Number of anki cards per lecture

[compstomper]

Hi there, I just started using anki and it's working well for me so far. I found myself making around 30-40 cards per lecture. For those of you who are using anki for school, I was wondering how many cards per lecture do you make?

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[Amba]

30-50 for a 1.5 hour lecture

 

[Pacna]

Anywhere from 15-170 depending on the density of Anki-able material. For instance, I've found that most biochem memorizationable (it's a word now) bits are few, so Anki doesn't help too much, and I only add a dozen or so per lecture. On the other hand, If you get a lecture on the bones of the head, their foramina, and what passes through them, you'll easily be doing 170 cards to cover everything. Anki is amazing for anatomy.

 

[operaman]

I was 100-150 per lecture back when I did it.

Realize I would copy/paste the entire lecture -- yes, every word -- into anki format. Basically this meant copy/pasting a sentence and then clipping out testable material and putting it on the back of the card.

I could convert a whole 45 minute lecture to cards in 60-90 minutes, depending on density, layout, and my level of motivation at the time.

 

[sinombre]

I think I probably averaged 50-100 cards first year, and second year It's pretty much doubled.

 

[Girly X]

OP, everything that is bolded or highlighted on a slide MUST go on a card. Use your discretion for everything else for example if it helps you remember or understand, or gives you context, put it into anki too. You could go anywhere from 30-100+ per lecture. Really depends on your grade goals I guess. Bottom line though is that Anki is a pain to do lol, but boy does it work.

 

[compstomper]

I was 100-150 per lecture back when I did it.

Realize I would copy/paste the entire lecture -- yes, every word -- into anki format. Basically this meant copy/pasting a sentence and then clipping out testable material and putting it on the back of the card.

I could convert a whole 45 minute lecture to cards in 60-90 minutes, depending on density, layout, and my level of motivation at the time.

my hats off to you sir

 

[masaraksh]

Anki seems like way too much of a pain for me. I mean, you need i) time to go to lecture + ii) time to make cards + iii) time to go through cards multiple times at whatever BS interval and order the program decides.

 

[sinombre]

Anki seems like way too much of a pain for me. I mean, you need i) time to go to lecture + ii) time to make cards + iii) time to go through cards multiple times at whatever BS interval and order the program decides.

It is time consuming, but an extremely high-yield investment. The intervals aren't BS... it's spaced repetition, so you're only supposed to see a card right before you would forget the information (in theory).

 

[zegrated]

Anki cards don't work for me, or at least I haven't found a way to make them work for me. I agree with them being too time consuming. I tried making them for a few tests and by the time I was finished I didn't even have a chance to study them at all. I prefer to hand write notes because it is easier to make my own charts/diagrams/etc. and it is too cumbersome to do that on the cards. I don't feel like copy pasting a lecture really does me much good for retaining information. I can definitely see the positive in being able to go back and review easily after a test (e.g. when studying for boards), so I may give it another shot.

 

[Hemorrage]

Anki seems like way too much of a pain for me. I mean, you need i) time to go to lecture + ii) time to make cards + iii) time to go through cards multiple times at whatever BS interval and order the program decides.

That's not the real method you use when using anki for med school exams. The default algorithm is great for Long term retention; however, your cards should be tagged properly according to class and topic or lecture number. Using tags you can run "cram" sessions on all the cards with a given tag. For example, if you wanted to study histology you would filter by the histology card and study all the cards in the histology deck. This would be an insane amount so you make it more sane by adding additional tags like lecture number. This way you can study histology lecture 3 for example.

 

[masaraksh]

Great to hear it works for you.

For me, I have OneNote where I organize all my notes + my computer is a tablet that can fold into a laptop. Therefore, I can both type and 'write' notes. I've got Anki installed, and I've tried it, it just takes me so000 long to make the flashcards.

 

[CyberMaxx]

Anki seems like way too much of a pain for me. I mean, you need i) time to go to lecture + ii) time to make cards + iii) time to go through cards multiple times at whatever BS interval and order the program decides.

Yeah, I ran into the same problem pretty quickly after school started. I stopped going to class and have been doing lectures at 2x speed. This system seems to be working pretty well for me. We just had our first test and I found I just had to skim the material that was presented at the beginning and middle of the block because I had it committed to memory already via anki.

In response to the OP I make anywhere from 25-200 anki cards per lecture. Generally its about 50 or so per lecture but detailed anatomy lectures can just get crazy

 

[Pacna]

Great to hear it works for you.

For me, I have OneNote where I organize all my notes + my computer is a tablet that can fold into a laptop. Therefore, I can both type and 'write' notes. I've got Anki installed, and I've tried it, it just takes me so000 long to make the flashcards.

