The document discusses methods for effective learning, particularly in medical education, emphasizing the importance of the spacing effect and active recall. It advocates for using spaced repetition systems like Anki to enhance knowledge retention and understanding. Finally, it outlines strategies for formulating knowledge effectively and recognizes the need for a fundamental grasp of material before memorization.

1. DESCRIBING A METHOD FOR MANAGING
LARGE PIECES OF INFORMATION THAT
YOU NEED TO RETAIN
Learning and Retaining
Information
Friday, October 22, 2021

2. What do we want to discuss?
1. The natural history of learning in the
college of medicine
2. Why we want to change that
3. Two keys for better learning
4. The spacing effect
5. Systems for applying the spacing effect
6. Using Anki as an SRS
7. Formulating knowledge
8. The intention for learning
9. Questions and answers

3. 1. The natural history of learning in the college
of medicine
Holding tomes of knowledge (temporarily)

4. 1. The natural history of learning in the college
of medicine
Medical knowledge from start to graduation

5. And the clock keeps ticking…

6. Where are we now?
1. The natural history of learning in the college of
medicine
2. Why we want to change that
3. Two keys for better learning
4. The spacing effect
5. Systems for applying the spacing effect
6. Using Anki as an SRS
7. Formulating knowledge
8. The intention for learning
9. Questions and answers

7. 2. Why we want to change that
Build foundations

8. 2. Why we want to change that
Integrate things together

9. 2. Why we want to change that
More efficient retention of
knowledge till graduation

10. Where are we now?
1. The natural history of learning in the college of
medicine
2. Why we want to change that
3. Two keys for better learning
4. The spacing effect
5. Systems for applying the spacing effect
6. Using Anki as an SRS
7. Formulating knowledge
8. The intention for learning
9. Questions and answers

11. 3. Two keys for better learning
Active Recall

12. 3. Two keys for better learning
Repetition

13. But there is
no time!

14. 3. Two keys for better learning
Well, you can try flash cards…

15. 3. Two keys for better learning

16. But again there is
no time!

17. Where are we now?
1. The natural history of learning in the college of
medicine
2. Why we want to change that
3. Two keys for better learning
4. The spacing effect
5. Systems for applying the spacing effect
6. Using Anki as an SRS
7. Formulating knowledge
8. The intention for learning
9. Questions and answers

18. 4. The spacing effect
There is a memory
curve. You only need
to repeat at the right
intervals to efficiently
retain information.
Hermann Ebbinghaus

19. 4. The spacing effect

20. 4. The spacing effect

21. But how am I going to
calculate the intervals?!

22. Where are we now?
1. The natural history of learning in the college of
medicine
2. Why we want to change that
3. Two keys for better learning
4. The spacing effect
5. Systems for applying the spacing effect
6. Using Anki as an SRS
7. Formulating knowledge
8. The intention for learning
9. Questions and answers

23. 5. Systems for applying the spacing effect
Leitner system

24. 5. Systems for applying the spacing effect
SRSs – Spaced Repetition Systems

25. Where are we now?
1. The natural history of learning in the college of
medicine
2. Why we want to change that
3. Two keys for better learning
4. The spacing effect
5. Systems for applying the spacing effect
6. Using Anki as an SRS
7. Formulating knowledge
8. The intention for learning
9. Questions and answers

27. 6. Using Anki as an SRS

28. Where are we now?
1. The natural history of learning in the college of
medicine
2. Why we want to change that
3. Two keys for better learning
4. The spacing effect
5. Systems for applying the spacing effect
6. Using Anki as an SRS
7. Formulating knowledge
8. The intention for learning
9. Questions and answers

29. 7. Formulating knowledge
 Do not learn if you do not understand
 Soon you may pollute your learning process with a great deal
of useless material that treacherously makes you believe "it will
be useful some day".
 Learn before you memorize
 Before you proceed with memorizing individual facts and
rules, you need to build an overall picture of the learned
knowledge.
 Build upon the basics
 The simpler the overall picture the better. Do not neglect the
basics.

30. 7. Formulating knowledge
 Minimum information principle
Simple memory Terribly complex memory

31. 7. Formulating knowledge
 Minimum information principle
We want a minimum amount of
information to be retrieved from
memory in a single repetition! We
want the answer to be as short as
imaginably possible!

32. 7. Formulating knowledge
 Minimum information principle – Example
 Bad question formulation
 Describe Burkitt lymphoma.
 Good question formulation
 Which virus is associated with Burkitt lymphoma?
 What is the translocation?
 What are its types (i.e. variants)?
 What is the characteristic histological picture?
 etc…

33. Where are we now?
1. The natural history of learning in the college of
medicine
2. Why we want to change that
3. Two keys for better learning
4. The spacing effect
5. Systems for applying the spacing effect
6. Using Anki as an SRS
7. Formulating knowledge
8. The intention for learning
9. Questions and answers

34. Knowledge for the sake of
knowledge?

35. fulfilling the trust

36. “For He loves it that if you do
something, you perfect it.”

37. Where are we now?
1. The natural history of learning in the college of
medicine
2. Why we want to change that
3. Two keys for better learning
4. The spacing effect
5. Systems for applying the spacing effect
6. Using Anki as an SRS
7. Formulating knowledge
8. The intention for learning
9. Questions and answers

38. 9. Questions and answers
 What if I ignore a day of studying my cards?
 What if I ignore studying for a week or more?
 How can I save and backup my cards?
 Other questions?

39. Some resources
 20 rules of formulating knowledge in learning (very
important; also explore other articles on the website)
 http://www.supermemo.com/articles/20rules.htm
 Anki Documentation (information on how to use Anki)
 http://ankisrs.net/docs/
 Anki All the Way (a review of why Anki is a good SRS; the
website is itself a compilation of reviews of SRSs)
 http://foolsworkshop.com/reviews/anki-all-the-way
 Search Google for terms like “spaced repetition” and
follow the links

40. Thank you for listening.
And all praise is due to Allah .