Anki is such a useful study tool! It’s perfect for people learning how to study (i.e. new college students) because it is most effective when used on a daily basis and can help form good studying habits. It’s also very popular among med/vet students because it can help you learn a ton of information in an quick, efficient manner.
I’m by no means an Anki expert - this program is extremely customizable and can be tailored to fit any purpose. I used it consistently this semester, a little bit each day, and found that I barely had to study for my tests the night before!
This post will outline my personal favorite Anki uses, add-ons and studying techniques.
“Anki is a program which makes remembering things easy. Because it's a lot more efficient than traditional study methods, you can either greatly decrease your time spent studying, or greatly increase the amount you learn.” (from Anki’s website)
Essentially, it’s a flashcard app. Think Quizlet on steroids.
Anki is very simple to install - visit their website and follow the directions. The program is free with Windows, Mac and Android!
I use three different card types: Basic (used rarely), Cloze, and Image Occlusion.
These are essentially fill in the blank cards. The program will add brackets around around the word or phrase you are trying to omit.
Shortcut to create brackets (Mac): Command + Shift + C
If you add multiple brackets, they will appear as {{c2:: }}, {{c3:: }} and so on. This means that three cards will be created when you press “Add.” This is useful if you think that you need three or more cards to memorize the concept - but often it’s too repetitive. To put multiple phrases on one card, you can replace the number each number with {{c1: }}. See below for an add-on that does this automatically.
The golden rule of Anki: Less is more. It’s very easy to make a ton of cards, but it makes your studying less efficient.
See the gif below to watch me create and study a Cloze card.
This card type lets you create cards that hide parts of an image. Super useful for memorizing tables or learning anatomy.
You can save images to your computer and then upload them OR copy them to your clipboard and it will select them automatically.
Creating an Image Occlusion card:
There are several options for adding the card(s). At this point, you have made three fields, so clicking any of the add options at the bottom will generate three separate cards. However, If you use the select tool to select all the cards and press the letter “G” it will group the fields so only one card is created. This is what I usually do - but it definitely depends on what the card is.
In the gif below you’ll see me group the fields and study the Image Occlusion cards.
Anki has a ton of user created add-ons that enhance the program and make it more customizable! You can browse them here.
These are just the add-ons I use. I’ll list them below with a description from their download page - you can click the link to view pictures.
Image Occlusion (Described above)
Frozen Fields: Frozen Fields allows you to conveniently sticky and unsticky a field right from the note editor.
Cloze Deletion Single Card: Whenever you add a cloze deletion in a card, you always will get a tag using "c1" instead of c2, 3, 4, etc.
PDF Glossary Exporter: Allows you to download a deck in PDF form
Review Heatmap: Adds a heatmap graph to Anki's main window which visualizes past and future card review activity.
How you set up your decks is completely up to you!
I have my classes as major decks, and then separate my chapter flashcards by exam.
I’ve seen people do this with topics or lectures as sub-decks as well. It all depends on your personal preference, but I would definitely recommend making smaller decks to keep you more organized.
An alternative to this would be using Anki’s tagging feature. I’m not an expert on this, but I’ll link you to a video that explains it pretty well. Here’s another from a med student!
Directly after a lecture, I take my notes and create cards right away. In the ‘extra’ section or on the back of cards, I add supplemental information or diagrams from the internet or book. I make sure that I completely finish the cards that Anki assigns me every single day. I also bought the app on my iPad, which has a scratch pad feature. It helps me learn faster if I write or draw out the answer to a card as I answer them. (Before I had the app I used a whiteboard or scratch paper to do this!)
You can go in and change the amount of cards they assign you if you need a lighter/heavier workload. I recommend setting the New and Review card limits very high - you only have a short amount of time to learn the cards between now and your next test. Anki’s program is set up for learning over a longer period of time. However - this is up to you!
Here’s how to change the limit:
Anki is best used on a daily basis. Study a little bit each day!
Make your cards directly after lecture (or reading a chapter). DO NOT PROCRASTINATE! The earlier you make them, the more effective they will be.
Add pictures to your cards, and lots of information on the back or in the extra sections. You will want to know why you got a card wrong - this is how you learn!
LESS IS MORE. It’s so easy to make a ton of cards - focus on having a small amount of high yield cards.
Do your research! The more you learn about Anki, the more effective it will be.
Use this as a supplement to your other studying methods
Below are my favorite Anki tutorials!
How to Add “Type In The Answer” fields to Cloze cards
How to Use Anki Effectively
My Memorization Technique in Med School
Anki for Med School: Using Cloze Deletion Cards
Image Occlusion and Cram Studying
How I make my Study Note cards in Medical School
I hope this gives everyone a pretty good idea of how to use Anki effectively! Let me know if there are any questions - I can always add to this post.
