What do we do at NovaCards?
No discussion of what we do at NovaCards would be complete without discussing where the idea for NovaCards was born. After opening up Anki at the beginning of medical school (which, incidentally, looks like it was built in the Windows 95 era) I initially felt overwhelmed by the application. This is saying something, as I have always felt pretty at home with technology. After getting the hang of using it in my own rather clunky manner, I started running into other problems. What would happen if my classes wanted me to know things that were different from my pre-made decks? Do I study what is extra in my decks or what is extra in my lectures? Of what is in all of my study material, how do I know what is actually relevant for my testing and career? And maybe the most vexing of all, how do I use my extremely limited time to get the most out of studying?
Luckily, I heard about some classmates of mine, with experience in AI, who were working on one of the more frustrating problems related to this: finding Anki flashcards relevant to class lectures quickly from decks that contain 30,000 or more cards. After meeting, and seeing what they were working on, I knew students around the world could benefit from this, and we were off to the races.
Fundamentally, NovaCards was designed by students who are going through exactly what you are going through. That is part of what helps us to know what would be the most helpful for you. (As an aside, we would love to hear about anything that bothers you about studying)
What do we do
So, is that all we will ever do? Just find Anki cards for your notes? Absolutely not.
If you could boil our mission down to one thing it is this: using innovative technology to guide students to the highest yield study activities instantaneously.
Why do we do what we do?
Have you ever heard of the 80/20 rule, otherwise known as the Pareto Principle? [1]
Vilfredo Pareto
In essence, the 80/20 rule says that 80% of the outputs come from 20% of the inputs. Sound a little confusing? Here are a couple of examples:
80% of wealth might be concentrated in 20% of the population [2]
80% of papers might be published by 20% of researchers
80% of crashes might come from 20% of bad drivers
While the percentages might differ, the essence is that not all activities you try to move toward a desired outcome are created equal. Or, in other words, it’s very possible that 80% of your efforts in studying are wasted (or at least not nearly as efficient as they could be.)
Our goal is to change that. There is no reason, with the resources we have now, that we need to waste effort on studying that could be better spent in many other ways. [3]
Our vision for the future
We envision a future where all students are empowered to use their study time as efficiently as possible. They will not waste effort maintaining study materials, finding resources that are relevant, wondering what resources are the most effective at teaching what they want to learn, or knowing if they have adequately prepared for an exam. With more time and effort at their disposal, students will be able to have more time for themselves, participate in constructive activities like research and entrepreneurship, and gain additional mastery over what they are trying to learn.
While we can’t take the work out of studying, we think we can make your work mean much more.
[1] Dunford, R., Su, Q., & Tamang, E. (2021). The Pareto Principle. The Race. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429333705-66.
[2] Sanders, R. (1987). THE PARETO PRINCIPLE: ITS USE AND ABUSE. Journal of Services Marketing, 1, 37-40. https://doi.org/10.1108/EB024706.
[3] Frajerman, A., Morvan, Y., Krebs, M., Gorwood, P., & Chaumette, B. (2019). Burnout in medical students before residency: A systematic review and meta-analysis. European Psychiatry, 55, 36 - 42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eurpsy.2018.08.006.
