Video summary
Laksh, a third-year cardiology fellow and experienced educator, introduces RemNote as a transformative tool designed to streamline the study process for medical students and professionals. He argues that traditional methods like taking handwritten notes or annotating PDFs often consume excessive time on formatting rather than learning, leaving little room for actual retention. RemNote addresses this by combining the flexibility of a word processor with the spaced repetition capabilities of flashcard apps like Anki into a single platform. The core value proposition is the ability to instantly convert messy handwriting and lecture notes into structured study materials, quizzes, and long-term memory aids, effectively creating a "second brain" that evolves alongside the user's knowledge base.
A standout feature highlighted in the video is the advanced handwriting document tool, which allows users to draw diagrams, charts, and chalk-talk style explanations directly within the app. This capability is particularly useful for medical fields where visual connections are crucial, such as distinguishing between different types of heart attacks or analyzing EKGs. Beyond simple note-taking, RemNote offers powerful image occlusion tools that let students cover up parts of their own drawings or highlighted text to create self-testing flashcards. Additionally, built-in AI functions can transcribe messy handwriting into clean text and automatically generate relevant flashcards, ensuring that users do not miss critical information while studying from their own annotations.
The video further demonstrates how RemNote revolutionizes the handling of standard lecture slides and PDFs by integrating these new tools directly into existing documents. Users can annotate provided materials with highlights and comments during a lecture and then immediately convert those specific sections into study cards using the app's AI learning engine. The platform also supports an infinite canvas feature, functioning like a digital whiteboard for creating extensive mind maps that connect various concepts across different lectures. This unified workflow eliminates the need to switch between multiple apps for note-taking, diagramming, and testing, allowing students to annotate, generate quizzes, and review all their materials in one cohesive ecosystem.
Ultimately, Laksh concludes that the true power of RemNote lies not just in its individual features but in the efficient workflow it enables for exam preparation. His recommended process involves annotating PDFs during class, converting those notes into image occlusion flashcards afterward, and using AI to refine the study deck before a test. He emphasizes that while many tools offer similar functions individually, RemNote's integration allows for a seamless transition from learning new material to actively testing oneself. For students looking to build a sustainable study system that improves retention without adding unnecessary friction, this tool offers a comprehensive solution that adapts to their specific needs and grows with their medical journey.
Read the full video transcript
If you're still taking notes in a
notebook or annotating your PDF to never
use them again, you're studying all
wrong. But now, imagine taking messy
handwritten notes and instantly turning
them into flashcards, quizzes, and
long-term memory. That's exactly what
RemNote just released. [music] Hey
friends, welcome back to the channel. In
case you're new here, my name is Laksh.
I'm a third-year cardiology fellow, and
for the past [music] 8 years, I've been
making content on how to study faster,
learn better, and retain more. And I
know personally from my own medical
journey, one of the things that was the
most [music] time-consuming was taking
notes and spending so much time making
these things beautiful, whether it be
through Anki or handwritten kind of
PDFs, and never [music] actually getting
time to actually study them. And full
disclaimer, this video is sponsored by
RemNote, but if you've seen any of our
videos in the past, [music] you know
that I've also talked about RemNote in
our non-sponsored videos. It's really
just changed the platform and system
that I use on how to study. I was really
very Anki heavy [music] going into
medical school, and then changing into
fellowship. Particularly, I've
transferred my entire system of how I
learn and study, and talked about that
extensively here on [music] YouTube. And
I only talk about tools that I actually
have used, and I wish RemNote existed
when I was a medical student. So, if you
want to try out any of their features,
including what we talked about [music]
in this video, if you click the link
down below, RemNote's been nice enough
to give all of our subscribers 1 month
free of all their pro features,
including the ones that we'll talk about
[music] in today's episode. So, thanks
again for RemNote for being today's
sponsor. Now, if RemNote is something
that's completely new to you, you can go
ahead and check out this video right
here, where I've broke down [music] all
of the main features, of essentially how
RemNote is this beautiful marriage
between a word document kind of
note-taking app, and some popular tools
that we know, such as Anki [music] and
flashcard making, and really combines it
into one versus kind of having multiple
separate ways [music] of how you
organize your school material. And if
there's anything in this episode that I
don't fully cover, I'll link down below
a nice kind of tutorial that RemNote
themselves has done on their handwritten
and PDF annotation tools. But we're
going to go ahead and get right into it.
