Anyone else feel like Anki is overhyped?

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Anki is a huge waste of time and POS. It drives me nuts when doing group work and there's uncertainty about an answer amongst most of the group but one person is adamant about a given answer. When asked to explain his/her reasoning, a disproportionate amount of the time that person responds with, "I don't know. I just know I saw (insert random word here) on my card related to X." Don't bother to use critical reasoning, just brute force memorize random facts...
 
Brute force memorization has its place in the medical school curriculum. I always tried to minimize memorization as much as possible and learn patterns and concepts, but there are things that are better left for memorization. The key to using anki or any study technique effectively is to know when it is needed and when it is not.
 
I think anki is a great tool, but it can't be your only study tool. Just because you have memorized the information on a flashcard doesn't mean you'll be able to apply it in real life. You have to know the information on a conceptual level and be able to make connections/draw conclusions. But for banking away all of the nitty gritty details, anki is amazing.
 
Learning from flashcards is probably the easiest way to memorize and do well in the short-term (next test), but it's the absolute worst way to learn if you want to know the information for multiple board exams, rotations, and life as a physician. You have to learn most things by tying in concepts and the "why" of things or you'll never truly understand the information and have a harder time thinking at a physician level.

Pharmacology is probably the exception since it's pretty much straight memorization of drug names, actions, side effects but again it helps to know the "why" to remember those as well.
 
It's a great tool for people who can actually remember LONG TERM from drilling flashcards, or for those people who learn while making them.

If you realize you aren't really retaining from flashcards, stop using them. Everyone was made differently. I quickly learned it wasn't for me.

One of the biggest mistakes I see medical students make is they latch onto popular sources that may not be the most optimal for their personal style of retaining information, but they latched onto them because they heard of an upperclassman get a 265 on Step 1 from using it.
 
I love it personally. My grades went up after starting it second semester.

I won't get into all the details but for me its just a way to constantly review. When I watch a lecture for the first time, I take my time through it (on 2x speed) and make sure I understand everything. But having the order of things memorized, little facts, etc can easily be washed away by another 5 hours of lecture the following day. So for me, I just wake up every day and do my anki cards and its a little refresher on things I've already learned. So I use it to make the connection between immediately after lecture when I could solidly handle any questions about said lecture and 4 days later when I've had 15 hours of new lectures in my brain and now it's all a big jumbled mess. Helps for managing the volume of material.

I don't necessarily think its just for rote memorization or for simple facts. When I do a card thats more physiology based I am thinking about the way things work. Forcing me to do this constantly fosters greater retention and ultimately greater understanding. Also I basically put all practice questions I miss on a flash card in some format. You can also just do simple practice questions that force you to think about things. I figure the more you think about and use the information the better.

That said, I don't only use Anki by any means. I still save the lectures in one note, take notes on them, make little study guides closer to tests, do lots of practice questions, draw out anatomy things, browse the internet for tough concepts, etc. But its an easy way to review things for 20-30 mins every day without trying to just re-read notes, because I'm terribly inefficient at that.
 
Eh, to each their own. My roommate uses anki a lot. I tried it for the first month of school, was always getting behind/memorizing the flash card instead of the actual material, and it just became a waste of my time. I also think it's better suited for different types of material. There's some concepts that you can't just memorize.
 
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I do not know how people do medical school without it. People who think Anki doesn't work usually just need to start it earlier. Its like a train. Slow at first but once you get rolling it is super powerful. If you think you can make some cards a week before the exam and be ok then you will be disappointed.

Two tips I found helpful. 1.) Make your own cards. The act of thinking critically about something and generating a question (or multiple) about the key concept is what is powerful. The act of making them is studying itself. 2.) Make small bite sized cards. I knew people who would screenshot class slides or part of FA as a card answer. I make thousands of bite sized cards.

Some people say they aren't "flashcard people". I was one of them. I had never used a flashcard in my life prior to medical school, but once I saw the amount of information I needed to cram into my head I knew spaced repetition was the only way. I know Anki can work because over the course of MS2 I made all of FA into Anki (>10,000 cards) and I knew every single one at the end of dedicated. Anki is powerful because it knows what you are forgetting before you do and it doesn't let you waste time on stuff you know.
 
