I passed the exam. Here is how I used different apps to help me pass and what my suggestions are for you.
Note-taking tools I used for the exam
During the exam review, I used 8 tools to help me prepare for the exam, including A4, Obsidian, RemNote, Notion, Free Notes, LiquidText, Roam Research, and Voicenotes. This is my examination of these tools for exam preparation.
A4
The obstacle to studying by apps is the distractions they cause. So, at the very beginning of my studies, I printed out my notebook to study.
Although it helped me focus on the texts, the problem was too difficult to understand some specific contents or definitions without any online resources. While it's true that I can use my computer to study meanwhile or afterwards, it was not smooth. Another major issue is that texts are too compact, creating reading issues. Under certain conditions, I gave up after studying 2 chapters.
Obsidian
The most difficult part of study is that you need to picture the connections of different concepts in your brain, while our study of new fields is always linear. In my master's study of international finance at school, the professor drew a big picture of different concepts to solve my doubts, making me realize how useful visual learning is.
As far as I’m concerned, Heptabase might be the best tool in this niche, but it is too expensive. Fortunately, I found the Excalidraw plugin in Obsidian. Here are some of my outcomes.
Unfortunately, I did not draw a bigger picture of my study due to performance issues, but it was still a great tool for visualization. And I would also name Obsidian the best client for Excalidraw.
Speaking of the reason I did not use canvas, the current version is too naïve for profound study. Obsidian ought to devote more effort.
RemNote
RemNote is the best alternative, and the advanced version, of Anki.
As there were tons of concepts to study, I turned some basics into more than 1300 cards by creating them myself or using AI to create them in different formats, including MCQ and cloze cards.
At first, I also tried to highlight my notebook in RemNote. But the input experience was not good, so I also stopped using it to take notes. However, I still suggest you to use it for your exam, especially when you have cards already, because you can set up the exam date to simulate the algorithm.
UPDATES: Recently, RemNote hired a big name in the field of PKM. Looking forward to its future updates and I think I will come back!
Here is my invitation link: https://www.remnote.com/invite/6553f572b78d271929a0f447
Free Notes
Because of the unpleasant note-taking experience in Obsidian and RemNote, I thought it could be great to combine handwriting and digital studying, so I looked into Free Notes. By the way, I think you know why I did not use GoodNotes or Notability, although I paid for GoodNotes 5 and I truly appreciate the calligraphy in Notability. The best feature in my view of Free Notes is the tapes, which can help you hide the content when you are reviewing.
If we call the space memory in RemNote as passive learning, tapes in Free Notes are active learning. Each time you review the same content, it will be hidden, but you can actively recall it by its context. I understand that these are similar to cloze cards, but they are lack of contexts as they are extracted from the book.
Notion
To be honest, I don't think Notion is a good tool for exams, although we can use toggle block to memorize knowledge. Maybe someone would say that I can use templates to review regularly or integrations to connect to Anki to review in a manner of spaced memory, but these are not very seamless.
For my exam, I created a table to collect questions and added one column to explain my understanding of each question. Notion is the best app to easily publish notes online so that you can discuss with your peers.
LiquidText
This is the main contributor for my success.
LiquidText is the ever most innovative PDF editor, regardless of its dimensions. A very difficult part of paperless learning is that you cannot compare two paragraphs that are relevant but far from each other, unlike paper-based learning. But LiquidText makes it easier than ever! How?
In LiquidText, I can pinch the text to compare two parts from each other. In that sense, you can also use it for connections in addition to comparisons. How amazing it is!
When I was reviewing the notebook, I highlighted all the parts that I think are important. Then I made connections between different areas. I mean, I always went back to the previous sections if I remembered something related to the current paragraph and I drew a line to connect them. In this way, each time when I read them I could go back easily and memorized them multiple times as my strategy was to review from the beginning before going to the next chapter. For instance, before I read chapter 11, I read from chapter 1 to chapter 10 though I had read from chapter 1 to chapter 9. That was a loop, but it indeed helped me pass the exam, luckily.
Roam Research
I highly value the bidirectional links at Roam Research because there are a vast number of definitions, initiatives, concepts, etc. across different chapters. The best app for this network is obviously the originator of bidirectional links.
Even though I had a sweet dream to build the net at Roam Research, I simply used it to note down my understanding of mock exams on different days. However, I did discover a very valuable feature that people barely discussed, that is, block versions.
To begin, I copied questions from mock exams. Then, when I reviewed them, I added a version to the block. But I have to admit that this is not a superb method for reviewing mock questions. Yet, it is super useful for my career because we can see how our mind changes alongside the time.
Voicenotes
Voicenotes is my new favorite, which I would say is not for exams, but I used it to capture quick thoughts when I was studying so that I did not need to stop my flow.
As its name suggests, Voicenotes is an AI note-taker to transcribe your voice into notes, which is super accurate and elegant. For more details, please take a look at Speak, Record, Organize — Why I Paid 50 for This AI Note-Taking App after just 10 Minutes.
Please click here if you are interested in this tool. Thanks a lot!
My advice of the best apps for exams
Voicenotes
Voicenotes became my first citizen of taking notes. I have dumped every flash of thought into it because I do not like these quick but naïve ideas appear in my notes, but Voicenotes is designed to collect these notions and AI can help me better look back. Therefore, there are two ways to help study:
- Dump all your immediate thoughts in no time in case you forget them later on. It is the best space for them.
- Read the long texts of your study so that AI can help you list the main points effortlessly.
Roam Research
Roam Research was beaten hardly in the past few years, but now the lion has finally woken up.
By the end of May, they redesigned the Diagram feature, following up the pace of peers and showing off his muscle in my view thanks to the better structure of the whiteboard. Unlike being a new type of function as in peers’, Diagram is still a block, keeping everything in Roam Research unified.
From where I stand, you can transform highlights into your own notes and connect them by bidirectional links, so you can see all relevant concepts when you go to specific pages. At the same time, you can also use Diagram to picture everything in your mind. One advantage compared to Excalidraw in Obsidian is that you can turn any blocks into sub-diagram. In that case, I don't think the performance issues also exist here. What is more useful, you can also install Memo extensions to help you spaced memorize.
MarginNote
To be honest, I admire RemNote and LiquidText because the former is the best app to study on a computer and the latter is the best one to study on an iPad. Nevertheless, the bad input experience with RemNote and a lack of passive review in LiquidText pushed me back to MarginNote.
If you look into MarginNote, you will see that Heptabase looks like a shadow of MarginNote. In MarginNote, every highlight will be turned into a card automatically which you can put in multiple whiteboards. What precious is that MarginNote also has a built-in spaced memory system. From my previous experience with certificates, you cannot pass the exam without diving into the book. MarginNote was created for you to read books of hundred of pages, so in the first round of your study, you can use MarginNote to highlight and connect, and review cards at the same time.
Now you might have a question — why do I need to use MarginNote and Roam Research together when their uses seem the same? Although I put MarginNote in the last section, I think you should use it for the first round of study. After reviewing the whole book, I believe you figure out what is more important and what is more difficult for you to memorize or understand. In this scenario, my advice is to draft everything from your memory in Roam Research because this will be your lifelong wisdom. But you can only do it in one app, as the most significant thing is to study more and harder, regardless of the apps.
Conclusions
These are my personal experiences. You might have different opinions. But the most essential thing here I would like to highlight is that tools are not the key, but insisting studying is always and only the key to passing the exam.
Last, I came back to Roam Research after abandoning it for 3 years because it is the best note-taking app on this planet. Attention, it is the best note-taking app, not the PKM tool in any common sense. I will summarize how I use it every day, hopefully soon.