Now, again, if you haven't seen RemNote,
this is kind of what my RemNote system
looks like as a cardiology fellow, where
I kind of have [music] all of my
lectures and things that I've talked
about, as well as things that I want to
learn in the future. So, you can start
to see kind of my second brain of EKGs
that I've collected, notes that I've
taken during lecture. [music] And this
system works, but it can dramatically
improve now with these new features. But
one of the first features that RemNote
has now created is this handwriting
[music] document. And again, this is
included in the pro plan, which you can
use using the link down below. But
particularly, if you're [music] somebody
who learns like me, that's not just
through typing, but ideally would like
to draw some things out, particularly in
things like medicine, [music] there's
things that are just connected, and
charts and diagrams just make sense.
These handwriting documents are really
nice. So, you can go right here to the
left and go ahead and create a
handwriting document, [music] and then
you can choose the style of document
that you want. We'll go ahead and just
do blank for the purposes of today's
video. Now, let's say that I am creating
a document for [music] myself, or kind
of a chalk talk that I'm going to create
to teach medical students or residents
on things like an MI. Then you can go
ahead and draw in
>> [music]
>> and have your whole diagram there. So,
let me kind of create a sample lecture
that I would potentially create.
So, here's just [music] a quick example
of something that I may create for a
quick chalk talk for a resident or
medical student trying [music] to learn
between the different types of MIs,
which is like pretty commonly
misunderstood in cardiology. And so, it
may be a chalk talk that I kind of draft
[music] for myself, or maybe the medical
student is taking notes as I'm talking,
or this is me talking as my professor or
attending is teaching something, and
kind of create diagrams [music] where
typing doesn't make as much sense, and
you kind of want to recreate the same
flow of information that they have.
[music] So, this is a nice way of having
this already built into RemNote, where
you may take notes on certain lectures,
but [music] you may have something that
is very kind of chalk talk heavy,
diagram heavy, and you may want to
recreate that. You can nicely do this in
your own model. Now, pardon my messy
handwriting, but you can do this on a
tablet, [music] or like I have a flip
laptop, which works just fine um for the
purposes of this talk. But not only can
you do [music] the handwriting stuff,
you know, that exists in GoodNotes,
Notability, and other apps,
>> [music]
>> but now you can make flashcards from
this, which I think is the coolest part.
So, if you go down here and go ahead and
click on [music] this image occlusion
tool, you can essentially take things
and cover them up, and start to make
those [music] into your occlusion kind
of image occlusion card. So, for
example, if I wanted to differentiate
[music] between a STEMI and an NSTEMI,
then I may be the medical student who
just draws a big box [music]
here and tries to see what my image
would look like. You essentially can go
ahead and do that for every single part
of your lecture that you think is
helpful. And not only can you create
image occlusions, but what I like the
most is now [music] you can go ahead and
click on this occlusion tape, and
basically cover any thing and just kind
of highlight over it,
>> [music]
>> and that becomes its own image
occlusion. So, for example, if I didn't
like this large occlusion box right
here, I can go ahead and delete it, and
actually use the tape [music] kind of
occlusion tool to go ahead and just kind
of highlight anything that I wanted that
then would become its own occlusion
image or flashcard. And if I wanted to
set kind of how big the flashcard was,
maybe I wanted to include more things in
each individual flashcard, [music] I
could, which is really nice. So, that's
one of the biggest game-changing
features is that now I can use my
handwriting notes and [music] go ahead
and make some quick flashcards from it
versus what I had to do before from
somebody else's notes, for example, of
screenshotting and making them into
flashcards. Here is my own handwriting
tool, and now I can force myself to have
flashcards from [music] it. If you want
to take it to the next level, you can go
to the top right here and just basically
use the AI functions of RemNote that are
built in and convert this into a text.
It's going to basically try to read your
messy handwriting
>> [music]
>> and convert as much of this into a text
form as it can. And as you can see, just
really quickly, it actually does a
pretty good job of reading my
handwriting and making them into bullet
points with me having to like do
absolutely [music] nothing. This is a
relatively quick chalk talk, so you can
imagine how you can quickly turn your
handwritten documents [music] into
bullet points that you can quickly refer
to, have your handwritten documents as
reference, but [music] doesn't stop
there. I feel like one of those
commercial guys saying, "Wait, there's
more." Cuz if you click on the AI
learning tool, you can actually make
flashcards from this, or you can go
ahead and just get quizzed on the
material if you're studying for an
upcoming test. [music] So, if I did
generate cards, for example, I can get
my flashcards from this, and it's going
to go ahead and add other things that I
think is irrelevant [music]
to the material that I'm learning, which
is super helpful. Now, let me give you
an example of really where it takes it
to another level, because [music] most
of us don't just take free handwritten
notes, but often we're just annotating a
document [music] that we're given. So,
if you may be given the slides to a
lecture or an upcoming review slide,
then it's super helpful if you can
combine some of the new handwritten
features within RemNote and go ahead and
use them with [music] your class
material. So, this is, for example, a
lecture that I had to kind of go through
just part of cardiology fellowship of
learning
>> [music]
>> various things about lipid metabolism
and [snorts] the various papers that are
out there. And it's a very long
PowerPoint, but I'm really not too
dissimilar for something you may have on
a medical school class or [music] an
upcoming exam. Now, in the past, I've
had my own techniques of how I would
take this, and even use tools like
RemNote to make it easier on me,
>> [music]
>> but this handwriting tool kind of
changes the game of how I would use the
PDF. Originally, I may be taking notes
on the side, making flashcards, using AI
to turn [music] these into flashcards,
but I would like to try my best
initially to go ahead and do some
initial learning. And ideally, while the
professor's talking, I can go ahead and
take notes. So, for example, [music] if
we find a slide like this, and they may
mention an important trial in this, I
can go ahead and actually comment,
[music] or if there's something that I
need highlight, I go and just highlight
these guidelines that are important.
