What would you change in my learning strategy

Anki Learning Effectively
1

After having passed a major exam, I would like to take a deep hard look into my learning strategy for the past 2 years and see what could have been better in terms of:

  • Card Making
  • Question Prompt
  • Card Design
  • Memory aids

Me studying medicine requires a refined learning technique which is not the same as language learning.

image
image770Ă—290 39.9 KB

For learning steps, first I am trying to group them into chunks of no more than 3 subitems each, and I try to keep the order of the items in check (for memorizing sequential processes they HAVE to be in order).

I ask ChatGPT to transform

A
B
C
D
E
F

into
├──X
│ ├── a
│ ├── b
│ └──c
├──Y
│ ├── d
│ ├── e
│ └── f

for me to then memorize

  • ABC seperately,
  • DEF seperately,
  • XY seperately after having been tested on the order alone first through this addon

https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1190756458

Memory aids

Well the addon has helped a lot to reduce the cognitive load while trying to recall the individual steps in processes and items in lists in order.

So memory aids that I have used are:

  • Acronyms (they are helpful, but trying to recall what each letter means in a set of acronym is really painful and often comes off unsuccessfully)
  • Imagery (through AI generation—> time consuming and often incapable of depicting a helpful image that is easy to link to the subject, also prone to forgetting though less than acronyms on their own. )

It is also hard not to be overreliant on images without having tooltips that hide them when not needed and shown if hovered over with the pointer

  • Memory Palace (I cannot make memory palaces of my own, so I choose an image either by generation or by searching on google, draw a pathway and associate a part of an acronym to different parts of the image. This has helped me with recalling the acronym itself, though not with the meaning behind the letters of the acronym. This has been my main method for the past year or so)
  • Overlapping Cloze has not really helped me with “bilding a link” really between two steps. The addon did, but I still dont find it strong enough

I have tested other memory aids and they were either high cost low reward or just straight up not work with Anki. So I am kind of hopeless in that regard unless someone helps me with something else.

Addons that help build the link between 1 step and the next is probably the way to go, though I did not find any other than the one @shigeyuki mentioned.

General info about my situation:

  • I do my learning completely through Anki
  • I am studying in German as a foreign language to me (so maybe that is making things a lot more difficult that they really should be, idk)
  • …

So I think that is all there is to my leaning strategy with Anki. I will keep on making edits to further clarify my current strategy so that others could better understand my situation and make suggestions accordingly. Until then, I am looking forward to your suggestions :pray:

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In my opinion, the use of acronyms, images and clozing is the framework of a simple creation of flash cards according to the SuperMemo article (Effective learning: Twenty rules of formulating knowledge - SuperMemo). So, you’re in the right path on your studying with Anki

But always remember: keep it simple, student. Or KISS. You don’t need to complicate stuff to learn things. You’re unique and your learning too

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Congratulations on passing your exam! (Physikum?) With more subjects ahead, your current approach is likely to time consuming. Don’t try to pack everything (I often saw your cards in your posts) into Anki. Make cards with less, but more focussed content. Make memory aids only if you struggle with content, not in the first place. Coming up with good mnemonics is really hard. It is easier if you struggled before :wink:

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Congrats!:+1:

Imagery (through AI generation)､ Acronyms:

  • I think AI generated images and cards is still in its infancy. So far Anking (Ankihub) is eager for it, they can accumulate and share AI generated images and Acronyms in their Ankihub decks. They need to be careful with copyright so maybe it works well with AI tools.

Memory Palace:

  • Just an idea, I think it would be interesting to develop an add-on for the Memory Palace, e.g. a window with a map and furniture or a card with furniture icons and location backgrounds.

Other memory aids:

  • This is just another idea. There are many different memory methods so I think it would be interesting to develop an add-on that randomly suggests them. E.g. if you press Again on a card, it pops up to read it aloud three times. Next, it will suggest editing the card, adding mnemonics, etc.

Alternative to AI image generation:

  • I think it might be a good idea to simply add a few small images instead of generating them with AI, e.g. something like this:

    • Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
    • My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Noodles
    • image

  • I have already developed an add-on for downloading images in bulk to Anki, so I think this is already possible if I customize it. ( addon : :mechanical_arm:Bulk Image Downloader)

Many tools that use AI have been developed recently outside of Anki (probably because they can use AI to develop faster), tools to generate mnemonic images with AI should be wanted by learners other than Anki, so I think they will may develop it first.

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The thing is with addition of small images is that there is no smart way to

  • to find an appropriate image (from Google Images :question:) to a tough abstract subject without resorting to some sort of compromise (like instead of trying to depict Carbomylphosphate as some generic chemical formula, I have to take instead the first 3-4 letters - in this case, its car - which is nonsensical but I have no other better option

  • That, and then to add images in bulk using a prompt

I just want to be able to type in something that I find tedious to learn into a generator that returns back methods to do so (with the help of an appropriate images or other methods)

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