MedCards 20+9 card-writing standard (version 2027.1)
Wozniak's 20 rules adapted to medicine, plus 9 medical rules (M1 to M9). The editor lint, the AI assistant and the reviewers use the same codes.
R1 Do not learn what you do not understand
R1 Every shared note has an explanation or a source that a student can read.
R2 Learn before you memorize
R2 The note has a topic; the topic page gives an overview.
R3 Build upon the basics
R3 The note has its course stage; the planner orders the basics first.
R4 Minimum information
R4 One fact per card; an answer of at most 15 words; a prompt of at most 40 words.
R5 Cloze is easy and effective
R5 At most 4 cloze numbers per note; a sentence of at most 25 words; a blank of at most 5 words.
R6 Use imagery
R6 Real images with labels and alt text.
R7 Use mnemonic techniques
R7 A mnemonic goes in the Mnemonic field.
R8 Graphic deletion is as good as cloze
R8 Occlusion for spatial content; at most 20 masks per image.
R9 Avoid sets
R9 No unordered lists to recall as a whole.
R10 Avoid enumerations
R10 Ordered lists only as one-by-one clozes, at most 12 items.
R11 Combat interference
R11 No duplicates; a compare card for confusable pairs.
R12 Optimize wording
R12 The shortest unambiguous wording; no negation; no yes/no prompts; no "all of the above".
R13 Refer to other memories
R13 Links between cards and topics.
R14 Personalize and give examples
R14 An example field and the personal layer.
R15 Rely on emotional states
R15 Classic cases, with no real patient data.
R16 Context cues
R16 The prompt states the population and the setting.
R17 Redundancy does not contradict minimum information
R17 Both directions are separate cards.
R18 Provide sources
R18 A source is required on shared decks; a dose or a threshold has a source on the same note.
R19 Provide date stamps
R19 The guideline year; superseded sources are flagged.
R20 Prioritize
R20 A yield mark on every note of the official deck.
M1 Units and number format
M1 Every value has a unit; a decimal comma in Portuguese, a point in English.
M2 Doses
M2 Drug, dose, route, population and frequency, with a source.
M3 Jurisdiction
M3 Brazilian generic names and guidelines; US-only practice is marked.
M4 Abbreviations
M4 Spelled out once; none of the ISMP "do not use" forms.
M5 Privacy
M5 No identifiable patient data in text or images.
M6 Bias
M6 No race or ethnicity as a biological factor without cited evidence.
M7 Copyright and exams
M7 No copy of paid material; no recalled exam items.
M8 Exam vs practice
M8 When the exam and practice differ, the note states both.
M9 Eponyms
M9 An eponym with its descriptive name.