In this blog post about deliberate practice for knowledge workers, Tyler Cowen asks:
Recently, one of my favorite questions to bug people with has been “What is it you do to train that is comparable to a pianist practicing scales?” If you don’t know the answer to that one, maybe you are doing something wrong or not doing enough. Or maybe you are (optimally?) not very ambitious?
My answer to Cowen’s question is spaced repetition.
What is spaced repetition?
Spaced repetition is a learning technique that involves reviewing information at increasing intervals to enhance long-term memory retention. It’s akin to the pianist practicing scales—it’s a deliberate method to ensure knowledge sticks.
Spaced repetition is a go-to learning technique in the medical community because there’s so much to know in medicine. Learning in medicine is often likened to drinking from a firehose—there’s a lot coming at you, so studying effectively is key to understanding the vast depth and breadth of medical knowledge. I am interested in going to medical school (MD-PhD), so ever since I learned about spaced repetition through the medical community, I have been using it to study for classes and learn things outside of school.
The importance of memorization
Rote memorization isn’t the most fun—I get it. For my biochemistry class, I had to memorize the chemical structures, names, 3-letter codes, and 1-letter codes for all 21 amino acids. I mainly relied on flashcards, but I also went all out, filling my whiteboard with facts about amino acids and covering my bathroom mirror with post-it notes detailing amino acid properties and structures. Memorizing all this information about amino acids was challenging but has paid off in lab (e.g. when my mentor mentioned we were using arginine for an experiment, I made a connection to arginine’s guanidinium group and its relevance to an experiment we were doing).
Really taking the time to internalize information takes the most effort in the beginning, but with continued use, the information becomes ingrained and more natural to recall, and it becomes easier to establish connections among ideas.
tl;dr To most effectively apply a piece of information, you first need to know it inside and out
Tools for spaced repetition
These are tools I use and find most helpful. This isn’t an advertisement, and I am not sponsored. If you know of other tools that would fit into this list, please feel free to let me know, so I can credit you and add them to the list!
Anki
- Price: Free
- Open Source
Anki’s main benefit is its large user base, which means you are more likely to find high-quality pre-made flashcard decks for a variety of subjects, like physics, geography, and French. This can save you significant time, as you don’t have to create decks from scratch. Granted, creating decks from scratch provides an additional layer of reinforcement for the material, which is useful when saving time is not a priority.
Remnote
- Price: Tiered plans
- Open Source: Promised if the company winds down (very unlikely)
Remnote allows you to create flashcards directly from your notes, helping you visualize the connections between facts you’re learning. Before using Remnote, I used to take notes for my classes and then convert them into flashcards at a later time, which was time-consuming. Remnote’s integrated approach of creating cards while taking notes has made my study routine much more efficient and intuitive.
Here are some of my favorite features from Anki and Remnote:
- Image Occlusion Cards: Available in both Anki and Remnote, these allow visual learners to create cards from images quickly.
- PDF Annotation (Remnote): This is especially helpful for reading and highlighting academic papers directly within the app.
- Add-ons (Anki): Has add-ons like Anki killstreaks to gamify the learning process.
Ultimately, the specific tool(s) you choose doesn’t matter as much as actually doing the flashcards every day. The amount of flashcards you have can add up easily. Consistently doing them is the hard part.
How I use spaced repetition
I use spaced repetition for both school exams and personal learning. Here are some examples:
- Studying for the MCAT: I use pre-made MCAT decks on Anki to study.
- Reading Academic Papers: I make outlines of papers on Remnote, taking note of important points, all while turning those key ideas into flashcards.
- Learning Guitar Scales: I use Anki to memorize the fretboard, which helps me learn songs faster.
Conclusion
Spaced repetition is versatile. By converting what you want to learn into flashcards and regularly reviewing them, you can trust that your (virtually limitless) long-term memory will retain the information.
With deliberate practice through spaced repetition, you can learn anything.