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[deleted852735]

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[7331poas]

your first mistake is making your own cards

 

[Yasuo]

I'm just an M1 who finished my first exam, so take this with a grain of salt. I think my method is working well, and I felt prepared for my exam.

I read through our lecture powerpoint and see a fact worth memorizing. I type in a well-formed question into Anki and then screenshot the answer from the powerpoint. On my mac, you can set a keybinding to select and area of your screen --> copy to clipboard. So I get into this flow where I do this:

1. Find memorizable fact
2. Write question
3. Screenshot and paste answer
4. ctrl+enter to add the card

This allows me to speed through the lectures while turning them into Anki form. I can do a 2 hour lecture in probably an hour. It also allows you to get a first pass of studying if you really pay attention to what you're writing.

I also use Boards and Beyonds to learn alongside classes, but Anki has been great for memorizing all the little facts.

Hopefully this makes sense.

 

[deleted645092]

I used Anki for the second half of first year and all of 2nd year and it served me extremely well. I made my own cards for every lecture, with the exception of some that didn't really warrant making cards to memorize random facts like the clinical skills courses.

It did take me most of the day to make my cards, but eventually you get really fast at it. My secret was that I would style my cards so that I might have 2 or 3 clozes on one card; For pharm I might put the mechanism of action as 1 cloze and then the drug name as another cloze. On a separate card I would put the side effects. In total for a single drug it might take a minute to make a card and make about 50 per lecture.

In the end what I did was use my mornings making the cards (8-12) and then actually study in the afternoon. It shouldn't take more than an hour to make the cards for a single lecture. But like I said above, it will be slow going at first while you learn how to actually make good cards.

Just as a qualifier to let you know I'm not just a random talking out my a$$, I only used my cards to study for facts, used videos to do concepts, and got a 249 Step 1 and 664 COMLEX. I didn't open First Aid more than 2-3 times during dedicated because I had cards made for everything by the end of 2 years.

 

[intubesteak]

Stop making your own cards immediately!! HUGE time sink. Get one of the vetted premade anki decks or firecracker. If you are worried about memorizing stuff for class exams, going through the powerpoints multiple times is usually better than anki cards because inevitably you will think something is not important, not make a card on it, but it ends up on the test. Plus, its hard to fully understand what is important when you are looking at it for the first time.

 

[Save a life]

I used Anki all through M1 and am an M2 and I DO make my own cards, here’s how:

1. Use a pre-made deck: I use Zanki pre-made cards. I use the newest version, if you want to download it type in zanki on Google and look for the newest version. I think it’s up to 3.5 or something like that now. It’s made my people on reddit so that’s probably where you’ll download it from.

2. Watch lectures on x2 while making Anki cards: If your school has recordings of the lecture, watch them instead of class. Watch them on x2 and pause after each slide. Have a deck for each lecture and move cards to it/ make cards as you watch. I do this by having the “browse” of Anki open while I watch. If the slide says for example: H pylori treat with amoxicillin... I simply type in “pylori amoxicillin” in browse and flip through the cards really fast. If the card matches the lecture, I move it to the lecture specific deck. If there is a high yield fact that is testable, make a quick Image Occlusion or regular card of the slide with a screen shot. Only make a few “make it yourself” cards per lecture and focus on high yield. You’ll learn to get fast.

If you use this method, you will have lecture specific Anki cards (20-100 of them) and be done with each lecture in 45-90 minutes. I’m doing really well using this method.

 

[popopopop]

Making your own cards is unavoidable at some schools (like mine), but definitely supplement with pre-made decks.

One thing that's helped me is that my mouse has programmable macros. I can make a cloze deletion and add to deck without having to click the small input boxes, radically cuts down on time.

 

[Lucky Day]

Making your own cards is unavoidable at some schools (like mine), but definitely supplement with pre-made decks.

One thing that's helped me is that my mouse has programmable macros. I can make a cloze deletion and add to deck without having to click the small input boxes, radically cuts down on time.

There's also keyboard shortcuts for this that help.

OP, I have a similar dilemma (although a whole day for 1 class is much too much), but even with the time sink, I'm pleased with my exam results thus far and I can feel myself getting much better at card making. While I don't get to make cards for every single class because of the time involved, I can use my PPT/Lecture learning powers to remain small doses of facts for the lectures that I can't Anki. I'm ok with this because the general advice I've heard on medical school is that you're not going to be able to know everything.

One plan I have is to partner up with a classmate to split the workload. The only thing is that I like my system and I'm not sure it's going to be as good. My thought, though, is that the extra time for other resources will be more beneficial in the long run.

In addition, I use firecracker. I like it a lot, but there are times when I don't like that questions might be on topics that we haven't covered/covered in depth (I especially don't like this during exam crunch time). If this were my only source of cards, I would feel much less confident in using a flash card system.

 

[7331poas]

Choose zanki or lightyear and stick with it.

 

[Jesus1]

Have you tried maybe just studying your lectures on a scheduled basis 3-4 x before your test and doing well written practice exams? May take you less time and still get you to your destination.

