So I thought this forum would be a good place to ask: how do you revise and study for your (non-language) exams?

I've never been good with that sort of thing and I do much better with written essays than exams that are a bunch of short answers.

In regards to myself, I'm currently making flashcards, going through my textbook and making notes and essentially 'mining' my textbook for anything that could come up on the exam and putting it in anki (if anyone cares, it's just computer science.)

There was a thread about that a while back, with some helpful answers: http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=7498

I wonder if it's a smart idea to start using anki for exams 2 months prior to an exam?

Or how about 2 weeks?


The problem is that you can say that you have "learnt" the material when the cards are mature, but it takes time until they're mature!

Any experience?

Yes, like I wrote in the other topic, I just use the "cram" function in Anki and don't rely on SRS. In fact, I don't use Anki's SRS function at all in this case. I just mark the cards I want to cram for the next 10, 15 minutes (20 - 50 cards, depending on the subject), cram for that time (hitting 1 every time, so the card comes up again, 2 if I don't want to see that card again for this cramming session). Then I take a break and after that I select the next cards, cram, take a break... after 3 or 4 of these short sessions I select all cards I crammed before and cram them together again. Rinse and repeat. At the end of the day I also do a cram session with the earlier crammed cards. The next day I repeat the cards from the day(s) before and cram new ones. Yes, this may lead to burnout! But for me it's the best method to memorize huge amounts of facts for exams in a short time.

If you are really just learning for exams, most people don't really care about long term retention (at least I don't), so cramming may work well in that case.

rigol Wrote:But for me it's the best method to memorize huge amounts of facts for exams in a short time.

For this it's good but if I would count the input of sentences etc to anki, perhaps the difference wouldn't be so big or would it?

I've gotten 95% on german tests thanks to anki, but inputting those words etc took several hours and reviewing also.

This is why I wonder whether there's any point in using anki for short term memorization as you will have to input everything.(well at least I have to)

Also, Anki naturally always shows way less time than you actually spent on the reps.

rigol Wrote:Yes, this may lead to burnout!

haha, as for me, I burn out a lot less when using anki than while using traditional methods.

Traditional methods = nothing but burnout 24/7
That's why I feel so hopeless with them if I don't have a deep interest in the subject, which is rare.

I find that by adding cards I learn some of the content already because I have to think about what and how to put it on a card. But I'm doing science learning that way - I have no experience on how to learn languages short term, but I think rote, brute force memorization behaves the same regardless of subject.

You could always try to put in the stuff, which you plan on cramming later, during the semester, not at the last moment... ^^ I try to, but I never succeed, I'm just too lazy -.- But the cards would be ready to learn when you need them.
A good tool for inputting cards quickly is the Snipping Tool in Windows 7, because you can easily copy and paste from your screen to anki. Well, at least it's good for diagrams, graphics and such. For language learning maybe not so much. But when I think about it, it would be much quicker just "snipping" a sentence/grammar point and pasting than typing it out... but of course your deck won't be searchable then... and typing it in manually will make you think about it more which is good for learning, as would be writing it out... I guess each one just has to find his or her own way.

Concerning burnout, I would happily trade places with you! After 2 weeks of cramming for exams I can hardly bring myself to keep up with japanese reviews yet alone learn new stuff^^

I tend to use Anki if it's a pure factual exam.

If it's something where I have to apply my knowledge, I prefer to just use the normal 'studying' and review method for weeks in advance so I don't have to cram/.

rigol Wrote:Concerning burnout, I would happily trade places with you! After 2 weeks of cramming for exams I can hardly bring myself to keep up with japanese reviews yet alone learn new stuff^^

Well...2 weeks is...

...yeah

I have an experience of studying J-vocab for 30 days, reps per day ranging from 400-1500

All that happened was that I usually got tired once in a while, watched dramas for maybe 2 days and then got really srs-addicted again and did reps again.

I had something like 5 intensive srs days and a couple of days off, on repeat.

...

But it's Japanese I'm talking about, I have no idea about school stuff cause I don't have much interest in school.
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Right now I'm adding biology, social studies and art history cards, started it all today. Art history works really well so far!

zachandhobbes Wrote:I tend to use Anki if it's a pure factual exam.

If it's something where I have to apply my knowledge, I prefer to just use the normal 'studying' and review method for weeks in advance so I don't have to cram/.

Well I don't have those weeks left, well I do, but those weeks will be intensive anyway so I don't know if I will have time to srs slowly.

It's just that my choices are:

1) Cram with anki
or
2) Cram using traditional methods.

I wonder which one's better in terms of time/results.



I don't even know how to use anki for not Japanese and I have 11 days until the first exam (an essay).

Biology in 35 days, art history in 45-50 days.

So I'm thinking whether it's smart to experiment with anki as I don't have months until my exams anymore.

Oh Bio is easy with Anki.
I use Anki for bio all the time, they're perfect.

First get all your terms and vocab words and make them into Anki flashcards (going backwards AND forwards, word->definition and definition-> word)

Go through your notes/lecture slides or whatever, take out key facts and remove words from them, like a fill in the blank game.

