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00:06hey guys welcome back to the channel if
00:08you're new here my name is Ellie I'm a
00:09junior doctor working in Cambridge and
00:10in this video I want to talk about how I
00:12use Google sheets as a flashcard
00:14alternative for efficient studying now
00:17if you've seen any of my previous study
00:19videos you'll know that I love to go on
00:20about this thing called active recall
00:22which basically just means testing
00:23yourself it's the single most important
00:25efficient study technique ever and there
00:27is a mountain of evidence supporting it
00:28if you haven't heard of it then please
00:30watch my videos holding them up there
00:31and down there and stuff but for this
00:33video I'm going to assume that you know
00:35that testing yourself is the single best
00:36way of getting really good marks in
00:38whatever you do now when it comes to
00:39active recall the most common method is
00:41to use flashcards which makes sense
00:43flashcards are great either physical
00:45flashcards which I'm not a fan of or
00:46apps like Anki and Quizlet but even if
00:48you're using all these fancy apps I
00:49still think there are a few drawbacks
00:51that flashcards have firstly they take
00:53ages to make secondly you end up with
00:55like a deck of hundreds if not thousands
00:56of cards then thirdly it just becomes a
00:58real chore to get through them and if
01:00you're anything like me and you haven't
01:01got the discipline to every single day
01:03sit down and get three or 300 flashcards
01:05I think they can become a bit of an
01:07annoyance rather than a help so that's
01:09where the Google sheets method comes in
01:11and in this video I'm gonna be talking
01:12about exactly how I use Google sheets as
01:14a flash code alternative and then later
01:16on I'll talk about why I use Google
01:17sheets at the flash code alternative and
01:19all the various problems with flash
01:20cards and you know how I think Google
01:22sheets solves that problem but first
01:25let's just talk about exactly what the
01:26method is and how it works so we're
01:29gonna jump in and I'm gonna show you the
01:31Google sheet that I use to revise for my
01:33final year medical school exams at
01:35Cambridge a few months ago and I'll just
01:37kind of explain how it works okay so
01:38here we have the Google sheet and you
01:40can see along the bottom I've got all
01:41the various different subjects so
01:43abdomen cardiovascular examination the
01:45respiratory examination neuro and decry
01:47and gals which is a musculoskeletal
01:49thing it B doesn't matter the point is
01:50the subjects are along the bottom and
01:52then the structure of the sheet is based
01:54on having questions in column a and
01:57answers in column B and it's pretty much
02:00that simple so let's look at my liver
02:03disease little category and I've got
02:04quill oh the questions for myself causes
02:06of hip at omegle eat which means a big
02:07liver what might be evidence of
02:09decompensation in liver disease or
02:10investigations would you like
02:12complications of cirrhosis
02:13classification of cirrhosis causes of
02:15ascites which means in a fluid in your
02:16abdomen how do we treat ascites and all
02:19these various questions about liver
02:20disease and the cool thing is I've
02:23written the answers in column B but I
02:26have colored them in in font color white
02:29so I've wrote them obviously with font
02:31color black so I could see what I was
02:32doing but then once I've written the
02:34answer I you know text color white which
02:38means when I'm looking through the
02:39spreadsheet I can't see any of the
02:40answers and therefore this is active
02:42recall when I see a question I have to
02:44actively retrieve the information from
02:46my brain which as we mentioned earlier
02:48and in all of my previous study videos
02:49is the single most efficient study
02:51technique so that's the whole point in
02:53this method it's just about having
02:54questions and answers and this is kind
02:55of like flashcards it's like having you
02:57know the front of a flashcards column a
02:58and the back of the flashcard is column
03:00B but I just think this is a nicer way
03:02to look through a topic and we'll talk
03:04more about exactly why I like this
03:05method later on but that's pretty much
03:07the method questions in one column
03:09answers in the other column also you'll
03:11notice that I have color-coded some of
03:12these so it's pretty straightforward
03:14green means I'm pretty sure I know the
03:16answer or I knew the answer six months
03:18ago when I was doing these exams I don't
03:20think I can remember the answers to a
03:22lot of these but you know I'll do some
03:24spaced repetition and active recall of
03:26this particular spreadsheet later on
03:27yellow means I wasn't very good by but I
03:30sort of half knew the answer and there's
03:31a few red ones down here what are some
03:33problems following transplantation
03:34laughs that I could he didn't know the
03:36answer at all and sometimes I use orange
03:38for like you know a middle ground and
03:39towards the end of the revision period
03:41where it came to exams I was doing this
03:42thing where I would hide some columns
03:44that I didn't need like so between here
03:47and here yeah so there's quite a few
03:48green ones but I don't need to go
03:50through all the green ones so I can just
03:51hide these two these two columns and
03:55then you end up cleaning up your
03:57spreadsheet over time and then you know
03:59if you do want to have a session or an