I use an identical system for note-taking in class. However, I've stopped going to anatomy lectures or listening to them online entirely. If everything is already in the coursepack (for us it is), then I'll just make anki cards for 2 hours on that 1 hour lecture and NEVER have to review again. Same for cumulative exams. I don't cram study. I don't have to. I know the entire semester's material as I've been reviewing it slowly every day.

SRS is truly the learning of the future. Our current system is teaching us to cram info into our brains by a deadline then promptly drop >70% of it. I don't think that is what the point of all of these 16 hour days is. If you're not going to remember that shi* long-term, how much is all of that effort really worth?

 

[masaraksh]

I'm just gonna remember things long enough until I can match into derm... then all I have to remember is 'rash', 'skin cancer', 'cosmetics' and 'ewwww'

 

[13132]

I usually make 40 per lecture. I definitely avoid making cards on something I know or something that I will end up knowing because it is going to come up so much. There is an add on where you can block out parts of an image and that has been helpful for anatomy.

 

[Pacna]

I usually make 40 per lecture. I definitely avoid making cards on something I know or something that I will end up knowing because it is going to come up so much. There is an add on where you can block out parts of an image and that has been helpful for anatomy.

Yes. It's called Image Occlusion 2.0. Use this code in Anki to install it: 282798835

 

[Hemorrage]

Great to hear it works for you.

For me, I have OneNote where I organize all my notes + my computer is a tablet that can fold into a laptop. Therefore, I can both type and 'write' notes. I've got Anki installed, and I've tried it, it just takes me so000 long to make the flashcards.

I completely understand where you're coming from. I was a huge skeptic myself as i did the same thing as you with OneNote until 2 weeks ago. I'm a huge outline/notes kind of person so the transition was difficult but like any good medicine, it takes a while to get used to. I stuck with it for about a week and realized i was remembering ALOT more than i was with my outlines. I'm fairly certain this is because anki cards require active recall rather than the passive recall you get by reading notes and outlines. The key is to really learn how to use image occlusion and cloze cards. You can make cards very very quickly once you get the hang of it. Finally, the great thing is that anki schedules your studying for you. You don't have to sit and wonder what you don't "know". For this part, its important to set your anki settings to ones that have been tried and tested by other SDN members. I'm using settings posted in the official anki thread. If you're curious i can dig them up. Either way, i think anki is like an inverted hockey stick. Its hard to get used to it in the beginning but after you get past that, its great!

 

[wjs010]

I usually just convert things from quizlet to save time. I don't believe typing in the cards help me memorize any better. So importing allows me more time studying and less time making cards. If anything, I feel like writing them out on paper or whiteboard causes a better memory trigger than typing however, I love studying with anki

 

[xffan624]

I usually just convert things from quizlet to save time. I don't believe typing in the cards help me memorize any better. So importing allows me more time studying and less time making cards. If anything, I feel like writing them out on paper or whiteboard causes a better memory trigger than typing however, I love studying with anki

For the pathways and other conceptual items, I would definitely do that. For long term retention though, anki has been great. My classmates look at me funny when I can recall material from MS1 easily. I also did over 1 SD better than the mean on the comprehensive exam we took at the end of MS1, way better than I did on any individual test throughout the year. We'll see if it translates to a decent step score.

 

[wjs010]

For the pathways and other conceptual items, I would definitely do that. For long term retention though, anki has been great. My classmates look at me funny when I can recall material from MS1 easily. I also did over 1 SD better than the mean on the comprehensive exam we took at the end of MS1, way better than I did on any individual test throughout the year. We'll see if it translates to a decent step score.

Oh yea I will definitely keep using anki. I really like it and am glad to be a new user. I think it's gonna be great . I notice that I already memorize some minutiae

 

[darknecrosforte]

I completely understand where you're coming from. I was a huge skeptic myself as i did the same thing as you with OneNote until 2 weeks ago. I'm a huge outline/notes kind of person so the transition was difficult but like any good medicine, it takes a while to get used to. I stuck with it for about a week and realized i was remembering ALOT more than i was with my outlines. I'm fairly certain this is because anki cards require active recall rather than the passive recall you get by reading notes and outlines. The key is to really learn how to use image occlusion and cloze cards. You can make cards very very quickly once you get the hang of it. Finally, the great thing is that anki schedules your studying for you. You don't have to sit and wonder what you don't "know". For this part, its important to set your anki settings to ones that have been tried and tested by other SDN members. I'm using settings posted in the official anki thread. If you're curious i can dig them up. Either way, i think anki is like an inverted hockey stick. Its hard to get used to it in the beginning but after you get past that, its great!

