Over the past decade, Anki has swept through medical schools as one of the best methods of implementing spaced repetition. This was facilitated by the release of the Anki app in 2006 (Anki is the Japanese word for “memorization”). Medical students worldwide have become hooked on spaced repetition flashcards. Essentially, taking the time to repetitively review flashcards over the course of a period of time lifts the “forgetting curve” so that students actually remember the information they have reviewed. This concept of spaced repetition has overtaken medical education as the best way to retain all the information needed to do well on the USMLE Step Exams. This concept relies on reviewing flashcards at increasing intervals based on the difficulty of the card. The second reason making flashcards is so important deals with the concept of spaced repetition. Making your own flashcards instead of simply using a premade deck creates a learning activity that causes you to interact with the material you are trying to memorize and increases your retention rate. This is the first key part of why taking the time to create personalized flashcards is so important. To start, active learning, for those who may not be familiar, refers to any learning activity in which the student participates or interacts with the learning process (as opposed to passively taking in information). How to Study to Score a 280 on USMLE Step 2 CK Why Flashcards Work for the USMLE Exams So, grab a fork and let’s talk UWorld flashcards ! When leveraged appropriately, flashcards can become your most valuable review resource that puts the icing on your hard-earned USMLE study cake! As luck may have it, the popular USMLE QBank UWorld offers the ability to make flashcards right on their platform which is what we will be exploring in this post. Creating your own personalized flashcards provides a custom study resource tailored to your specific knowledge base and needs. Through this research, the important concepts of “active learning” and “spaced repetition” were born.Īs you may have guessed, especially in medical school while studying for the USMLE exams, utilizing flashcards as an avenue for active learning and spaced repetition are major contributing factors to studying success. Over the last 30-40 years, however, researchers have begun taking a closer look at the effectiveness of flashcards. In fact, I think most people remember making flashcards throughout their educational career (Or do they? Perhaps I am showing my age!) to memorize things like foreign languages and historical facts. Did you know that flashcards have been around since at least the 1800’s when paper became widely available to the average student? Certainly, the use of flashcards to aid in the memorization of facts is no foreign concept to any of us.
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