Create Your Own Deck vs. Using Premade Decks?

[icunursetodoctor]

As the title states:
Do you utilize premade decks to test your knowledge/solidify the learned corresponding material?
From my understanding, you would essentially use ANKI as an enhanced question bank.
Or do you utilize your own anki created decks?
I have spoken to many people that have found this method to be effective; however the downside is that this method is extremely time consuming.
Thank you for your input in advance.

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[slowthai]

Premade. The advantage of making your own is that retention is higher because you were the one that made them. You can find a sort of middle ground by modifying cards from the premade deck as you go. Examples include: adding in pics from google, coming up with your own explanations for why a fact is true, and comparing/contrasting with similar diseases or symptoms.

As someone that is pretty good at making short and efficient cards, the amount of work that it takes to make them + the time it takes makes it relatively lower yield as compared to just using premades.

 

[Kardio]

As the title states:
Do you utilize premade decks to test your knowledge/solidify the learned corresponding material?
From my understanding, you would essentially use ANKI as an enhanced question bank.
Or do you utilize your own anki created decks?
I have spoken to many people that have found this method to be effective; however the downside is that this method is extremely time consuming.
Thank you for your input in advance.

@slowthai’s advise is spot on

In my experience, making good Anki cards from scratch is less about ‘actively learning the material’ and more ‘making a good flash card.’ Too much energy spent in the wrong place.

 

[Dr. Anonymouss]

Pre-made 100%. I use anking and although it’s not perfect, it gets the job done. I can’t imagine taking the time to create my own cards. I would rather use that extra time to delve into research

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Pre-made. I made my own for about 2 weeks and realized it was a huge waste of time.

 

[Medical_Dream]

BEGINNER ANKI DECK QUESTION

Hi guys, I never used Anki before in my undergrad years, but for the future with medical school, I figured giving it a shot. Haha I downloaded the rip-off version of it before called AnkiApp (NOT the same) and regretted it, but for the actual Anki itself, it's like $25 on iPhone mobile. Is it worth the purchase and can it do image occlusion on the phone?

I also tried downloading the desktop version for Windows because I heard it's easier to use all of its features on a laptop first before synching it over the phone, but I am having trouble with that. It says that the "program can't start because api-ms-win-crt-math-|1-1-0.dll is missing from your computer" and that there was an "error loading Python DLL 'C:\Program Files\Anki\python38.dll'. LoadLibrary." Can someone please tell me what I am doing wrong from attempting to download the desktop version of the app? Maybe my computer is too old? Let me know how to smoothly get Anki, thanks!

As to the question, I'm not usually a flashcard person because I also see it as very time-consuming, but I am willing to make it work for better memory retention compared to my college cramming days to get my high GPA, while not remembering the material after exams lol. I'm going to see for myself how making my own decks would help and if I will gradually move to pre-med decks in the future. Just my plan on it once I successfully download the app haha. Thanks!

 

[Tangerine123]

Pre-made

The only way "own decks" worked for me was when we split the content among other students. It still took forever when split between 5-6 people.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

BEGINNER ANKI DECK QUESTION

Hi guys, I never used Anki before in my undergrad years, but for the future with medical school, I figured giving it a shot. Haha I downloaded the rip-off version of it before called AnkiApp (NOT the same) and regretted it, but for the actual Anki itself, it's like $25 on iPhone mobile. Is it worth the purchase and can it do image occlusion on the phone?

I also tried downloading the desktop version for Windows because I heard it's easier to use all of its features on a laptop first before synching it over the phone, but I am having trouble with that. It says that the "program can't start because api-ms-win-crt-math-|1-1-0.dll is missing from your computer" and that there was an "error loading Python DLL 'C:\Program Files\Anki\python38.dll'. LoadLibrary." Can someone please tell me what I am doing wrong from attempting to download the desktop version of the app? Maybe my computer is too old? Let me know how to smoothly get Anki, thanks!

As to the question, I'm not usually a flashcard person because I also see it as very time-consuming, but I am willing to make it work for better memory retention compared to my college cramming days to get my high GPA, while not remembering the material after exams lol. I'm going to see for myself how making my own decks would help and if I will gradually move to pre-med decks in the future. Just my plan on it once I successfully download the app haha. Thanks!