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msquaredb said:
I do not know how people do medical school without it. People who think Anki doesn't work usually just need to start it earlier. Its like a train. Slow at first but once you get rolling it is super powerful. If you think you can make some cards a week before the exam and be ok then you will be disappointed.

Two tips I found helpful. 1.) Make your own cards. The act of thinking critically about something and generating a question (or multiple) about the key concept is what is powerful. The act of making them is studying itself. 2.) Make small bite sized cards. I knew people who would screenshot class slides or part of FA as a card answer. I make thousands of bite sized cards.

Some people say they aren't "flashcard people". I was one of them. I had never used a flashcard in my life prior to medical school, but once I saw the amount of information I needed to cram into my head I knew spaced repetition was the only way. I know Anki can work because over the course of MS2 I made all of FA into Anki (>10,000 cards) and I knew every single one at the end of dedicated. Anki is powerful because it knows what you are forgetting before you do and it doesn't let you waste time on stuff you know.
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You know why it takes so long before anki is effective? Because it is inefficient. Making and reading all of those stupid cards takes forever, simply reading and underlining the material actually makes all that time useful.
 
sliceofbread136 said:
You know why it takes so long before anki is effective? Because it is inefficient. Making and reading all of those stupid cards takes forever, simply reading and underlining the material actually makes all that time useful.
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Ill give you that its inefficient if you keep doing cards testing something like the ion changes associated with Addisons, diuretics, or hyperaldo because all of that can be derived from a basic understanding of how aldosterone works. You have to be selective about what you make and how you make it. Also, I don't see how making cards is that different from taking notes or reading and underlining. You do have to read the cards a few more times in order to begin to segregate cards you are learning well from those you have trouble with, but I think its worth it. Wouldn't you have to go back and reread your notes/underlines again? My deck ended up being a convenient searchable database of my handwritten explanations for things along with the best images from the internet to assist in the explanations. I valued that function as well.

So how you memorize HLAs, chromosome numbers for diseases, antibodies present in polymyositis, what makes up a zonula adherens vs a macula adherens? Don't even get me started on micro or pharm. I also don't know how you know what you are forgetting without Anki. Its not like your brain says "Hey you are about to forget what a Heberden vs. Bouchard node is so better go check that." Do you just have to keep reviewing pages of text, much of which you already know, in the hopes that you stumble upon something you've forgotten?

Maybe I just have a poor memory, but I found it necessary.
 
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If you're using Anki correctly, it can be used to teach any material that's covered in medical school. So far I've used it for almost every lecture during MS1.

Currently, my cards ask questions on one side, and on the reverse side I answer the question. Other cards just cloze out a word or two in a sentence. If one's unable to synthesize individual cards that are related together in a coherent whole on test day, then I understand why one might say that Anki is overrated.

But yeah, Anki is certainly getting me through medical school just fine.
 
msquaredb said:
Ill give you that its inefficient if you keep doing cards testing something like the ion changes associated with Addisons, diuretics, or hyperaldo because all of that can be derived from a basic understanding of how aldosterone works. You have to be selective about what you make and how you make it. Also, I don't see how making cards is that different from taking notes or reading and underlining. You do have to read the cards a few more times in order to begin to segregate cards you are learning well from those you have trouble with, but I think its worth it. Wouldn't you have to go back and reread your notes/underlines again? My deck ended up being a convenient searchable database of my handwritten explanations for things along with the best images from the internet to assist in the explanations. I valued that function as well.

So how you memorize HLAs, chromosome numbers for diseases, antibodies present in polymyositis, what makes up a zonula adherens vs a macula adherens? Don't even get me started on micro or pharm. I also don't know how you know what you are forgetting without Anki. Its not like your brain says "Hey you are about to forget what a Heberden vs. Bouchard node is so better go check that." Do you just have to keep reviewing pages of text, much of which you already know, in the hopes that you stumble upon something you've forgotten?