04:01hour or two where you're just going
04:02through every single question you can
04:03just bash through them and this is the
04:05Google sheets method for active recall I
04:08hope you enjoyed it now let's talk about
04:09exactly why I use this instead of
04:13okay so why do I use Google sheets
04:15instead of flashcards there's a few
04:17reasons firstly I really like the fact
04:19that putting it in a spreadsheet format
04:20gives you a systematic structure of
04:22reviewing your stuff flashcards are good
04:25because they tend to randomize the order
04:28in which questions are asked which is
04:30good because it means that you're having
04:31to dredge up information that's in
04:33different topics and there is this thing
04:34in efficient studying that you know
04:36interleaved practice that the more you
04:38learn from different categories the more
04:40likely you are to remember it but I'm
04:42not a massive fan of that especially
04:44within medicine and a lot of other
04:45subjects where the sort of recall you're
04:47going to be asked to do is going to be
04:49systematic like let's say I see a
04:50patient who has a stoma in their abdomen
04:52I'm gonna be asked questions about the
04:54stoma they might ask me what the
04:55complications of stomas are like the
04:57question over here they might ask me
04:59about different indications for a stoma
05:00they might ask me what a Hartman's
05:02procedure is there's all stuff related
05:04to a stoma whereas if I had these in an
05:06auntie or Quizlet deck then I might get
05:08a question about what of the
05:09complications a stoma and then the next
05:11question would be how do patients with
05:12autosomal dominant polycystic kidney
05:14disease present and the next question
05:15might be what are the complications
05:16following a liver transplant I mean it's
05:19good to have this knowledge off the top
05:20of your head but I think I prefer the
05:22systematic approach where I can have you
05:25know this mental model of stomas and
05:26just kind of know everything about them
05:28in one place and actively revise that
05:31one topic at a time rather than just
05:33getting a scattergun of different
05:34questions about various problems in the
05:36abdomen secondly I really like how this
05:38lets me see at a glance exactly where
05:40the holes in my knowledge are with
05:41something like Anki and Quizlet I have
05:43to trust that they're spaced repetition
05:45algorithm is gonna flag up the things
05:47that I don't know and often I'll have to
05:49go through a hundred cards where I'm
05:51pretty sure I know like 80 of them and
05:53it's only 20 of them that I'm really
05:54struggling with whereas in this I have
05:57stuff that I'm put in red means that
05:58last time I tested myself on this I
06:00didn't know how to do it so that's the
06:02stuff I'm gonna do first and if I just
06:04scroll through the Abdo exam I see this
06:05quite a few red yellows and oranges so
06:07I'm gonna spend some time on this today
06:09and I don't think oh yeah cardio exam
06:11there's more green and yellow here
06:13there's a few Reds so I'd be looking at
06:15these Reds and this becomes a very quick
06:17way of reviewing questions I'm not a fan
06:19of reviewing notes obviously because
06:21that's not efficient that passive is
06:22just reading information I'm a big fan
06:24of active recall and this makes it super
06:26where the holes in my knowledge are
06:27thirdly I think the Google sheets method
06:29makes it slightly easier to work
06:30together with friends so if you've seen
06:32any of my previous study with me videos
06:33from a few months ago when my friends
06:35and I were preparing for our medical
06:36exams we'd often have like sessions
06:38where I'd put up the Google sheet on my
06:39big monitor zoom the font size in and
06:42we'd kind of sit there and work through
06:44the questions one at a time that is
06:46possible with flashcards I have done it
06:48in the past of the flashcards but I just
06:49found that having tried both of them it
06:51was it was kind of nicer to just go
06:53through a spreadsheet and be like one by
06:54one next next next next next rather than
06:56trust that random flashcards would pop
06:58up in the right order and finally the
06:59reason I prefer Google sheets to
07:00flashcards is because flashcards become
07:02an absolute burden like I mentioned at
07:04the start of the video you see that
07:06you've got 150 flashcards to review that
07:08day and it just sucks all the enjoyment
07:10out of learning and yeah I know you can
07:12set them so you only review 20 a time
07:13but then sometimes you want to change
07:14that amount and sometimes gonna work
07:15more and then have to actively go into
07:16the options to change that up blah blah
07:18blah all this stuff I think Google
07:19sheets just makes it a super low
07:21commitment thing to sit down and study
07:24even if I have five or ten minutes I can
07:26just go open Google sheets find the
07:28things that are read and actively try
07:30and recall them and then look up the
07:32answers or Google or Wikipedia or look
07:34at a textbook for the stuff that I don't
07:35remember and that you know I mean even
07:37if I have five or ten minutes that will
07:38work whereas for a flashcard yeah it
07:41does work if you just have a few minutes
07:42at a time but I often found when I was
07:44using flashcards intensively in first
07:45and second year that unless I had like
07:48an hour or two to sit down and do my
07:50I used to treat it as such a big deal
07:52that I ended up not reviewing them very