For instance:
"The Hypothalamus directly interacts with the _____ Pituitary when releasing LH hormone."
The answer being, "anterior" on the other side. Only go one way for this obviously.

You'll learn a lot just by making the cards. Put some decent time into it, if you have like 4-6 hours, just spend that all making cards. Or do it the typical anki way, add some, rev iew, add some more, etc. Either way works. Then for hte next week just do Anki and try as well as you can to get in as many reviews as possible.

I studied once in about 1 hour all of the Greek Gods, their spheres of influences, their iconographies, their major storylines, and their sidekicks, just by using Anki, and got a 74/75 on my final. So it's totally doable in 11 days.

Art History is even better - total fact recall. make a bunch of vocab cards.

zachandhobbes Wrote:Oh Bio is easy with Anki.
I use Anki for bio all the time, they're perfect.

What do you recommend me to do with this:

I got 55 facts in 30-40 minutes from 2 pages of a book, and I need 32 pages for a test in a week.

This would be something like 800 facts perhaps. Should I add more rather than less?

Or should I only add the core facts and read the book for the less important things?


Actually I also have a pdf summary of my biology topics, but it was made by someone else and is rather brief. It would be easier to add it, much faster. But I wouldn't learn so much from adding maybe? And I would probably have missing parts which would be hard to find.


BTW is making 3 cards from one sentence a good idea?

The primary tasks of blood are: transport of hormones, [...] and nutrients

The primary tasks of blood are: transport of [...], oxygen and nutrients

The primary tasks of blood are: transport of hormones, oxygen and[...]

Get whatever you think might be important, and just make 1 card and make 3 blanks.

If there are some example questions or information available, definitely use those. While making uip your own questions is beneficial, saving time is even more beneficial.

In the end you want enough cards to cover what you need to know, but not too many that you end up not reviewing them enough.

Most of the subjects i took at uni were "understanding" subjects rather than cram subjects. There were a few key concepts that you had to grasp, after which you were fine. At most there was a page of formulae to remember (although many of them "made sense" if you understood the theory). I actively avoided anything that looked like rote memorisation.

Then i started learning jap and realised rote memorisation is pretty much what learning a language is... So now i'm pretty good at rote memorising stuff...

I've thought about what else i could apply it to (other than another language), but honestly, my opinion is still as it was back then: rote memorisation is evil and crushes creativity.

Stuff like: "The primary tasks of blood are: transport of hormones, oxygen and nutrients"

Is this really necessary? Is this something you should memorise as a fact? Regardless of the fact that there is stuff missing (waste? carbon dioxide? I'm an engineer not a doctor), perhaps it would be better to actually engage the brain a bit more.

If you *understand* what blood is and what it does, then there is no need to rote memorise that sentence. You could rattle off a dozen functions and argue at length on which is a "primary task" in a given context.

Cramming for exams is one thing... but if you actually want to be able to use the knowledge, make sure you understand. There are few times in a professional's career where they will be expected to give a textbook answer to a textbook question. You're not worth paying if that's all you're going to contribute.

@zachandhobbes

TY!

zigmonty Wrote:Cramming for exams is one thing... but if you actually want to be able to use the knowledge, make sure you understand.

Well in my opinion part of understanding would be seeing all the stuff in a microscope or with you naked eye and observe, which is difficult.

I'm hoping that I can srs the concepts and then read the student's book with great speed and ease and maybe understand better.


+ it's "you understand the knowledge because you use/used the knowledge",

not "you are able to use the knowledge because you understand it"

Real understanding also comes from various attempts and failures.

jettyke Wrote:

zigmonty Wrote:Cramming for exams is one thing... but if you actually want to be able to use the knowledge, make sure you understand.

Well in my opinion part of understanding would be seeing all the stuff in a microscope or with you naked eye and observe, which is difficult.

Yeah... i don't meant understand completely things that we as a species doesn't yet understand completely. I'm just saying, be careful of using SRS to just drill facts into you. Its way too easy to just tune out doing reviews and let it give you the ability to regurgitate things...

jettyke Wrote:I'm hoping that I can srs the concepts and then read the student's book with great speed and ease and maybe understand better.

Of course if you don't even know the requisite vocab, and there's a lot of it, SRS may help give you the leg up you need to be able to approach the subject. Don't discount reading as an active participant though. Ie read and *think* about what you're reading. Try to tie it to things you've previously read or otherwise thought about. Try to predict the conclusions. Think about your preconceived notions (what is blood?) then see where the author's views are different, etc. Try to actually be interested in the topic (if you're not, maybe you're in the wrong field).

jettyke Wrote:+ it's "you understand the knowledge because you use/used the knowledge",

not "you are able to use the knowledge because you understand it"

Real understanding also comes from various attempts and failures.

100% agree with this. The way you understand something is by trying to apply it. A simple way of doing this is by just thinking. Better is making a prototype or trying out the maths yourself (i can't find an analogy for blood...). Worst is considering a carefully written textbook as a set of unconnected facts and developing your ability to regurgitate each to a specific (and static... ) prompt.

