The Ultimate Flashcard Tutorial (step by step)

so a lot of students swear by flash cards and we were no exception we even started a flash card app but being so deep in this craze revealed to me how terrible my flashcards actually were yes it's a great way to study but it's not easy to do well and flash cards can actually be detrimental to our grades if done incorrectly so in today's video which is part of our study skills series I'll be sharing our ultimate flashcard tutorial it consists of three parts and it's important to learn them in order so don't skip ahead part one is to understand the role of flash cards and how they fit into the overall study system flashcards help us rope memorize Standalone pieces of information or isolated facts what they don't do is help us understand Concepts or piece them together to see the big picture so there's this Paradox with flashcards the more we make the more time we have to spend reviewing them and the less time we have to spend towards actually understanding and learning the main Concepts so it's important to know if and when to make flash cards so before I'm tempted to make flash card I ask myself two questions have I tried to group the information together in pharmacology we have to know all these drugs and instead of making 20 flash cards for 20 different medications we want to take some time to group them first are there any underlying relationships between these drugs for example these meds here all end in the same suffix sartan because they help with blood pressure in a particular way so what I would do is group them all by name and just make one flash card for all of them or all these drugs are safe for pregnant patients or these work really fast and are used for emergencies so taking time to understand relationships allows me to make far fewer flashcards that are actually more memorable and the second question is this piece of information important enough to memorize not all information is created equal most exams follow the 80 20 rule meaning 80 percent of the exam comes from only 20 percent of the material and that 20 percent is usually the main Concepts and that's where we want our attention to be the rest of the material are details and yes some details are more important than others and there are always going to be facts that are so obscure and so isolated from the rest of the material that you literally just have to roll memorize things like random dates or abstract names like medications enzymes rare diseases equations or anything your teacher says will be on the test the list goes on so this is why we recommend making your own flashcards as opposed to using pre-made decks from someone else that way you're forced to understand the material and draw your own conclusions before you blindly commit everything to memory all right now we're on to part two this is making your flash cards so creating quality flashcards takes a lot of practice and you have to be very intentional with every card or else you'll waste a lot of time so we'll start with some terrible flash cards and level them up using our framework here Point number one is to make flash cards as simple and specific as possible and this is usually achievable with only one topic per card it should be black and white right it should be super clear what the card is asking for if it's not then you haven't broken down concept deeply enough for example our terrible flash card reads what does blood do this flash card is super vague right it raises a lot of additional clarifying questions like which specific component of blood plasma white blood cell red blood cell where in the body the lungs the heart the vessels we know it's a bad flash card when the answer is a long list because when you study lists you might recall some but not all the facts and this causes us to incorrectly gauge what we know and what we don't know so to make this flash card better let's add a few clarifying words like what is the role of red blood cells at the peripheral tissue okay this is much more specific at the peripheral tissue red blood cells deliver oxygen in exchange for carbon dioxide so these one-to-one cards Force us to understand Concepts at the fundamental level and leaves no question whether or not we know the facts tip number two is to include answer context so on the back of my flashcards I like to include extra details or references or contacts that help me understand the bigger picture so in our example I can improve the card by referencing a page in the lecture slide or in the textbook or I could put a diagram or image or a comparison table differentiating between the three I could even link a YouTube video but there's a two-fold benefit here first is that I have a reference to help me refresh my knowledge if I need it but more importantly I'm actively trying to relate this card to all the other Concepts and forcing myself to always think of the big picture and point number three is to add memory techniques using flashcards to remember memory techniques is next level it's like Inception you're memorizing how you memorized we have a whole video about memorization techniques that I can link here or in the description but basically if you have a mnemonic or an image acronym mind Palace story or any other creative way to trigger your memory it should be put on the flashcards again check out that memory techniques video where we go into much more detail in point number four make digital flash cards and as someone who started a flash card app this should go without saying but you want to have mobile access as well because digital flashcards allow us to quickly search for any card we need we can organize our cards by folders and tags we can make custom decks like for a midterm or we can combine multiple decks for a final exam we can study anytime anywhere from the convenience of our phones and most importantly digital flash cards can use space repetition this is basically a built-in algorithm that schedules your review for you based on how well you know your flashcards which helps in overall retention but not every flashcard app has space repetition capabilities so be sure to check I'm not really going to recommend any specific apps but I do suggest you try out multiple and then you pick the one that you enjoy using the most not the one with the fanciest features as you'll see why in the next section part three is studying our flash cards our tools are only as powerful as the way we use them so let's talk about the key ingredients to get the most out of studying our flash cards I like to schedule in time and practice every day and it doesn't even have to be that long maybe like five to ten minutes just to start building The Habit some common questions that we've gotten are how am I supposed to finish all my flash cards in five minutes a day or how many cards should I do every day and the answer is it doesn't matter as long as you're consistent remember that flash cards are just a rote memorization tool right they're not really a substitute for learning the information if you find yourself spending more time practicing flash cards than understanding main Concepts like using mind maps or past papers or something and you're practicing too many flashcards so that's why I recommend pairing our flash card studying with a routine that we already do on a daily basis for example always doing your flashcards when you're brushing your teeth here is a list of other examples also consider practicing flash cards in all the random pockets of time throughout the day like waiting in line or writing past your princess with your bro here's another list of examples also consider pairing it with something you enjoy or rewarding yourself like only allowing yourself to drink Boba while you're doing flashcard at the same time here's a list of other examples that you can reward yourself with after doing your flash cards our biggest goal is to try to reduce the total number of cards in Our Deck whenever possible because we don't want it to get to critical mass at which point you're making more flash cards than you are learning from them I'd recommend using the rule of three if you've gotten flashcard correct three times in a row you're probably not going to forget it so just archive it if you get a flash card wrong three times in a row then it's probably time to rethink that card maybe it's too vague it needs to be Rewritten or maybe it needs to be further broken down into multiple cards or maybe you need to add a memory technique to that card speaking of which memory techniques really help me level up my flash card game if you haven't seen our ultimate memorization guide I recommend you check it out plus at the end of that video we share a cool trick on how to condense information to further reduce the amount of flash cards that you need to make if you have any questions let me know in the comments below and I'll see you in that video

Channel: Cajun Koi Academy

Views: 314,238

Keywords: Mike and Matty, cajun koi, Cajun Koi Academy, tora, kuma, kitsune, study tips, brain type, brain type quiz, brain type test, evidence based study tips, student edition, study skills, learning skills, how to make flashcards, anki, flashcard app, medical student, study with me, how to use anki, active recall, anki medical school, anki flashcards, medical student study tips, anki vs quizlet, spaced repetition, how to make better flashcards

Id: 47yVbdReyXw

Length: 8min 1sec (481 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 21 2022