Maybe I just have a poor memory, but I found it necessary.
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Well you read the material instead of writing it all down again in card format. That's what the huge waste of time is.
 
sliceofbread136 said:
Well you read the material instead of writing it all down again in card format. That's what the huge waste of time is.
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Another plus to this is that the spatial relationship of items in notes, PowerPoints, texts, etc. can serve as cues that help you to remember and recall things.
 
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CherryRedDracul said:
Most people use Anki the wrong way, so I'm not surprised. Anki should be used for discrete stuff that can basically only be rote memorized, not for elaborate concepts like in physiology.
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Depends on how you make the cards.
To be fair, as you say, most people use Anki the wrong way. Many people make absolutely useless cards, and have no idea how to translate complex concepts into flashcard format. Yes, it can be done, and once you've done it, it's incredibly useful. An Anki deck can cover more than the basic, memorizable details. Yes, it takes practice to learn to make cards effectively...probably more than you can afford to put in after med school has already started and you need to learn the information right away. And even under ideal circumstances and with plenty of practice, flashcards just aren't for everyone.
 
sliceofbread136 said:
Well you read the material instead of writing it all down again in card format. That's what the huge waste of time is.
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You must be rocking medical school since you remember every factoid just by reading them once.
 
ZPakEffect said:
You must be rocking medical school since you remember every factoid just by reading them once.
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Cause I said once.... you read it over and over again. You have more time for repetition since you arent spending stupidly high amounts of time making flashcards

Why are you even in this thread since you haven't even started med school
 
sliceofbread136 said:
Cause I said once.... you read it over and over again. You have more time for repetition since you arent spending stupidly high amounts of time making flashcards

Why are you even in this thread since you haven't even started med school
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Reading pages of information over and over again, versus only reviewing the cards with the factoids that you have forgotten? Which is more inefficient? And there is no need to make your own cards; there are tons of cards out there you can download.
 
ZPakEffect said:
Reading pages of information over and over again, versus only reviewing the cards with the factoids that you have forgotten? Which is more inefficient? And there is no need to make your own cards; there are tons of cards out there you can download.
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...because your profs. test off of some anonymous Anki deck posted on the internet...

The more passes you make through your notes the less time it takes. Doing this off the bat and not wasting an absurd number hours making and reviewing flashcards on top of other studying is much more efficient and saves you time in the long run.
 
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Walter Lance said:
Anki is a huge waste of time and POS. It drives me nuts when doing group work and there's uncertainty about an answer amongst most of the group but one person is adamant about a given answer. When asked to explain his/her reasoning, a disproportionate amount of the time that person responds with, "I don't know. I just know I saw (insert random word here) on my card related to X." Don't bother to use critical reasoning, just brute force memorize random facts...
Click to expand...
Yea when I see that kind of thinking, it makes me want to scream.
It's only one tool one can put in his/her toolbox. It's not the only thing. I don't just learn one way.
 
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msquaredb said:
I do not know how people do medical school without it. People who think Anki doesn't work usually just need to start it earlier. Its like a train. Slow at first but once you get rolling it is super powerful. If you think you can make some cards a week before the exam and be ok then you will be disappointed.

Two tips I found helpful. 1.) Make your own cards. The act of thinking critically about something and generating a question (or multiple) about the key concept is what is powerful. The act of making them is studying itself. 2.) Make small bite sized cards. I knew people who would screenshot class slides or part of FA as a card answer. I make thousands of bite sized cards.

Some people say they aren't "flashcard people". I was one of them. I had never used a flashcard in my life prior to medical school, but once I saw the amount of information I needed to cram into my head I knew spaced repetition was the only way. I know Anki can work because over the course of MS2 I made all of FA into Anki (>10,000 cards) and I knew every single one at the end of dedicated. Anki is powerful because it knows what you are forgetting before you do and it doesn't let you waste time on stuff you know.
Click to expand...
Have you tried firecracker before anki?
 