Incidentally, for all you guys who are still students, here's a trick I used a lot: If your lecturer is using a crap book, crap slides or is generally terrible at explaining something, look elsewhere. The number of people i saw at uni that would spend hours trying to understand a single ambiguous slide amazed me. Google "[topic name] lecture notes" and find something understandable. Natural laws are the same the world over, your university doesn't have a monopoly on the description of them.

zigmonty Wrote:Incidentally, for all you guys who are still students, here's a trick I used a lot: If your lecturer is using a crap book, crap slides or is generally terrible at explaining something, look elsewhere. The number of people i saw at uni that would spend hours trying to understand a single ambiguous slide amazed me. Google "[topic name] lecture notes" and find something understandable. Natural laws are the same the world over, your university doesn't have a monopoly on the description of them.

Ah can't wait to study in English at an university. My native language is really bad for self-studying (1.3M population).

Not to say that it's impossible, just takes slightly more time as I don't have anything premade.

edit:

Haha and Art history really is pure win.

I can't imagine how easily I remember the cards I made yesterday!
I think that yesterday I spent 3 hours on adding, 1,5-2 h on learning= 5 hours in total.

But wow, I can remember almost all due cards, and the today's review took 5 minutes and it's struggleless, a piece of cake!

I didn't feel like shit at all while learning like this.

Please don't study for exams. It doesn't work. Japan accounts for 46% of all worldwide TOEIC applicants, yet ranks 24th out of 26 countries in test results. The cause: a culture of studying for exams. By studying for exams rather than for actually learning the language, you fail in both quests.

So I have a biology test in 5 days


I think have only 2 options, as far as anki is concerned:


1) Rate all the questions frankly(use srs) + use anki cram mode the day before the test to cram/go through everything.


2) rate only 1 and 2. This way every learnt fact will always show up the next day.

Meaning that I will go through every fact for 5 days straight.

I can't decide which one's better... Anyway If I wanted to go through everything once, I think it would take me 1-1,5 hours.

bodhisamaya Wrote:Please don't study for exams. It doesn't work. Japan accounts for 46% of all worldwide TOEIC applicants, yet ranks 24th out of 26 countries in test results. The cause: a culture of studying for exams. By studying for exams rather than for actually learning the language, you fail in both quests.

Didn't read the thread, just saw this post and noticed it was way off.

The reason Japan scores low on TOEIC is that so many people take the test. In most other countries people only take TOEIC when they want to work in an English environment or if they specifically take it for a job. Most of the people who take it in most countries are at least of college age, and are serious about working in an English environment.

In Japan, on the other hand, a lot of people take the TOEIC test for no reason at all. People take the TOEIC test for the same reason many of take the JLPT--just to measure English ability for fun. Old ladies love it. Even high school kids take the test for no reason. Of course, you also get people who want to work abroad and stuff like that, buy the reasons vary a lot more in Japan. But, generally, in Japan people just like to pass tests because of the test culture.

The result is that you have a huge pool of people taking the TOEIC exam in Japan, and many that are younger or not as serious as those taking the exam in foreign countries. The result? The average score in Japan is lower. But it's just because the pool of people taking the test is so big. More people means more mediocrity and lower test results, when compared to just a small number of more committed people.

So, actually, the fact that the Japanese score low on TOEIC has nothing to do with whether or not studying for exams makes you better or worse at the subject. It's completely unrelated.

(I met a professor in Japan who wrote an article about this and how it's used incorrectly to show the failure of English education in Japan. It's just bad statistics)

I have noticed in my own private students that those who study because they enjoy English improve very quickly, while those who stress over passing the TOEIC never get past the "correct grammar yet unnatural conversation" phase.

bodhisamaya Wrote:I have noticed in my own private students that those who study because they enjoy English improve very quickly, while those who stress over passing the TOEIC never get past the "correct grammar yet unnatural conversation" phase.

That may be true but this thread is more about studying for non-language exams.

I always found the most important thing for me to was to go over problem classes and past papers. Then it became obvious what I was weak at and also made sure I could do the questions within the time limit.

This is probably going to be a stupid question, but how exactly does the cram feature work in anki? Does it show all of a tag even if it's not due? And how does it reschedule it?

Thanks for all the replies, by the way!

Tykkylumi Wrote:This is probably going to be a stupid question, but how exactly does the cram feature work in anki? Does it show all of a tag even if it's not due?yes And how does it reschedule it?The normal way, as If you did your reps today

Thanks for all the replies, by the way!

I only find anki useful in school for stuff that requires memorization. Like

1)History—The names of events, people, and definitions. I did this for my AP Government class and I never had to cram for a test.

2)Psychology—learning the name of experiments and the psychologist who conducted them(on written tests you have to cite the work).

3) English—only for vocab

This has made school work a lot less stressful because I don't have to cram the night before just do a very light review. And my grades have gone way up, at least in those classes.