I’m not sure why it isn’t working on your computer, but it is 100% worth the purchase. Right now you can only create image occlusion cards on the computer. There is an ankiweb forum that you can ask questions and have developers and users respond.

 

[FutureSurgical]

I make my cards for now because we’re in a “pseudo block” kinda situation currently. Our curriculum doesn’t exactly match what AnKing has for, say, immunology. Maybe I’m not searching correctly, but I couldn’t find pre made cards talking about B7 regulation on APCs (for example.) so I have to fill in the blanks with my own cards.

Once we get into the REAL block systems, then I’ll be just using the pre made AnKing deck for almost everything they want us to learn.

 

[Medical_Dream]

I’m not sure why it isn’t working on your computer, but it is 100% worth the purchase. Right now you can only create image occlusion cards on the computer. There is an ankiweb forum that you can ask questions and have developers and users respond.

Thank you for your feedback! Fortunately, after half the day of working through my computer on trying to download the app and include the image occlusion add-on, I finally figured it out lol. Since my laptop was outdated, I followed the instructions from the Ankiweb site on how to manually install the two updates needed for my computer to work. It's taken care of now and I'm pleased with the results!

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Thank you for your feedback! Fortunately, after half the day of working through my computer on trying to download the app and include the image occlusion add-on, I finally figured it out lol. Since my laptop was outdated, I followed the instructions from the Ankiweb site on how to manually install the two updates needed for my computer to work. It's taken care of now and I'm pleased with the results!

Highly recommend getting cheesy lightyear or anking and using one of those.

 

[Kardio]

Is it worth the purchase and can it do image occlusion on the phone?

Yes and yes (you can view image occlusion, not make them)

I'm not usually a flashcard person because I also see it as very time-consuming

Studying is always time consuming. IMO flash cards are an efficient use of time because you will spent much less time ‘re learning’ material in the future.

I couldn’t find pre made cards talking about B7 regulation on APCs (for example.)

I’m pretty sure there are loads of cards on the roles of various CDs.

 

[LChristmas]

I'll offer a different perspective of my own experiences with Anki. I make all my own flashcards, and I've only used them for Boards and my in-training exam. I didn't use flashcards at all for preclinical curriculum. For board study, I found that making my own cards offered me the best return on my time investment for UW questions.

Consider that you're using UW to identify your gaps in knowledge instead of using it as a measurement or predictor of your scores. For every question you get wrong, you have identified a gap in your knowledge. To reinforce that gap in knowledge, I made a flashcard that reviewed that concept. Once you're done your first pass, you have a deck that is specifically geared towards your gaps in knowledge. This way you can focus all your time on learning what you don't know, as opposed to spending time on a second pass when you're not making the most of your limited time. I scored in the 260s for both steps with this method.

Filling your gaps in knowledge is going to give you the best chance at increasing your scores.

 

[slowthai]

I'll offer a different perspective of my own experiences with Anki. I make all my own flashcards, and I've only used them for Boards and my in-training exam. I didn't use flashcards at all for preclinical curriculum. For board study, I found that making my own cards offered me the best return on my time investment for UW questions.

Consider that you're using UW to identify your gaps in knowledge instead of using it as a measurement or predictor of your scores. For every question you get wrong, you have identified a gap in your knowledge. To reinforce that gap in knowledge, I made a flashcard that reviewed that concept. Once you're done your first pass, you have a deck that is specifically geared towards your gaps in knowledge. This way you can focus all your time on learning what you don't know, as opposed to spending time on a second pass when you're not making the most of your limited time. I scored in the 260s for both steps with this method.

Filling your gaps in knowledge is going to give you the best chance at increasing your scores.

Yeah, but this is when you're doing UW. We're talking about your bread and butter preclinical studying here.

Your method has more or less been the go-to for a lot of people while doing UW review, but even still, people have made the process even more efficient by searching for the card(s) relevant to what they missed (in whichever major deck of choice) and making cards PRN.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Yeah, but this is when you're doing UW. We're talking about your bread and butter preclinical studying here.

Your method has more or less been the go-to for a lot of people while doing UW review, but even still, people have made the process even more efficient by searching for the card(s) relevant to what they missed (in whichever major deck of choice) and making cards PRN.

This. Preclerkship is all about efficiency. Don’t squander your study and free time any more than you have to.