Hello Reader,

If your school just makes you drink from a FIREHOSE of information in one week and get tested on them the next week…

Then you’re probably thinking that you don’t have “that much time” to remember everything.

Looks impossible, right?

It’s either you study longer or maybe just hope that somehow the 100 out of 1000 lines you remember end up in the test.

Good news for you…

There is an efficient way to remember all of these. (Or most.)

Quick disclaimer: it is efficient but I didn’t say this was easy. Big difference.

Let’s do it the LeanAnki way.

Step 1. Plan

This is the strategic part. It’s beginning with the outcome in mind, so we can work backwards.

Ask yourself a few questions:

• Are these weekly exams graded, anyway?
• If so, how much would it impact my grades if I got perfect scores at one of these?
• (And if you have enough experience with a prof/subject) What are the usual ways we get tested on a weekly basis? Is it by defining terms, by understanding a concept, or maybe differences between X or Y?

This will determine how much effort you really need to put into this.

There’s no bigger waste of time than to get good at doing something that doesn’t have to be done.

Conversely, every second you spend grueling over something that has a large impact is greatly amplified over the long run.

Can I share my experience real quick? (Thanks for answering lol)

When I was still studying for my Engineering board exams, most of the people around me were constantly trying to top the “weekly exams” in our review center (or “cram school”).

And I want to be honest:

People who were good at cramming were coming out on top at first.

People who were good at prioritizing came out on top consistently by the end of it. (Me included, of course 😉)

Moral of the story?

Get clear about your REAL goal.

If this short-term studying thing is really contributing a lot to your final goal (i.e. grades) then maybe you need to really wring your brains here and get strategic before diving headfirst.

Otherwise, it could be a total waste of time.

Step 2. Encode

Encoding is just simply “making sense” or “making connections” -— with the latter being preferred.

Most students make the mistake of taking tons and tons of notes during the class, reviewing them, and then hoping to remember maybe 80% of it…

…only to actually remember just 5%.

That’s a huge freaking waste of time going to class for an hour or two -— taking 100% of the details but knowing absolutely 0%. In short…

Mistake: Too busy taking notes to even understand anything

What to do instead: Scribbling & messy note taking. You take VERY LEAN notes (drawings, representations, using as FEW words as possible) and THEN you make questions that make those notes the answer.

Finally: You answer your questions while covering your notes. That’s ACTIVE RECALL/Retrieval Practice. Apparently many people call it “Blurting Method” nowadays. Kinda cheesy, but still the same thing.

If this sounds really easy and you found it efficient, the next level of this is to take down QUESTIONS as your notes. (very advanced -— requires some level of confidence in your own memory) But that’s something for another day.

In the SSS course we call this way of note-taking “Lean Cornell Note Taking” which makes it really easy to turn your notes in class into Anki cards.

Here’s a demo:https://www.loom.com/share/9cbf763addfe434b802a6e9f268efb26​

What you can expect doing this is that you have a longer time frame before your retention of the material (discussed in class) fades into oblivion 🙂

Step 3. Ankify

I know this feels like a waste of time, but you should know that making cards for your material is an act of studying in itself.

You are RE-PROCESSING the material and that extra mental work will help that stick better in your memory. (i.e. “Storage Strength” in memory)

However, I have to say that this is also where some of the filtering happens.

When you’re taking notes and making questions, you’ll find that some questions have a few dependencies.

Ex: In order to understand “specific immunity vs nonspecific immunity” you have to understand the concept of immunity first.

Now let me ask you a question:

If you know a thing or two about specific and nonspecific immunity and feel like you truly understand it…

Do you really need a card for the DEFINITION of immunity?

OF COURSE NOT.

You only need to make cards for parts that are maybe unique enough or new enough for you, or those concepts/facts that aren’t going to be used often enough.

Quick shortcut: don’t use Anki for definitions. Use “presupposition technique” instead.

You presuppose that you know a definition when you ask a question. Sounds complicated, so here’s an example:

"Class C operation is ideal for tank circuit operation because it restores the signal when it is just about to die out."

The mistake is to create Cloze deletion cards or to create cards like “What is class C operation?”

Better to create a card that kinda tricks your future self and forces you to apply the definitions themselves.

• “WHY is class C operation ideal for tank circuit operation?”
• “What is one common application of a class C operation (that restores signal when it’s weak)?”

Notice how I’m not always using the same words. (See tips by Derek Sivers)

Also: Tag these flashcards by week. (Depending on exam cadence)

The idea is to tag them according to the short-term exam you’re studying for. This accomplishes two things:

1. The cards remain interleaved in a single subject deck and allow you to more likely recall them for that subject (See https://leananki.com/creating-effective-decks/)
2. You can start to use the Custom Study feature and just pick exactly what you need

Step 4. Spaced Repetition (...in the short-term? YES)

The way spaced repetition works is by increasing the recall effort.

When you increase recall effort, you increase the likelihood that the brain will make that memory more accessible in the future.

So just because it’s “Spaced Repetition” doesn’t mean you have to be exposed to a card within a LONG timeframe (or even “graduate” a card) to reap the benefits.

SPACED REPETITION WORKS AS SOON AS THE 2ND RECALL.

Few guidelines here:

1. I recommend using my settings: https://leananki.com/best-settings/​
2. Only press “Good” or “Again”

The moment you create your cards, you should also try to answer everything.

It’s easy to think this is a timewaster, but really, you’re ALSO doing the work for your future self.

When you do this, you DO NOT need to spend an entire 2 weeks studying for that LONG exam at the end of the semester/quarter.

Think of it like investing 🙂

That’s one facet of it -— but we still have to take care of the “short-term” part.

The key here is to do your cards every day as usual, but add these two:

1. Custom study everything tagged “Week1” (or so) 1 day before quiz/exam
2. Then Custom study again 1 hour before the exam

If you can answer them, it’s not going anywhere. You can have total peace of mind here.

Step 5. Improve

This is the part where I say: your cards don't have to be perfect right away.

You’ll have LOTS of time to revisit those cards since you're going to be studying them every day anyway.

Few things you can do to improve your cards:

• When you learn something new or maybe a memory technique/mnemonic, add that to your flashcard
• Whenever you’re learning something new, try to make sense of it using the information you already got from your cards (basically the classic ‘connecting long-term memory to new information’ thing)
• If a concept inside a card feels like you’ve been referring to them A LOT OF TIMES in your new lectures, it’s safe to say that you can press “Easy” the next time you see it since there’s a LOT of repetitions already

In short: improvement doesn’t have to be in the form of “editing the card” only. You can improve:

1. How much connection you make for an idea
2. How well you understand an idea
3. How often you use an idea

Study tip: It doesn’t even have to be Anki right away

The biggest trap here — because it’s short-term — is that we also get shortsighted and think that using Anki is the only way we can remember what we learn for sure.

That’s not true at all.

If you can do the things we’ve talked about in the “Learn” section, then you’ve done 80% of the work since it’s short-term, anyway.

A little recall practice is all you need, but you gotta make sure you’ve compressed and connected the information you’re learning.

Question for you...

Have you experienced “drinking from a firehose” of information before?

What are you realizing for yourself after reading this lesson?

Just reply to this email if you want to let me know 🙂

To smarter studying,
Al Khan

P.S. Again, here’s a recap of everything we’re going to talk about in this series:

And once again, there will be promotional content at the end of this series (hint: for the two courses combined).

You can click here to raise your hand so I know there’s interest in that 🙂

Besides that, have a great day ahead!