07:54often so I like the fact that Google
07:56sheets is low commitment you can do it
07:57as little or as much as you want that's
07:59kind of nice it's kind of nice going
08:00through them and there's that little
08:01gamification element of it as well where
08:03once once you recall something well then
08:06you mock is you know your market is
08:08green and it gives you that little burst
08:09of endorphins that make you feel good
08:10about studying overall so yeah if I have
08:13some spare time and I've got exams
08:14coming up I just bash up in Google
08:15sheets on my iPhone or iPad or laptop or
08:17even a random browser and it just works
08:20it's just pretty magical finally I just
08:23want to end by addressing a question
08:24that I've had from loads of people over
08:26the last year or so that I've mentioned
08:28this Google sheets thing and people
08:29always ask what do you make a flash card
08:31for and what do you use your Google
08:32sheet for and I really don't have that
08:36categorization in general if I was to
08:38come up with a rule of thumb I prefer
08:40flashcards for very very very isolated
08:42facts so for example what is the dose of
08:44Comox a cloud for I don't know a
08:46community quad pneumonia and it would be
08:48over six hundred twenty-five milligrams
08:49four times a day three times a day or
08:50whatever you know it's an isolated fact
08:52what type of virus is a flavivirus it's
08:54a double-stranded DNA RNA virus that
08:57does probably you know discrete isolated
08:59facts I kind of prefer Google sheets for
09:02more general understanding key concepts
09:03I said in one of my previous videos that
09:05I quite like the phrase what's the deal
09:07with twenty marjoram Attica it's a bad
09:09question to put on flashcard because if
09:10you look at the evidence surrounding
09:11flashcards people always say that it's
09:14better to have you know a distinct fact
09:16whereas just explain polymyalgia
09:18is a very broad open-ended question I
09:21think that's the sort of thing that I
09:22like putting in my Google sheet because
09:23if I don't know what it is I'll just
09:25google it and I'm gonna computer anyway
09:27because I'm going from a Google sheet so
09:28I'll just google it find out what it is
09:29and then you know either write some of
09:30it down on my sheet on my sheet or just
09:32make a mental note in my head to repeat
09:34that information to rehearse it to
09:35active recall it and then I can mark
09:37that particular box as yellow another
09:39question people often ask is do you
09:41write out your whole answer is in full
09:42in the flash card or in the Google sheet
09:44and the answer is sometimes if it's as
09:46simple if it's a simple thing like
09:48what's the differential for your texts
09:50enosis ie an ingestion systolic murmur
09:51there's just four points here hoc mvs
09:54Dao to explore osis unable to confirm
09:55flow murmur at least at the medical
09:57student final level only for things I
10:00can write for things in down in my
10:01little spreadsheet column but if the
10:03question was explained polymyalgia
10:05rheumatica I probably wouldn't write
10:06down anything in the column because I
10:09would trust that if I don't know what it
10:10is if I can't explain it to myself in my
10:12head I'll just google it and then I'll
10:15be able to explain it so a lot of the
10:16time I think we can waste a lot of time
10:18making the flashcards but especially for
10:20stuff like medicine where every single
10:22thing is just to Google away there's
10:24almost no point in adding tons of
10:26information and duplicating that
10:27information and making your own notes
10:28because you can just google it if you
10:29don't know what the answer is so yeah
10:31hopefully that clarifies those two
10:32points I don't really have that
10:35distinctive categorization between
10:37flashcards and sheets but I kind of
10:38prefer Google sheets for more general
10:40concepts and flashcards for more
10:41distinct facts even though there's a lot
10:43of overlap and secondly I sometimes
10:45don't write out the answer
10:46in the column at all if I can just
10:48google it so yeah I hope you found this
10:49video useful we've talked about why I
10:51use Google sheets we've talked about how
10:53I use Google sheets is pretty much the
10:55same as flashcards but I think the
10:56Google sheet method addresses some of
10:58the issues that I personally have found
10:59with flashcards and that's a point that
11:01I want to end on this is just what works
11:03for me this thing about Google sheets
11:05being better than flashcards is
11:06obviously not gospel truth the only
11:08gospel truth in this whole study tips
11:11stuff is active recall and spaced
11:13repetition in fact it's better than
11:14gospel truth because there is a mountain
11:15of evidence supporting it controversial
11:17active recall space repetition state
11:19things also things like elaborative
11:20encoding and interleague practice you
11:22can find out more if you read the book
11:23make it stick but I'll be working on
11:25videos over those on those over time me
11:28oh this is just like a personal
11:29preference thing I'm making this video
11:31because a lot of people have asked about
11:32I prefer Google sheets to flash cards
11:33for some things that's not to say it
11:36let's try it out see if you like it and
11:38if it works for you then fantastic I
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12:45out yeah that's all I want to say so
12:47thanks very much for watching if you
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