Alec Palmerton, MD
44 comments
Review summary
Based on 44 comments, created with AI
Students overwhelmingly praise this teacher's tests & practice, teaching quality, teacher's experience. Many students highlight methods lead to performing well in exams and notable...
What students talk about most
Evaluation breakdown
Top Strengths
1. Effectiveness in improving exam scores, especially for medical testing
2. Providing practical and actionable study techniques (e.g., Anki, self-testing)
3. Motivating and inspiring some students to adopt new study habits
Areas to Improve
1. Address the perception of teaching memorization over critical thinking and understanding
2. Reduce self-promotion and 'flexing' to improve viewer experience
3. Provide clearer guidance on the process of creating effective study materials
4. Clarify the scope and applicability of his methods to different fields and exam types
What students love
“I'm glad I found this video as I start building my Anki decks. Thanks, Alec.”
3 likes
“Yesterday I watched your 20K+/17 years video. I think I got the answer to the question I've been searching for months/years. My understanding capacity was higher than my memorization skill. Now I'll use these techniques: study, struggle, make cards, review, perform well in exams.”
2 likes
“Thank you for making this video. I just started using Anki yesterday and this information is invaluable!”
2 likes
“The positive part is that this video in particular I completely agree with, I like and got me to like it. I just wanna tell you how much I want this video to be shared to others!”
1 likes
“I love the video. Can you share your Decks on USMLE Step 1 & 2?”
1 likes
“So far I have seen a pretty notable improvement in my study habits & exam scores, but it took a while to achieve.”
1 likes
“Thank you for this! Very motivating.”
“This is 100% accurate when it comes to medical testing. I would walk away from full day reading sessions feeling like 1 million bucks. When it came to the tests, you’d think I didn’t even study. It’s definitely about testing yourself.”
“Wow, amazing insights - God bless you abundantly, thank you so much for your gifts, you are a diamond.”
“Thank you for another amazing video!! My main reason for not taking an NBME yet is that I feel my med school didn’t teach us that well, so this was my first proper exposure to the material. What’s the best way to tackle this going forward and how can I become more consistent?”
What could be better
“I think we should go ahead and define studying 😂”
13 likes
“My experience as a language learner: I spent two years in grad school studying Japanese with tons of flashcards. When I stopped using the cards, I could feel my knowledge slip away and 2 weeks later, it was all gone. I learned Spanish just reading books and listening to podcasts, and I will have it for life.”
2 likes
“I truly appreciate your advice but can you not toot your own horn every 2 minutes? The constant flexing is making your videos hard to watch and cringe! Hope you don’t take this the wrong way.”
1 likes
“I don't know how things are in the US, but here in my country this won't work to study for residency tests. Most of what they ask you to answer are values and protocols that just understanding the principles is not specific enough.”
1 likes
“This sounds interesting but I’m not sure how applicable this is to my field (physics). Since I deal in long math problems and derivations, maybe planning out spaced repetition manually on a calendar would be better.”
1 likes
“This teaches MEMORIZATION, not CRITICAL THINKING, CREATIVITY, AND PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF CONCEPTS. This would be great for a robot.”
“You literally studied by constantly reading flashcards every day. Come on, Doc🤣”
“Flashcards do not help you understand anything. They just help you remember random facts. Don't rely on them too much. Maybe for first year of med school, then start cutting them back and incorporate actual learning. Testing yourself is the better way, explaining concepts to friends...”
“Flashcards certainly have their place. And if your weaknesses are declarative and lower order, with high volumes, then Anki is great. I think what's missing here is that there is no discussion about HOW (the procedural aspect) flashcards should be created.”
“Maybe I'm just not understanding, because I did not review 28,655 flashcards every day, but in what way is reviewing 28,655 flashcards every day barely studying?”