We asked Ronnie and Adeel, the founders of Picmonic, how their program helps students retain information for medical exams.
Why is Picmonic useful for helping students retain information?
“Picmonic is incredibly useful because it’s fun and engaging,” said Picmonic co-founder Ronnie Robertson, “and it’s research proven to increase long-term memory retention by 331% and exam scores by 50%.” To read more about how Picmonic enhances memory retention, see the NIH study here.“There are also decades of research backing the science and learning design that power Picmonic’s platform,” he said, “which all work together to make information stick better in your mind.”
Ronnie and Adeel told us they were once medical students themselves. In founding Picmonic, they had the goal of making the lives of medical students easier by giving medical students the tools to help them retain information. “We know what it’s like to prep for the beastly Step exams,” said Picmonic co-founder Adeel, “So much information, so little time. We made Picmonic to combat both information overload and the forgetting curve, and we’ve been able to help over 125,000 medical and nursing students by sharing these incredible techniques.”
How do Picmonic Pathways change the way students study with Picmonic?
“Pathways has empowered students to learn more effectively with Picmonic! Picmonic Pathways allow you to zero in on exactly what you need to learn, when you need to learn it,” said Ronnie.
“With over one thousand Picmonic videos for medicine, finding the right topic to start with can feel a bit overwhelming,” said Adeel. “That’s why Picmonic Pathways simplify and align every Topic to a popular Course, Body System, Book, or Board exam so that students can spend more time learning, and less time browsing or searching. If a student wants to follow along with a specific section of First Aid, they can find whichever section they’d like to view under the ‘Books’ tab.” Picmonic supports both First Aid for the USMLE Step 1 and for the USMLE Step 2 CK.
How can using a program like Picmonic lead to successful student outcomes?
“Picmonic is research proven to improve both knowledge retention and exam performance,” said Adeel.” “However, successful student outcomes mean more than just good grades. Other outcomes we aim to drive are increased confidence, mastery of medical knowledge, and reduction in stress,” he said.
“Picmonic increases confidence by making detailed facts easier to keep straight in your head,” said Ronnie. “We were able to answer challenging questions from our attendings in our clinical rotations because we had Picmonics in our heads,” he said. “In addition, Picmonic has a mastery mode and a Mastery Challenge that ensures each and every topic is fully encoded in your memory.”
Picmonic uses imaginative cartoons and humor to engage students and keep studying entertaining. “Picmonic’s silly pictures, humorous stories, and audiovisual interactions tap into the emotional and creative side of the brain – the right brain, for the left brain dominant people,” said Adeel. “This maximizes your learning capacity. After an exhausting day of reading, listening to lectures, and exercising mainly the left side of your brain, using Picmonic feels like you’re taking a break,” he said. “We also included a continuous play mode aka ‘gym mode’ so that students can put on some headphones, kick back, and enjoy our funny audio stories.”
You can sign up for a free trial of Picmonic anytime at picmonic.com/register, and you can save 20% with the code CramFighter20
CramFighter20 expires 5/11/16 at 11:59pm PST and is not valid for monthly subscriptions or specials.
