Active recall and spacing: a system that holds up
Re-reading feels productive because the material looks familiar. Familiar isn't the same as retrievable, and exams test retrieval.
The core loop
Learn a topic once, properly, from the lecture or a good summary.
Close everything and write or say what you remember. The gaps are the point.
Fix the gaps, then test yourself again a few days later.
Keep spacing the reviews out: a day, a few days, a week, a month.
What to use for each step
Questions banks for applying knowledge to vignettes.
Anki for facts you just need to have instantly (drug names, nerve roots, normal values).
Blank-page recall or teaching a friend for big-picture topics like physiology mechanisms.
Common traps
Making beautiful notes and never testing yourself on them.
Doing only the questions you're good at.
Cramming new cards in the final week instead of reviewing what you already have.
St George's Cardiothoracic Surgery Society, City St George's, University of London.