Vademecum
5. The Improvement Map and spaced repetition
The Improvement Map is where Vademecum models what you know and suggests where to go next. Everything on it is worked out from what you have already done, on your own device. There are no quotas and no due counts: it suggests, and you decide.
What Vademecum learns from
| What you did | What it tells Vademecum |
|---|---|
| Answered a board question | You could, or couldn't, produce the answer to a vignette |
| Answered a flashcard | You recalled it, or asked to see it again |
| Finished a Socratic session | How well you explained it, and the gaps it named |
| Read a page | You studied it (study, not yet recall) |
| Flagged a gap | You said you are unsure here |
| Added an exam report | An exam put this area below, at or above the mark |
Recent evidence counts for more than old evidence.
Two estimates for each topic
- Understood: how well the topic is known, from all of the above.
- Holding now: how much of it you would recall today. Memory fades along a forgetting curve, and each successful recall makes it fade more slowly. A recall after a longer gap helps more than one an hour after the last (the spacing effect). A miss makes it fade faster again.
Together these give each topic a state:
- Not yet tried: you haven't tested yourself on it yet.
- Still forming: the answers so far say it is not understood yet.
- Fading: understood, but slipping. Now is a good time to recall it.
- Holding: understood and holding. An occasional question keeps it there.
Where to go next
At the top of the map, Where to go next (tap to open it) suggests up to five steps. Each one names the topic, its state, why it was chosen, what the estimate rests on, and one thing to do:
| Step | When |
|---|---|
| Read the page | You haven't read it yet; read once, then test yourself |
| Board questions | Testing yourself fixes knowledge better than rereading |
| Flashcards | It is fading; a quick recall now makes it last |
| Talk it through | You missed questions; explaining why builds the understanding |
| Add a source | You flagged it, but there is no page on it yet |
Steps come from different specialties in turn. Mixing topics feels harder, but it helps you tell similar things apart.
Shapes and folded specialties
Each specialty has its own shape, so colour can show what you know. A specialty with three or more topics starts as a single node, with the number of topics inside it. Tap it to open its topics. Each opened specialty gets a Fold button above the graph that closes it again, and Fold all closes every one.
Colour by what you know
Above the graph, switch By specialty to By what you know. Each topic and page node is then coloured by its state. Tap a topic to see its estimate (understood, holding now, how much evidence) and the suggested step.
The same model, elsewhere
- Flashcards brings cards from fading pages forward and lets holding ones rest.
- Tutor → Board questions → Where you need it most asks each question from the page that needs it most, a different page each time. Shuffled through everything still goes through every question with no repeats.
- In ChatGPT or Claude, ask "What should I study next in Vademecum?" The assistant reads the same suggestions and can start the first step with you, by voice on the drive home.
The reasoning and references are in ADR 0031.