Dr Tony T. Chopper said:
Have you tried firecracker before anki?
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FC is almost a bigger time sink (I've used both) and you pretty much need to start day one of med school with it. Like others have said Anki is a tool, but it definitely is not an effecient primary study source. If you can learn to use Anki for the appropriate subject matter (e.g., anatomy, some aspects of pharm, maybe a few aspects of micro) then it can be a big help. The problem is figuring out how to use it appropriately and efficiently for med school takes either time or just having a knack for it - and based on what I've seen in my class very few have the latter.
 
Walter Lance said:
...because your profs. test off of some anonymous Anki deck posted on the internet...

The more passes you make through your notes the less time it takes. Doing this off the bat and not wasting an absurd number hours making and reviewing flashcards on top of other studying is much more efficient and saves you time in the long run.
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Someone finally gets it!
 
Anki is great for brute memorization and in most cases will help you pass the majority of your exams, but when I used Anki I felt like I knew a bunch of facts but didn't understand how anything really worked. I started feeling like if I continued using it, I would be next to useless during clinical years because any real-world conceptual question stumped the hell out of me -- so I stopped.
 
msquaredb said:
Ill give you that its inefficient if you keep doing cards testing something like the ion changes associated with Addisons, diuretics, or hyperaldo because all of that can be derived from a basic understanding of how aldosterone works. You have to be selective about what you make and how you make it. Also, I don't see how making cards is that different from taking notes or reading and underlining. You do have to read the cards a few more times in order to begin to segregate cards you are learning well from those you have trouble with, but I think its worth it. Wouldn't you have to go back and reread your notes/underlines again? My deck ended up being a convenient searchable database of my handwritten explanations for things along with the best images from the internet to assist in the explanations. I valued that function as well.

So how you memorize HLAs, chromosome numbers for diseases, antibodies present in polymyositis, what makes up a zonula adherens vs a macula adherens? Don't even get me started on micro or pharm. I also don't know how you know what you are forgetting without Anki. Its not like your brain says "Hey you are about to forget what a Heberden vs. Bouchard node is so better go check that." Do you just have to keep reviewing pages of text, much of which you already know, in the hopes that you stumble upon something you've forgotten?

Maybe I just have a poor memory, but I found it necessary.
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Mostly mnemonics or some kind of mental grab for each of them that you can concretely trust. I drew a damn cartoon for every drug and made a mini story for every cancer gene relationship. Anki would work acutely like for a couple hours, but then I'd forget it the next day because that type of memorization doesn't stay for long term with my brain. Stop thinking everyone was made the same way.
 
Anicetus said:
Mostly mnemonics or some kind of mental grab for each of them that you can concretely trust. I drew a damn cartoon for every drug and made a mini story for every cancer gene relationship. Anki would work acutely like for a couple hours, but then I'd forget it the next day because that type of memorization doesn't stay for long term with my brain. Stop thinking everyone was made the same way.
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👍
I love Anki, in case the signature doesn't give it away...but I'll be the first to admit that it's not for everyone. Because, really, nothing is for everyone when it comes to study strategy. I still recommend that people give it a try, and I still love it, but I have come to realize that few people will get as much out of it as I have been able to. It just works for me, to an incredible extent. I just prefer that other people recognize that in the opposite direction - that just because Anki isn't a good tool for them, doesn't mean it's not a great tool.
 
mehc012 said:
👍
I love Anki, in case the signature doesn't give it away...but I'll be the first to admit that it's not for everyone. Because, really, nothing is for everyone when it comes to study strategy. I still recommend that people give it a try, and I still love it, but I have come to realize that few people will get as much out of it as I have been able to. It just works for me, to an incredible extent. I just prefer that other people recognize that in the opposite direction - that just because Anki isn't a good tool for them, doesn't mean it's not a great tool.
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You also have yet to begin med school, so.....
 
Walter Lance said:
You also have yet to begin med school, so.....
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So I don't know how Anki works?

Sure, I have tons to learn going forward. But I've used Anki for multiple physiology classes, for anatomy, for med micro, for hematology, for neuro, etc. I feel like that gives me a decent basis to say that it works for me and that I'm familiar with using it 'for physiology concepts', etc. as the discussion had been referencing. I haven't tried to speak for anyone else, or describe what med school is like or what med students ought to do. This is an Anki post and I am very familiar with Anki. The strongest assertion that I made in the post you're dismissing is that different people use different study techniques...or does that also require 4yrs of med school to say?
 