Yes. Almost exact same situation. Currently undergrad senior, but taking hematology, molecular biology, developmental neurobiology, and biochem 1 this quarter and after two weeks, my grades have been improving with less overall study time. Anki works with EVERYTHING, assuming that you actually understand the material prior to making cards. For crazy stuff like learning all of the proteins in RNA polymerase II, I would have to spend 30 minutes pre-reading the slides to get a good idea of the interaction so that when I go to lecture, I can make cards in class. If you have PowerPoints, Cloze deletions will speed things up. There is also value in using optional reverse cards if you know how to word questions to be reversible.

 

[achamess]

The number of cards will depend on (1) the amount of content in the lecture, (2) the granularity of your questions, and (3) your selection filter.

You could easily produce 100 cards/lecture in a typical class. Many students are turned off by this number, but the fault is not Anki's. That's just the honest truth about how many discrete facts there are to be remembered, and Anki (or physical flashcards, notes, w/e) just makes it obvious how much there is to know.

The important question here though, should you try to Anki everything? the answer is, it depends on your goals and motivations. If you're using Anki (or any other SR app) for long-term retention and longer-term tests, then it might not be worth your time to get everything into Anki from lecture slides, since a good fraction is likely low yield and "forgettable".

A good rule of thumb is: If you want to remember something beyond a test, put it into Anki. If you want just get something into your head for an upcoming exam, cram it. Don't waste your time making cards for stuff you're OK forgetting.

You can still take advantage of the techniques that underlie Anki (spacing and testing) for your cramming. the effects just won't be very lasting. So, even for your cramming, rather than running your eyes over slide after slide, try to reproduce from memory, with no prompting, everything you remember from a lecture. This process of retrieving knowledge is very potent, even in one or two repetitions. Indeed, much of the literature that looks at the testing effect use retrieval practice just in the short term, and it still produces significant effects. So, even your cramming can be "Anki-like" without having to make cards. Save the cards for the things that matter (i.e. not every piece of minutiae your prof wants you to regurgitate).

For a more comprehensive discussion about knowledge filtering and Anki, you can check out Learning Medicine: An Evidence-Based Guide (which I co-authored).

 

[Pierre Escargot]

I've only used Anki for anatomy so far. I started out making 60-100 cards per lecture, but now I make 30-50 'more dense' cards. If separate pieces of information are interrelated enough that I want to be able to rattle them off together, I put them on one card now.

 

[Low Flow]

For anatomy I'll usually have easily 50-100 cards of images (kind of unavoidable when you have a whole body system to memorize). For most other lectures though, I really try and keep them to a minimum (<20). Disclosure, I am still a first year--although we did just start systems (musculoskeletal) and my decks only increased marginally in size.

The key is to really only include things you don't understand, or that you really think you will need to remind yourself of in the (near) future. It's useless to have a card in your deck of a sentence w/ a cloze deletion that you will know the answer to without pause. Self-awareness is the key to ensuring you don't waste time generating excessive Anki cards (and maintaining your motivation when it comes time to answer 20 questions instead of 100).

 

[Yadster101]

Hey guys,

To study I typically just memorize ppt slides. After this I'll print the slides and then just cover up different key words with my hands or a sheet of paper in order to test my self. Isn't this similar to the anki method w/o wasting time to make cards?

 

[futuremdforme]

A lot of slides! I really make sure to try to test one concept per card so that I spend my time on facts I don't know, instead of seeing the vessels that branch off the aortic arch a zillion times when I'm good with them. Making more cards now, saves me time later, because I can just whiz by those cards but then make sure I still remember them come exam time.

 

[Yadster101]

apparently not, anki uses an algorithm to bring back old cards and refresh your memory

Well if I just reviewed them at the same rate as the algorithm, would it be the same?

 

[CyberMaxx]

Well if I just reviewed them at the same rate as the algorithm, would it be the same?

If that works for you then I would say go ahead and do it. Like you suggest, reviewing slides at regular intervals is more or less utilizing the same principles as a spaced repetition software program like anki.

 

[Yadster101]

If that works for you then I would say go ahead and do it. Like you suggest, reviewing slides at regular intervals is more or less utilizing the same principles as a spaced repetition software program like anki.

Thanks. What I was really trying to get at was that most people say that the main drawback to anki is the time needed to make the cards. Couldn't everyone just use my method and not waste time on making hundreds of cards?

 

[surgeonhands2213]

Thanks. What I was really trying to get at was that most people say that the main drawback to anki is the time needed to make the cards. Couldn't everyone just use my method and not waste time on making hundreds of cards?

What's your "method"? covering up slides with your hands/computer paper? Anki is a powerful spaced repetition program where you can test knowledge using various methods that requires memory recall, something that really helps me when I'm studying. Looking at the answer then covering it up is not the same thing. If it works for you, great.

 

[CyberMaxx]

Thanks. What I was really trying to get at was that most people say that the main drawback to anki is the time needed to make the cards. Couldn't everyone just use my method and not waste time on making hundreds of cards?

