How I Use a Spaced Repetition System to Learn Everything

In this video, I'm going to talk about three different ways you can use spacing or

repetition

of spacing to get better grades, and at the end, I'm going to talk about a very underrated habit that I use in medical school to get the most out of. spatial

repetition

Hello welcome back to the channel if you are new here my name is mike I am a doctor working in California and co-founder of rem note this is another video in our series on evidence based

learn

ing strategies where maddie and I do the research on cognitive and neuroscience and we will help you apply your studies to get better grades.

If that interests you, subscribe to weekly videos. In this video, we'll talk about practical steps you can take to apply spatial repetition to your studies. We're going to cover three different methods, from the oldest to the most technologically advanced and I assume you already know what spatial repetition is, but in case you don't check out this video here where we dive into the science behind why it works so well I'd probably watch that video first to get some context and then come back here when I'm ready to apply those techniques. One of the first implementations of spatial repetition was the Lightner

system

developed by Sebastian Lightner.

This is how it works first make five boxes, these can be actual physical boxes, for example you can use shoe boxes or they can just be theoretical boxes, like if you want to use tables within a digital note taking app. box 1 is studied every day. Box 2 is studied every other day Box 3 is studied once a week Box 4 is studied every two weeks Box 5 is the retired box, which means that you know this material well and can review it just before the proof. Keep in mind that this model is customizable, so experiment and adjust the time frames to fit a schedule you can stick to.

Now that you have your five boxes, you will need to place the topics you need to know for the exam in box one, if so. If you are using shoe boxes, then the topics can be written on flash cards. If you're using digital boxes, then your themes are the individual vignettes. Every time you match a card, you move it up one space. Every time you make a mistake, you move

everything

. the way to box one, regardless of where it was initially, this will ensure that you study your weakest points more often. If you want a less demanding schedule, you can move the cards one space back instead of moving them to space one every time you do wrong.

Another way to use space repetition is through review schedules. You make a table for each exam you take. The traditional way of making a revision schedule is to write all the dates you have to study in one column and then all the topics you plan to study each day in the next column. The problem with this method is that you never study topics based on how well you know them, so a better way to make a revision schedule is to reverse the columns. Ali Abdol goes into a lot more detail in his video, which I can link in the description, but essentially what you're doing is choosing topics to study based on how well you know them, so for example, on January 1st I'll study the chapter one and it was pretty easy so I'll bookmark it. with the color green then on January 2nd I will study the chapters that I haven't studied yet, so maybe I will choose chapters two and three.

Chapter three was very difficult, I don't feel very confident about it, so I'll mark it. with the color red and chapter two is fine, so I will mark it with the color yellow on January 3rd. I can study chapters 4 and 5 because I haven't studied them yet, so now on January 4, I have seen all the topics. at least once, but it looks like I had a really hard time with chapter 3 as shown in red, so I'll go back and check that one out. This time it was a little easier, so I'm going to change it to the yellow color and now in January.

Fifth, I don't seem to have red colors anymore, but I have a lot of yellow, so maybe I'll go with this chapter because it's been the longest since I saw that stuff and that's the basic idea of ​​how revision schedules work with spatial repetition. You just keep studying until you feel good about all the topics,

everything

turns green, and you finally feel prepared for your exam. The final way to use spatial repetition that I want to talk about is to use computer algorithms. These algorithms apply the spacing effect to the flashcards and can set up a study schedule and adjust it based on how well you know each flashcard.

There are numerous programs ranging from super memo, which was first developed by dr. peter wozniak, even anki, which uses a very similar algorithm, my favorite app. be rem note because it saves you all the time of transcribing your notes into cards rem note is a free app that automatically converts your notes into cards as you take them and uses a repeat slot algorithm that you can customize based on your schedule to Now let's talk about A very underrated habit when it comes to using the spacing effect and that is using a mobile app on your phone to study spatial repetition cards, unlike the shoeboxes or review schedules I mentioned above, a mobile app like rem notes. it allows you to study wherever you are when you're waiting in line for your Starbucks coffee in the morning.

Take out rem notes and check some cards when you're in the elevator. make some cards when you are waiting for the subway. some rem note cards make it easier for me to study during all the little free minutes I have throughout the day so that when I get home at the end of the day I can go out with my friends and family without feeling guilty. Not having done my revisions is a habit simple but life changing so i recommend you start using mobile study apps today. Okay, if you enjoyed this video, we would appreciate it if you would share it with your friends.

Watch this video here. if you want to

learn

different ways to use interleaving in your studies and watch this video here if you want to learn different ways to use active recovery in your studies if you want to chat follow us on Instagram or Twitter and message us as always thanks for watching and let us know see you in the next video