I used notecards throughout college (the paper kind). It was my method of studying for years.

In med school I learned that due to time constraints, it was impossible to make paper notecards. So I switched to anki and loved it. During second year it was my way of making more time to study for Step 1 and do Qbank.

Even if you don't use anki all the time, it has its place. I also used it to cram for all the didactic lectures given by prestigious Dr. TeachesOnceAYear when his questions appeared on exams that had no relevance to Step 1.
 
For those that didn't find Anki or FC useful, what did you end up doing instead? Did you like the results?
 
Dr Tony T. Chopper said:
For those that didn't find Anki or FC useful, what did you end up doing instead? Did you like the results?
Click to expand...

I'm probably alone in this, but the most effective strategy for me was no strategy. Don't take any notes during lecture, don't make flash cards, and don't use any software aids.

I just watch the lectures once (in real speed), actively listen, pass through the slides twice the first time and two more times before the exam, memorize what I need to (really very little), and take the exams. Anything that's explained poorly I reinforce with Najeeb.
 
Azete said:
I'm probably alone in this, but the most effective strategy for me was no strategy. Don't take any notes during lecture, don't make flash cards, and don't use any software aids.

I just watch the lectures once (in real speed), actively listen, pass through the slides twice the first time and two more times before the exam, memorize what I need to (really very little), and take the exams. Anything that's explained poorly I reinforce with Najeeb.
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do u write anything bro. like biochem pathways etc. i read that its a good idea to make at least 4 passes of the slides and get to the point where you can predict the next slide before it comes... wat u think
 
mehc012 said:
So I don't know how Anki works?

Sure, I have tons to learn going forward. But I've used Anki for multiple physiology classes, for anatomy, for med micro, for hematology, for neuro, etc. I feel like that gives me a decent basis to say that it works for me and that I'm familiar with using it 'for physiology concepts', etc. as the discussion had been referencing. I haven't tried to speak for anyone else, or describe what med school is like or what med students ought to do. This is an Anki post and I am very familiar with Anki. The strongest assertion that I made in the post you're dismissing is that different people use different study techniques...or does that also require 4yrs of med school to say?
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What I was getting at is that you haven't had to deal with the shear load of information - which is one of the biggest wrenches in trying to use Anki as a primary study source. Fwiw, I had a similar background to the info in you mentioned in the quoted post.
 
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It's great how these things go in and out of style. I will say that for me Anki has been an invaluable tool for both the preclinical and clinical years. My big fear was that due to the binge/purge nature of my med school syllabus, after two years of medical school I would only remember the last two weeks worth of information. By using Anki consistently for two years, I essentially I feel that I haven't forgotten very much at all of the core curriculum. I cannot express how much of a leg up this gives me on rotations.

The major caveat though: do not use Anki to learn information, use it to retain it.
 
Dr Tony T. Chopper said:
For those that didn't find Anki or FC useful, what did you end up doing instead? Did you like the results?
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1st year - Crashed and burned with Anki. I made several attempts to try and incorporate it into studying, but nothing really worked. What worked best was making "high yield" summaries of lectures in note/outline format based on what was emphasized in lecture (some profs provided these). I tried to keep these as brief and to the point as possible (usually 2-4 pages/lecture). I supplemented anatomy with Acland and UMich, and for really crappy phys lectures I just studied from the Lindas. I also did tons of questions out of the Guyton and Hall review book.