No, my point was that going over lectures repeatedly throughout the block at defined intervals and using anki both use the principle of spaced repetition. However it is a very different way of reviewing. I use anki because it forces me to actively recall facts from lecture notes. If I just read over lecture notes I would end up doing so very passively and not get a lot out of it (i.e. that method just doesn't work for me). But for other people the opposite, grinding through hundreds of anki a day, would be counter productive and they would benefit more from just seeing the lecture notes half a dozen times.

Either way you can approach the material in such a way where you are using spaced repetition, it just depends on what works best for you.

 

[Pierre Escargot]

Thanks. What I was really trying to get at was that most people say that the main drawback to anki is the time needed to make the cards. Couldn't everyone just use my method and not waste time on making hundreds of cards?

Because Anki is love. Anki is life.

What I find incredible about Anki is just how ingrained the material becomes in my brain. I can still recall a great deal of information from first block of anatomy back in August and early September.

 

[CyberMaxx]

What I find incredible about Anki is just how ingrained the material becomes in my brain. I can still recall a great deal of information from first block of anatomy back in August and early September.

Yeah, for people who learn best with flashcards, I think anki is the best thing for medical school. I'm an M2 and can still picture anki cards in my head from M1. It is a grind to get through daily cards but its a great way to force yourself to do well if you keep up with it.

 

[Pierre Escargot]

Yeah, for people who learn best with flashcards, I think anki is the best thing for medical school. I'm an M2 and can still picture anki cards in my head from M1. It is a grind to get through daily cards but its a great way to force yourself to do well if you keep up with it.

I agree completely. A little extra time making the cards is well worth the dividends. Besides, I feel like I've become faster and more efficient at making cards, so it really doesn't detract much from my study time.

We're now in the head and neck block of anatomy and I have absolutely no clue how I would learn any of this stuff without Anki. But everyone has their own game plan so I get why other folks might not see the point.

 

[Rekt]

I agree completely. A little extra time making the cards is well worth the dividends. Besides, I feel like I've become faster and more efficient at making cards, so it really doesn't detract much from my study time.

We're now in the head and neck block of anatomy and I have absolutely no clue how I would learn any of this stuff without Anki. But everyone has their own game plan so I get why other folks might not see the point.

How are you using it for head/neck? What kind of cards are you making? This seems like our most poorly structured block and I'm having a difficult time trying to study for it.

 

[Pierre Escargot]

How are you using it for head/neck? What kind of cards are you making? This seems like our most poorly structured block and I'm having a difficult time trying to study for it.

It's by far our worst-organized block as well, it's actually rather incredible. That's why part of my strategy for this block has been making cards that are far more organized than the notes they provided us (and in my own words).

The only type of cards I've been making are the "standard" ones. Some of them are straightforward, for example, I'll type the name of a bony landmark on the front and then on the back I'll write its significance - what attaches to it, what goes through it if it's a foramen, etc. Some of them are much longer, however; for instance I have a card on the blood supply to the pharynx and larynx, and I think there are 7 or 8 arteries that they want us to know. But I put them all on one card including where they branch from and the area they supply because it helps me to make those connections in my head. I also don't want a huge amount of cards to go through. We've got one more lecture left and I'm around 330 cards.

With the 'denser' cards it seems intimidating at first but consolidating the memories as one chunk rather than several discrete pieces has worked for me.

 

[CyberMaxx]

Wow, 330, I have made that many cards for a single lecture. I heavily use image occlusion so its a different type of card, but will often get to around 4,000-6,000 cards by the end of 5 week block (first year). This year its a lot more

 

[Rekt]

Wow, 330, I have made that many cards for a single lecture. I heavily use image occlusion so its a different type of card, but will often get to around 4,000-6,000 cards by the end of 5 week block (first year). This year its a lot more

That's massive overkill by a long shot. I'm surprised you even made it to second year, but nonetheless, congrats.

 

[TwinsFan]

Once your deck gets well north of 1k cards they start to become a bear to keep up with.

 

[CyberMaxx]

That's massive overkill by a long shot. I'm surprised you even made it to second year, but nonetheless, congrats.

lol. Its just a different strategy. I generally watch the lectures once and then just review anki cards after that so it literally is all I have to do. I will readily acknowledge that its not the most efficient strategy but, if you keep up with your daily to-dos you are basically forcing yourself to do well. Also, since my cards are primarily image occlusion I can burn through them pretty fast.

 

[surgeonhands2213]

Wow, 330, I have made that many cards for a single lecture. I heavily use image occlusion so its a different type of card, but will often get to around 4,000-6,000 cards by the end of 5 week block (first year). This year its a lot more

330 for one lecture?! that's impressive. whatever works!