 

[mistafab]

I would highly recommend you use a pre-made deck if possible. You need to be able to have time off from school daily and making cards is a very large time committment.

 

[MakeLifeHappen13]

1st year I made my own cards out of every lecture and did pretty well with this method. It is time consuming, but you will get good at it and do it faster. You will also learn to identify what is worth making into a card and what is not so you can cut down on the amount of cards. This is a skill and there is a learning curve, but in the end it is well worth it.

Now in 2nd year I'm doing a mix of about 50% self-made cards and 50% lightyear cards, and this is also working out. The most important thing with Anki is to just trust it and be consistent. It definitely pays off.

 

[Save a life]

1st year I made my own cards out of every lecture and did pretty well with this method. It is time consuming, but you will get good at it and do it faster. You will also learn to identify what is worth making into a card and what is not so you can cut down on the amount of cards. This is a skill and there is a learning curve, but in the end it is well worth it.

Now in 2nd year I'm doing a mix of about 50% self-made cards and 50% lightyear cards, and this is also working out. The most important thing with Anki is to just trust it and be consistent. It definitely pays off.

I’ve had pretty much the same experience but it’s not for everyone.

Anki is not user friendly and it takes time to learn and master. Knowing hotkeys, how to do screen shots, switching between tabs, etc. can all help and make things easier. If you want to become an Anki person, read the user manual, watch some YouTube videos, and learn to do screenshots. Download image occlusion and a premade deck (light year, Zanki, Bros).

 

[MakeLifeHappen13]

I’ve had pretty much the same experience but it’s not for everyone.

Anki is not user friendly and it takes time to learn and master. Knowing hotkeys, how to do screen shots, switching between tabs, etc. can all help and make things easier. If you want to become an Anki person, read the user manual, watch some YouTube videos, and learn to do screenshots. Download image occlusion and a premade deck (light year, Zanki, Bros).

Absolutely. Learning to navigate Anki has quite a learning curve and this is the major reason why a lot of people end up giving it up. I have been using it for over a year on a daily basis and I still learn new things about it all the time. If you're a beginner these add-ons are essential: image occlusion, hierarchical tags, and cloze overlapper.

 

[deleted645092]

How did you study for the content you learned for previous exams? Did you add cards to the deck you already made for the previous exams and study everything in that deck, new exam material and old, or did you make a new deck for each exam and then merge them? Thanks!

I just did the cards if that subject was my review subject for that week and do it for an hour or two each night. I had to accept that I might not make it through all of them that week but at least it gave me the chance to always keep that stuff in the back of my mind.

 

[831929]

Ask many have already said:
1. Do not make your own cards - use Zanki its basically the standard
2. Watch Boards and Beyond or Pathoma before doing the deck on the topic
3. Do more practice questions with all the extra time 1 and 2 just saved you

 

[Espressso]

The problem the OP has is that h/she is most likely making every sentence of the powerpoint into an anki card. And that's unnecessary. I think one hurdle for me last year was that it took a while to start to realize which professors ask what kind of questions. But once you figure that out, when you go through a lecture to make anki cards, you'll have an idea of what's important and what's not. You don't want to memorize the entire lecture. You need to understand concepts and memorize bits and pieces. So if you can shift your focus into trying to read through the lecture and picking out the best bits, you'll be better off and you'll save a ton of time.

I second also using zanki but you might wanna wait until you get some sort of base first. Focus on figuring out your routine with classwork before adding in pre-made decks. A lot of times the pre-made decks have way more information than you need for your course exams .

 

[Lucky Day]

The problem the OP has is that h/she is most likely making every sentence of the powerpoint into an anki card. And that's unnecessary. I think one hurdle for me last year was that it took a while to start to realize which professors ask what kind of questions. But once you figure that out, when you go through a lecture to make anki cards, you'll have an idea of what's important and what's not. You don't want to memorize the entire lecture. You need to understand concepts and memorize bits and pieces. So if you can shift your focus into trying to read through the lecture and picking out the best bits, you'll be better off and you'll save a ton of time.

I second also using zanki but you might wanna wait until you get some sort of base first. Focus on figuring out your routine with classwork before adding in pre-made decks. A lot of times the pre-made decks have way more information than you need for your course exams .

Preach. I limit how many Anki cards I get to make per lecture to an arbitrary number; it's basically saved my life.

 

[Spectreman]

Listen to Med School Edge Podcast. She talks a lot about Anki. Keep making your own cards, but limit it to 20-25 cards per lecture. If a prof has 3-5 qs per lecture you shouldn’t need more than 20 cards to stay high yield and learn stuff. You’ll get better at it. I’ve been making my own decks since day 1 (I’m an M2). It’s doable, but setting that limit for yourself is key. Premade decks for board prep is still doable if you’re limiting yourself to 20 cards per lecture. Good luck.

 

[Espressso]

Preach. I limit how many Anki cards I get to make per lecture to an arbitrary number; it's basically saved my life.

Exactly. Same with me. The only exception I'd say is that with my pharm lectures, sometimes they're just too much of a beast and you need more cards for a two hour lecture.