Last year this time I was in my 1st week of medical school meeting my 140 classmates, being orientated into the program, and stumbling my way through various study platforms in hopes one would make sense. I used Anki and Collanote to study, this review could be adapted to other university programs that have a large quantity of content and test with multiple choice exams.
There are 2 types of medical students those who use Anki and those who do not – it is not good or bad to use this system it all depends on how you learn best.
Anki is a free spaced repetition flashcard system that offers a lot of customization including, adding images, covering written information in diagrams, and setting a set number of cards to study each day – keeping you on track with content.
I found Anki to be a great platform after taking class notes and doing a second pass over the content. Before using flashcards, it was important that I created a mind map in my brain to store the information that I was being quizzed on. Without that mind map, there was nowhere for the information I was learning to be stored. I often think about my brain for studying like a computer…I can place a file on my desktop but without it being organized into a folder will I ever find it again?
There is an app called Anki Pro that I found useful to review flashcard decks on my Iphone and Ipad. The app has a free and paid version, both can work for your studying it just depends on what features you need. I used Anki Pro to study pre-made flashcard decks and create quick flashcards after lecture.
Handwritten vs. typed notes is an on-going debate that learners need to decide early on into their studies. Collanote gave me the best of both worlds where I could write my notes on my Ipad as to not lose them while giving that pen to paper feeling.
Collanote is a free app for phones, tablets, and computers to write or type notes along with create flashcards. This platform allows me to:
- Write & highlight directly on lecture slides
- Create visually appealing study sheets
- Handwrite flashcards that are stored online
- Use typing whenever I need
I enjoyed using this system to add notes during lecture to the online slides, then using screen split to create 1-page summaries of the slides for later review. The array of pen colors and styles made notes visually aesthetic and more appealing to review later.
Between using Collanote to create notes and then Anki to study flashcards of the content, my 1st year of medical school studying improved after each exam. As I prepare to start 2nd year medical school, I plan to keep these 2 platforms and add in true handwritten notes taken during lecture.