2nd year - Summary and notes method wasn't feasible because of the volume of info and lecturer style. I ended-up watching the relevant sections of Pathoma at the very beginning of each block, annotating extra info from lecture in the margins of Pathoma in a different color, and studying straight from that for path. If a path lecture was filled with info that wasn't in Pathoma I just made a note to review that lecture on its own (this was only 1-3 lectures per block). I also would go through all the questions for the relevant sections in Robbins Review of Path (this was invaluable!!!). For micro I made a document in outline format that contained all the relevant/high yield info for each pathogen covered during lecture for each block and studied from that and Sketchy. For pharm I annotated FA with additional info from lecture and supplemented with Kaplan pharm videos and Sketchy. During the 2nd half of the year I incorporated USMLERx and Flash Facts (the one flash card system I would recommend) into the mix for step. If I were to redo 2nd year I would do Flash Facts from the beginning, adding cards as they're covered in lecture.

After ditching Anki for good I was consistently scoring reasonably above the mean for my class - so yes, I was happy with this method.
 
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sliceofbread136 said:
Cause I said once.... you read it over and over again. You have more time for repetition since you arent spending stupidly high amounts of time making flashcards

Why are you even in this thread since you haven't even started med school
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I absolutely do not spend stupidly amounts of time making flash cards. I undoubtedly spend less time studying than before I started using Anki. I make cards while I'm watching a lecture on 2x speed. Then maybe some random times along the way. Especially since for many people, the act of making is an act of learning...and I simply remember things from flash cards better than a chunk of test. So it's actually much more efficient.

Regardless, this is a personal preference kinda thing and that's fine. I just wanted to dispel this notion that Anki is time intensive. For me it was not, I spent less time and made better grades. Maybe if you try to do everything with Anki and get in to all the add ons...but I was just making flash cards so I could review regularly without having to think "what should I read, study, etc.". Majorly helpful for course finals and stuff too where otherwise I would have dumped info. I had a 3 tiered set up where 75% of cards were for my current test and then less for current course and less for review material. This is what really got me started because I was frustrated with all the simple things I forgot over first semester.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
 
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kmp0410 said:
I absolutely do not spend stupidly amounts of time making flash cards. I undoubtedly spend less time studying than before I started using Anki. I make cards while I'm watching a lecture on 2x speed. Then maybe some random times along the way. Especially since for many people, the act of making is an act of learning...and I simply remember things from flash cards better than a chunk of test. So it's actually much more efficient.

Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
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THIS. The process of making cards is so valuable, and doesn't take as long as people think. I tried Firecracker for a while and found it way less effective, because I hadn't made the cards myself. Plus Anki's algorithm is a thousand times better than FC's. But who knows, maybe FC has improved since I last used it over a year ago.
 
Anyone else feel like hammers are over-hyped? They're useless for keeping you warm. A jacket is much better for that. And they don't help when I'm changing tires. Honestly I don't know why people still make/use hammers.
 
laughingfrog said:
do u write anything bro. like biochem pathways etc. i read that its a good idea to make at least 4 passes of the slides and get to the point where you can predict the next slide before it comes... wat u think
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I draw a lot on my whiteboard, especially when I'm learning pathways, but I definitely do not take any notes during lecture. And I agree with 4 passes -- I pass through twice when I'm first learning it, and two more times before the exam. I very rarely spend time memorizing, unless it's anatomy or something where there isn't much of a choice. If you have a conceptual understanding of how things work, you can usually deduce the rest based on the information presented in the exam itself.
 
step1.png

You shut your mouth OP, anki has both boosted my scores higher than I ever thought possible AND completely sapped me of my ability to interact with people on a normal level anymore. Bro's deck, in particular, is amazing. Also, making your own anki decks out of first aid is a great way to force you to actually read the material and study it properly.
 
what would anki users suggest to someone who doesnt have any experience with the program and wants to hit the ground running.. i saw the mega thread but it just goes so in depth into settings and tweaks. i know the basics of good flash cards but i dont know how to start med school.. i think id like to do anki + make several passes of the lectures
 
laughingfrog said:
what would anki users suggest to someone who doesnt have any experience with the program and wants to hit the ground running.. i saw the mega thread but it just goes so in depth into settings and tweaks. i know the basics of good flash cards but i dont know how to start med school.. i think id like to do anki + make several passes of the lectures
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I had never studied electronically b4 med school. I decided to use Anki b4 first year started. I suggest finding others in your class who can make decks. In my experience, M1 was too dense to do alone.
 
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