I used Anki pretty extensively before I found out about Memrise.
While Anki is a great program there are really only two aspects of it that I think are advantageous when compared to Memrise. One of them being that you can use it offline, the other being a higher degree of customization with respect to numbers and timing.
But in my opinion those are really the only advantages Anki has. And most of us have internet all the time anyway (I'm in Turkey and I don't have any problem having near-constant access to internet, so I would be surprised if you folks in America did), so that makes the first one nearly moot. Memrise and anki both sync between computer and mobile devices, and are both customizable when it comes to how to set up cards.
However, I think Memrise has some additional advantages over Anki. These are some of them in no particular order.
1.
The interface. The user interface for Anki is so 1995. Memrise is beautiful and fun to look at/work with.
2.
Gamification. Memrise feels like playing a game. You get points, track your progress, etc. And it adds extra motivation when you can see that five of your friends have worked harder than you this week. When I was using both programs I was always wanting to take time away from Anki to use Memrise, until eventually I just quit Anki.
3.
"Mems" - this is huge. For instance, when I needed to learn the Arabic script, which has 28 letters and medial, final, isolated, and initial forms for most of those, along with vowel markings, which basically all just look like similar scribbles on paper, I used
this incredible course, which provides a memorable animation/gif for each letter and form. These are called "mems" and you can make them yourself or use some made by others for the same course. The program for creating mems is excellent and takes about 7 seconds to have a mem with a picture without ever leaving the page.
4.
The courses are much, much better. Many of the courses on memrise are something I would pay good money for. That Arabic course I mentioned above, in addition to having the .gifs to make each letter instantly memorable, also reinforces each section of letters you have learned by transliterating famous names like Britney Spears that would use those letter sounds. It then moves into basic vocabulary, some verbs, and then puts it all together with sentences and phrases in the end. That's just one example. Many courses (like the medical school one I posted) also have multimedia integrated into them, to teach you before and recap after you learn a new section. With anki you just download a list of words form the server. Or spend a bunch of time making your own list. But many of the courses on Memrise are actually
courses, not just lists. And if you really are a make-your-own course person, the Memrise set up is pretty powerful with databases, lists, import/export, ability to include alternate non-shown answers, amount of items per level, etc.
5.
Recognition, then recall. Memrise is set up so that when you are learning you start with recognition. First you rewrite the term you are trying to learn while you can see it. The first time it is tested it is as multiple choice. Then you get the prompt and have to type the term (e.g. "uncinate process") yourself. If you type in the term entirely right, you get full points and a larger time interval. Partially right (e.g. spelling, only get one or two words of a phrase) you get a shorter interval until you need to review. If you can't write anything or write something that isn't close to the answer, you have the shortest interval (actually it re-teaches it then gives you a shorter interval).
6.
Timing. Everything is timed. Each question has a clock winding down on the right side, so you have to work to recall quickly, like on an exam.
7.
Effort vs. results. I found that in order to learn and retain the same amount of information I had to put in more effort for Anki. If I've been in class all day learning grammar and my brain is fried, I am basically useless trying to work on Anki. But with memrise so much of the work is done for you, and I don't feel like I am draining my brain any more to work for a little while on memrise. And yet I still retain the information even better than on Anki (I almost never score below 90% on Memrise review, very often 100%).
Obviously, use whatever you feel works best for you. But I don't want people to come to this thread and see 3 one-word answers that just say "Anki" and assume that they shouldn't even give Memrise a try. I suggest trying both for a week or so and seeing which fits your style more.
Also, I posted this thread in the pre-med forum rather than the med forum because I wasn't specifically talking about studying for medical school, but just any kind of studying in general. Again, I use this program mostly for language stuff and some history stuff. When it comes to actual medical school, although that Durham University course looks nice, I still plan to use Firecracker as my spaced repetition program.
Happy studying
👍
