsheets” and “course review notes”, it seems — unfortunately, I don’t have any of those things.
So, I’d be grateful if you could illustrate what do you think constitutes a major, Anki-worthy piece of information. Let’s say you’re trying to revise (in the context of my current exam prep) a base chapter on vector spaces from Linear algebra done right. You probably want a card with the VS axioms. What else do you view as important enough?
Why not use Google for notes from other schools?
If the plan was to understand the given subject, then yes, that would work. And of course, that is the ultimate plan.
However, the more pressing matter are the exams. I would be afraid that the intersection of the two programs won’t contain all of the important concepts; that’s my experience with “other” textbooks (meaning, other than the few recommend ones), at least.