It's very kind of similar to tools that
you may be familiar with, again, like
Notability or GoodNotes, where you can
go ahead and just annotate [music]
within the document itself.
So, forestatin groups, statin intensity,
different things that they talk [music]
about. But similar to the tools that
we've already just shared, you can now
add the handwritten tools to go ahead
and just quickly make flashcards within
your document. So, for example, let's
take this slide that I may make some
initial notes about, where [music] maybe
the previous guideline was different,
and so I may want to start this where
the professor says that this is
important. But now I want to go ahead
and just quickly make my image
occlusion. So, just like [music] before,
you can go ahead and make all of these
image occlusions. You can just choose
one of them and change the area,
>> [music]
>> or you can do what I like doing, or you
can do what I like doing, which is using
the tape function
>> [music]
>> and just covering different things that
you think to be important.
Just highlighting them. So, very simple
way of adding annotations and flashcards
and making them live. [music]
You can also just go to this PDF text
highlight tool. If there's something
that I consider to be important, let's
[music] say I consider this line right
here to be important, then I can go and
highlight it, and RemNote [music] is
going to save that I consider this to be
important, and I can then easily convert
that into a text in the later aspect. If
I see a table, for example, again, I can
just quickly [music]
add my notes into parts that are
important. Maybe my professor tells me
the difference between rosuvastatin
[music] and atorvastatin and when you
would use something, I would add my
notes there, and then I can quickly just
make bam,
>> [music]
>> flashcards on the different types of
statins. I can even say how much they
lower your LDL, and change my shapes
around. Super [music] simple. And just
like before, I can use my AI learning
tools up here to go ahead and
essentially learn my flashcards, create
brand new flashcards from this,
including the ones that I've already
made, generate [music] quizzes, and then
study with their AI tutor learning
function. So, this PDF annotation tool
is really [music] just a brand new
game-changer again. And then, I'm going
to share how I would do this differently
if that medical student and this tool
came out to me today. Now, [music]
here's one more example of how I think
you can just use the handwriting tool to
just make things in [music] your notes
just to another level. So, for example,
let's say I took this EKG right here,
and I screenshotted it for something my
professor may share. You can essentially
go ahead and again use the handwriting
tools
to go ahead and draw [music] on it. So,
for example, if I have this EKG and my
professor's kind of pointing out things
that are important, I may go ahead and
circle [music] the P waves
um and highlight different things within
>> [music]
>> the EKG that I consider to be important.
If I don't like my notes, I can just go
ahead and delete those. I can change
[music]
kind of how big my pen looks so that
things are a little bit clearer. I can
add my notes to my [music] EKG. Now, as
you can see, when I close my notes, that
drawing now has my additional
annotations. So, if there's anything in
the future
>> [music]
>> that you want to go ahead and annotate
simply using the notes function, you
can, and it's already built in to your
otherwise kind of text second brain that
I've created for myself. Now, if you're
somebody who uses an iPad and uses an
Apple Pencil, or if you're somebody like
me who has a Samsung tablet and often
uses the stylus or the pencil to take
[music] extra notes on. Now, RemNote
also has an additional function where
you can go ahead and just write what you
think and it'll go ahead and convert
your handwriting [music] into text. So,
if you're somebody who just likes to
actually have the tangible action of
writing, it would easily then convert
that into [music] text without you
having to confirm back and forth between
the two, which is very nice.
