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ANKI/Spaced Repetition/Active Recall etc.

Great initiative. Will be happy to contribute post prelims.

But before that, probably we should explain or rather make people internalise the philosophy that Active recall, Spaced repetition and Interleaved study are efficient study methods compared to Re-reading, Highlighting and Summarising.

Unless that is done, you won't find a need to use these tools. At the end of the day, they are just tools to use the efficient study philosophy!

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I made such lofty promises pre Prelims but I have done 0 work. Still do not know how to use notion. Any beginner's guide?

I'm sharing my notes here since some of you have already asked via PM.

https://www.notion.so/celeborn/GS-Mains-321b4a183d0143e8abf9211fd1d5ff80

Notion is really versatile (perhaps the most versatile productivity app). Hence learning it can be challenging. To simplify the process, I only focussed on creating the most basic notes in terms of features. My aim was to consolidate various notes into one place so I can revise from there at the last moment instead of referring to multiple sources. I only used the toggle feature, and separated/categorized notes into various papers =>subjects =>topics =>subtopics. Plus as an added bonus, it looked clean and well-organised

Just go through them. You'll get a basic idea. 

If you make an account on Notion (it's free), you can copy paste these notes and add content, delete, modify etc. 

Also most things are self explanatory. It's intuitive to use. There are instructions for every step. 

Have a great start to the journey!

It serves the purpose for collating information, but recall or retrieval is not made easy with Notion. We get that pseudo satisfaction that  everything is organised and structured. But keep in mind, that it's structured in Notion and not in our Brain.

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@Celeborn Yes, Glad that you are cognizant of the fact.

As you are watching his channel, there are two videos of Ali Abdaal on Effective Learning Techniques. He reiterates that Active Recall, Spaced Repetition and Interleaved Study are the effective tools in learning, and Re-reading, Highlighting and Summarizing are the least effective ones.

Just type - " What works and What doesn't by Professor Dunlosky" in Google and read the first link (pdf of 6 pages)

Ali Abdaal's initial videos were good, but later he got sponsorship from Notion and he started recommending it in every video. Whatever he says about Notion, remember it's paid promotion.

And I have tried Notion for good amount of time, for an exam like UPSC , it fails miserably!!! 


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There's a lot of discussion going on in the other thread on using ANKI. Being an avid user of ANKI and a firm believer in the philosophy of Active recall and Space Repetition, ANKI doesn't work well for UPSC, may be for Prelims a bit but the best bet would on Super Memo 18.

Just explore it guys, it will be the best thing you might have come across in your learning journey

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