[dls2016]

I used Mnemosyne to memorize baby Rudin, Munkres’ Topology and large swaths of Dummit and Foote. Perfect scores on analysis and topology qualifying exams… good enough on algebra haha.

I had always been reluctant to use memorization but I found it helped immensely. Especially as a returning graduate student.

[BeetleB]

I've often heard it's not very effective for topics like math. I would love to read a write-up on how you did this - perhaps your technique is better than most people's attempts?

Also, do you continue to use it for math-like subjects?

[dls2016]

I went a little crazy. I literally typed the whole book into cards, including ones like "prove a closed, bounded set of real numbers is compact." Then I would get a stack of scrap paper and spend maybe an hour a day writing down the answers.

Perhaps this was a reaction to my previous approach to learning, which completely shunned memorization.

[vymague]

Ok, so the mnemosyne doesn't contain the answers. But just a prompt/question. And then you write the solution/answers on paper every time mnemosyne shows a particular card.

From the way you described it, you change all statements/theorems/etc. in the book into questions? To put inside you mnemosyne deck. So your deck in the end has a lot of prove this statement/theorems/etc. and the problems that come with the book.

I was expecting some magical shortcut. But it's the usual tip of doing shitton of problems. Your way is especially comprehensive of course since you basically memorize/know/practice how to prove/solve everything in a book.

Impressive. This takes a lot of time and discipline.

[ru-lai]

Someone else already posted this, not sure if you will pinged from them.

Please read this article about learning math with spaced repetition. http://augmentingcognition.com/ltm.html

[vymague]

Could you give us an example of the type of cards you used? I'm always interested in how to use anki for math and physics. The usual advice to do well in those courses is to do a lot of problems.

[solarmist]

Yeah, well Dummit and Foote is huge. It would take forever to get everything down.

Great job on your exams though!

[dls2016]

The exams were more than a few years ago now. Thanks!