>> [music]
>> And just because I know there's a lot of
you guys that like doing things like
mind maps, here's another great way of
how you can [music] use a handwriting
tool that just changes the game on how
you study. So, for example, you can go
back into the handwriting document
section and you can [music] use the
ultimate canvas section. And when you go
ahead and create this, you now not only
just have a page or pages [music] of
notes, but an entire work space. And
now, when you have this, you now only
have a bunch of pages, [music] but
essentially almost like an infinite
whiteboard that you can create your mind
maps, your notes. If you wanted to do a
big brain dump before going into a test,
you could do this.
Um one thing I know students [music]
like enjoying to do is to create, you
know, various different mind maps
>> [music]
>> of connections between things. If you're
somebody who wants to clean the notes
than probably I do, you click the shapes
function down here and [music] you can
go ahead and draw squares. You can even
write in them using the quick text to
handwriting portion. [music] Um you can
scribble on them. You can make arrows in
between
um your various kind of mind maps and
it's just a very clean way of connecting
all of your data together. Personally,
[music] I would use their canvas
function, which again is still in beta,
so it's improving over time, which is
using this as a big brain dump for all
my lectures. But again, because it's
infinite, you can just to lecture one in
one corner and just keep doing it. Um
and then when it's time to study for the
test one more time, you can just look at
[music] your big brain dump,
individually zoom in, zoom out, add
annotations. You can make these into
flashcards if you wish to kind of do a
final review [music] of all the things
that you're still struggling with. But
just a very clean way of having this
again built into one study tool versus
having multiple to do an entire study
[music] prep for an exam. So again,
super cool additions by RemNote. Now,
yes, a lot of these features exist in
other tools, but these tools don't often
work well together and RemNote you can
[music] just do all of it in one spot,
which is nice. You can go ahead and do
your note-taking, you can do your
acquisition, you can do your
annotations, and then [music] you can
more importantly, you can go ahead and
quiz and learn from them their quizzes
and their AI features, or just using
simple flashcards. So, having all of
that under one powerhouse is really
where [music] I think having a system
that works for you is a game-changer.
Now, lastly, I promised I would share
how I would use this if I was a medical
student, but this is the flow that
ideally I would go to. Imagine you're
going into a lecture with a PDF already
given to you. [music] Then during
lecture, I would now use the annotation
tools to take notes as the professor is
saying [music] things to be important,
adding my own little bits and pieces of
details. Now, after class or when I get
home, I'm going to quickly [music] use
the image occlusion tools to take my
annotations and add those into
flashcards, and then I would start with
[music] using RemNote's ability to go
ahead and turn any PDF into AI
flashcards, look to see what it added,
what it probably missed, and then go
ahead and add those extra flashcards
relatively quickly that you can do
[music] through RemNote. And that's
pretty much it. Now, I can use the
flashcard kind of built-in tool the same
way you would use Anki, for example, to
go ahead and quiz yourself on that
lecture, and I would do it the day of.
And then you can use the additional
features [music] that RemNote has, such
as their quiz function, to do those
closer as the test come around. But
again, go [music] to lecture, annotate
the notes, make those into image
occlusion flashcards, use the AI
features to turn those into text,
[music] and have both your annotated
document right there for reference, as
[music] well as all the flashcards in
the one spot. Study the flashcards. If
you're tripped up by anything, you have
the PDF [music] right next to you with
your annotations on it, and then you
just repeat the process and do it over
and over again and get better prepared
for the exam. [music] So, the real power
here isn't just in the handwriting
tools, it's in the workflow that RemNote
allows you to have. So again, if you're
interested in using any of the features
by RemNote, including the ones that we
talked about today's episode, [music] if
you use the link down below, you'll get
a free month access of RemNote's pro
features, including the handwriting
tools, [music] to just go ahead and give
it a test drive. And if you're a user of
tools like Anki, the nice thing is you
can take your Anki flashcards
>> [music]
>> and add those into RemNote. For some
reason, if you realize that RemNote's
not for you, your work's not [music] in
vain, you can then transfer those also
in to Anki to continue to do your old
system. But if you're like me, you
probably won't go back. So again, at the
end of the day, the goal is not to study
more, it's to build a system that
continues to grow with you and helps you
stick with the retention that you're
ultimately working so hard to have. So
with that, my friends, hopefully you
guys enjoyed this kind of walk-through
of using RemNote's handwriting features.
Let me know what questions or thoughts
that you guys have down [music] below in
the comments. And again, if you want to
learn my entire kind of system that I
would use in medical school using
RemNote [music] to take my class notes
and really changing them into this like
second brain system that I've now use as
a cardiology fellow, go ahead and check
out this entire episode and breakdown of
RemNote from start [music] to finish.
With that, my friends, thank you so much
for being a part of my journey.
Hopefully I was a little help to you
guys on yours. I'll catch you guys in
the next one. Peace.