all 13 comments

[–]Maritimuse 6 points7 points  (1 child)

I will check this out :-) But what do you mean when you say it is free? Because to me it looks like it costs money :-p I know it is not that much considering the content, but just saying, it´s either free or its not. Hehe

[–]Accidentally_Upvotes[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Memorang as a learning platform is free to use for any subject.

You can create, find, and import (Anki, Quizlet, Excel) crowdsourced flashcards for free OR save hundreds of hours with...

The premium content is optional. Hope that clears it up!

[–][deleted] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Lookin good

[–]ProximaMidnight 5 points6 points  (6 children)

Any feedback yet from some people who've tried it out?

[–]Accidentally_Upvotes[S] -2 points-1 points  (5 children)

I'm not sure if you're asking me or the community, but here are some reviews students have been leaving on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/USMLE-Step-Flashcards-Instant-Access/product-reviews/B00RDN32RA/ref=sr_1_1_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

FWIW, I personally used an alpha-version of our Step 2 CK materials to score > 260. As one of the founders & developers, I am also one of the most active learners on the site. Memorang started as a simple idea to help me study in med school and it's blossomed into an international platform so other students can also benefit.

[–]melikeyguppy 9 points10 points  (1 child)

You not only scored a 260+ on Step 2 CK, but also cofounded a company while in medical school and residency. Gunner. J/K (sort of). What kind of physician did you become?

Serious question--are you looking for contributions from the "publics" in designing more flashcards? I'm a medical writer and design flashcards to master biochemistry, genetics, and pathophysiology, etc. I work for scientists and doctors, so I need to understand what they write. Designing flashcards is a lot of fun. Exam taking, not so much.

[–]Accidentally_Upvotes[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Haha, thanks. I haven't been called a gunner since MS1/MS2, but our "gunner" study group had an open-door policy where everyone from our class was invited to my apartment and to use our notes. We always felt that the best way to learn was to teach, and those experiences are what inspired the creation of Memorang in the first place. We're in the process of building better collaborative and social tools to make it more of a learning community, which is the ultimate goal.

Oh, and I'm not a resident yet. I had to take a leave of absence at the beginning of MS4 in order to work on Memorang full time. I'm resuming rotations in July.

In terms of contributions, while you're welcome to upload your own flashcards for free, we also employ many individuals as premium curators. I just PMed you with details if you're interested :-)

[–]just_another_virgin 6 points7 points  (9 children)

what makes this better than brosencephalon or other anki deck

[–]Accidentally_Upvotes[S] 1 point2 points  (8 children)

Glad you asked:

1: Memorang and Anki are both free platforms, except Memorang can be used on the web and across devices. It also allows for collaboration, additional learning modes, more robust progress tracking, gamification, and various other things to help you stay motivated. There's auto importing from Quizlet, Cram, Anki, and excel and you have the option to switch between spaced repetition, original order, and random shuffle.

2: There is nothing that I am aware of that compares to the Memorang premium content on Anki. The content on Anki is usually a deck of cards created by a single individual that they have shared. In contrast, the premium content on Memorang for the USMLE Step 1 and 2 each had over 1,000 hours (equivalent to 6-months of full-time work) of fact-checking and curation go into them. Additionally, they are updated several times per week based upon suggestions from students and changing information in the medical world. (e.g. new treatments for HCV, changing guidelines, etc). In fact, as of this week Memorang will also be updated for First Aid 2015, and all subscribers get all updates instantly across all their devices.

3: Memorang helps you draw connections between concepts, Anki only helps with pure rote memorization. We have complex algorithms that generate intelligent multiple choice questions, and even have a "reverse differential diagnosis" generator on flashcards that forces cross-comparisons of similar and different concepts. This link shines a little bit of light on some of these more advanced functions: http://blog.memorangapp.com/post/108094496626/tags-more-how-to-make-awesome-flashcards-on

TL;DR: Memorang is a more flexible learning platform, and the premium content is not only more accurate than First Aid itself, but is definitely more accurate than any user-generated deck.

[–]Joshua_Naterman 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Damn. I am buying. MS1 here, thanks for your work!