Medical French

1. Import into Anki

Getting your deck into Anki takes about a minute. Your download link is in the receipt email from Lemon Squeezy, the payment service we use. It usually arrives within a few minutes.

Deck files are large, 130 MB or more depending on the deck, so use Wi-Fi when you download on a phone or tablet.

Another way: import the deck on a computer first, then sync it to your phone with a free AnkiWeb account. Your phone still needs the Anki app: AnkiDroid on Android or AnkiMobile on iPhone and iPad. The first sync can take a while because of the audio, so wait for it to finish.

Medical French by Eidetic appears in your deck list with five sub-decks: Interrogatoire (Patient History), Rédaction Médicale (Report Writing), Système de Santé (Healthcare System), Pairs Technique/Patient and Pattern Drills. Audio and tags are packed in with the cards.

2. Recommended settings

Anki's defaults work, but these adjustments will give you better results with this deck:

• New cards per day: 5-10. Clinical terms have to stay put, and the technical and patient wordings need to settle together.
• Maximum reviews per day: 200. The default of 200 is fine. If your daily reviews regularly exceed 150, reduce new cards for a few days.
• Learning steps: 1m 10m. Anki's default. Leave it.

To change these: click the gear icon next to the deck name, then "Options."

3. How the card types work

Avez-vous mal?, 'Are you in pain?', shows the pattern. Recognition: French in, meaning out. Production: English in, French out. Cloze: the phrase sits in a sentence, such as 'Avez-vous mal en ce moment?', with a word missing.

Each entry has a Technique field, for the technical word, and a Patient field, for what a patient would say. Entries in the pairs sub-deck also make a Technique↔Patient card that asks you to go from one wording to the other. In all, 1,045 entries make 3,724 cards, plus 70 Pattern Drills.

Every entry has an Arabic field, for the optional Arabic toggle, and example sentences for the patient conversation and for the written report. Most entries carry an exam tip that flags the patterns examiners look for.

Feeling overwhelmed? Suspend the Production cards for the first week. Focus on Recognition and Cloze. Add Production back once your daily reviews feel manageable. To suspend: select cards in the browser, right-click, "Toggle Suspend."

4. Where to start

The deck is built around four skills: take a history, write an observation, explain a diagnosis to a patient and present a case to a colleague, each in the right register. It has five sub-decks.

• Interrogatoire (Patient History): about 1,040 cards. The history-taking sub-deck. Entries open with the greeting and the introduction and move through the interview.
• Rédaction Médicale (Report Writing): about 620 cards. The medical writing sub-deck, built on the report example sentence on each entry.
• Système de Santé (Healthcare System): about 480 cards. The French healthcare system: Carte Vitale, CPAM and the parcours de soins.
• Pairs Technique/Patient: about 1,580 cards. The technical word and the patient's word, side by side, across body systems such as gastroenterology and neurology.
• Pattern Drills: 70 cards. Verb and sentence patterns, such as the subjunctive, the passé composé, pronouns and the conditional.

One entry from the pairs

The cirrhose hépatique entry shows how a technical word and a patient word travel together.

• Technique and Patient. cirrhose hépatique, and what a patient hears: maladie du foie.
• English and Arabic. 'Hepatic cirrhosis / liver cirrhosis', and the Arabic تشمع الكبد.
• Patient example. 'Votre foie est très abîmé et ne fonctionne plus normalement, c'est ce qu'on appelle une cirrhose.'
• Report example. 'Cirrhose hépatique d'origine éthylique, Child-Pugh B8, MELD 18.'
• Exam tip. Always classify cirrhosis using both Child-Pugh and MELD. The EVC expects both.

Two more entries

One word for each side of the register switch.

• céphalée and mal de tête. 'Headache / cephalgia.' The tip says céphalée is the only acceptable term in reports, never write mal de tête, and with patients always say mal de tête. The tip adds that this register switch is what the exam tests.
• Bonjour, je suis le Docteur…. 'Hello, I am Doctor…', respelled bohN-ZHOOR, zhuh swee luh dok-TUHR, in Interrogatoire. The tip says to introduce yourself with your full surname, since first names are too informal for the EVC.

Tips written on the cards

The exam tips are short rules about register and structure. Two more:

• Announce your structure. On the EVC, always announce the structure of your interview before starting questions: 'Je vais vous poser quelques questions.'
• Technique in the report, Patient in the room. The same entry carries both wordings so you can keep them apart: the technical term goes in the written report and the patient's word is for the conversation.

Working through a pair

The Pairs sub-deck is where the register switch becomes automatic. Here is one way to work it.

• Say it both ways. Say the technical term, then the patient's wording. Then start from the patient's wording and produce the technical term.
• Keep a pair together. Treat each pair as one unit. A card that shows only the technical word does not train the switch.
• Read the exam tips. Tips on the clinical cards flag the patterns examiners look for.

Pacing the clinical French

At 5 to 10 new cards a day, a month brings 150 to 300 new cards. Interrogatoire holds about 1,040 cards, so expect roughly 105 to 205 days of new cards there. If you are preparing for the EVC, raise the daily number in Options when your reviews allow it. Give the Pairs sub-deck its own short daily slot, because the technical wording and the patient wording only stick together when you review them together.

Practice and reading for clinical French

All of these are free to read or try.

• Free browser preview. Twenty clinical French cards with audio, in the browser.
• Learn French. The everyday French deck, next to this one.
• Medical Language Decks. Every medical deck in one list.
• Why Most Flashcard Decks Fail. The criteria that separate useful decks from word lists.

The "Again" button is your friend

When Anki shows you a card and you don't know the answer, hit Again. Not "Hard." Not "Good." Again.

Spaced repetition works best when you're honest about what you don't know. Cards you mark "Again" come back sooner. Cards you know well space out further. The algorithm adjusts to you. Trust it.

Audio on every card

Every word card has professional audio. On desktop, audio plays automatically when the card appears. On mobile, tap the speaker icon.

Audio plays for the technical wording and the report example in a male voice, and for the patient wording and the patient example in a female voice. Listen to the patient wording first, because it is what you will hear in the room, then to the technical wording.

Lifetime updates

Your purchase includes free updates for the life of the product. When we add new cards, fix audio, or improve translations, you can re-download the latest version from Lemon Squeezy at no extra cost.

When we release a new version, it appears on your original Lemon Squeezy download link; download it again to get it.

Need help?

Reply to any Eidetic email or reach out at hello@eidetic.cards. We read everything and respond fast.