MD & DO Getting started with Anki?

[Osteosaur]

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I have never used Anki before, but have anatomy coming up soon and thought it might be a good idea to try some new study methods. I get the sense MOST people are using it for Step 1. From my experience going through practice problems in Kaplan, FA, and Lippencott most of those questions are targetted toward second years and may not be ideal for an MS1 who cannot interpret lab values or specific diagnoses.

Has anyone had good success with using Anki for anatomy? And are there any good guides to getting started, or decks I should look into for my pre-clinical years? Up until this point I've mostly been trying to talk out learning objectives, though that has been trickier for Histo and surely it will be for anatomy as well.

 

[CyrusHabs7695]

Just youtube how to use "Image Occlusion" for anki. Probably the best thing on anki for anatomy


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[Osteosaur]

Do you guys find making your own decks or using premade decks is better overall?

When I'm creating my own questions I always figure I'm reinforcing what I know, but then I'm not figuring out what I don't.

 

[workaholic181]

Do you guys find making your own decks or using premade decks is better overall?

When I'm creating my own questions I always figure I'm reinforcing what I know, but then I'm not figuring out what I don't.

I like making my own but that seems to be an unpopular opinion. For me, the time spent making the cards is worth it cause the act of occludibg the image and what not helps me engage with the material. Really just depends on how you learn and how fast you can make cards. Check out YouTube Vids for how tos

 

[Cath Up]

I have yet to effectively incorporate this due to anatomy, but my future plan and a common strategy is to create your own cards that will get you to pass your classes/address the minutae that your lecturers have decided to focus on, while adding in relevant cards from Zanki or whatever pre-made board-relevant deck you have decided on, as you go through the material. Obviously your classes and Zanki aren't going to completely overlap. When they don't (and particularly, when Zanki covers something your class doesn't) it is best to just learn the concept that Zanki has because it is relevant to boards.

 

[Cath Up]

Do you guys find making your own decks or using premade decks is better overall?

When I'm creating my own questions I always figure I'm reinforcing what I know, but then I'm not figuring out what I don't.

With regards to this- a legitimate fear. For my classes, I deal with this by creating cards for all the things that I want to know. So the things I am not figuring out were deliberately excluded, or common sense. Then when you get to a card that you created, and you don't know it, you either read the explanation that you have put into the card (I like using windows key+shift+s to take a screenshot of illustrations, then put that in my card answers) or use another resource to get the concept down before you move onto the next card.

Good luck.

 

[wanderingorion]

Do you guys find making your own decks or using premade decks is better overall?

When I'm creating my own questions I always figure I'm reinforcing what I know, but then I'm not figuring out what I don't.

I would definitely recommend downloading the premade decks (Zanki, UW expansion, Pepper, etc.) and then add a few of your self-made cards. It will save you so much time and help you review over M1-2.

 

[Cath Up]

I would definitely recommend downloading the premade decks (Zanki, UW expansion, Pepper, etc.) and then add a few of your self-made cards. It will save you so much time and help you review over M1-2.

I have heard of people downloading multiple of the decks to test them out and see what they like more... but are you advising to use multiple decks on a regular basis? I thought that would be too many cards.

 

[wanderingorion]

I have heard of people downloading multiple of the decks to test them out and see what they like more... but are you advising to use multiple decks on a regular basis? I thought that would be too many cards.

They are multiple decks meaning they have information from multiple sources (FA, B&B, pathoma, sketchy, UW), which are what everyone pretty much use for STEP prep during 2nd year. It is a lot of cards, but you only cover a percentage of them for 1st year (anatomy/physio) and the majority during 2nd year (path/pharm).
It seems like a lot of cards, but it's totally manageable if you add the cards as you cover them in lecture. I just finished my block on cardio/resp/pharm in second year, and have covered 6000 cards. It seems daunting at the beginning, but it's a gradual process as topics are covered in lecture.

 

[statlin98]

They are multiple decks meaning they have information from multiple sources (FA, B&B, pathoma, sketchy, UW), which are what everyone pretty much use for STEP prep during 2nd year. It is a lot of cards, but you only cover a percentage of them for 1st year (anatomy/physio) and the majority during 2nd year (path/pharm).
It seems like a lot of cards, but it's totally manageable if you add the cards as you cover them in lecture. I just finished my block on cardio/resp/pharm in second year, and have covered 6000 cards. It seems daunting at the beginning, but it's a gradual process as topics are covered in lecture.

What is your process for actually adding in the cards? I assume you mean as a topic is covered in lecture, somehow procure these cards from the thousands in Zanki and add them into your rotation. What's the best way to do this? I can only think to use the search function on Anki and then copy and paste these cards into a new deck, but this doesn't seem efficient whatsoever.

Also, are there any really good premade decks for strictly anatomy?

 

[wanderingorion]

What is your process for actually adding in the cards? I assume you mean as a topic is covered in lecture, somehow procure these cards from the thousands in Zanki and add them into your rotation. What's the best way to do this? I can only think to use the search function on Anki and then copy and paste these cards into a new deck, but this doesn't seem efficient whatsoever.

Also, are there any really good premade decks for strictly anatomy?

There's a list of tags on the side of the browse menu. I mainly go through those to find topics. It's a little tedious at times, but it takes 1% of the time it would take to make yours from scratch.
Here's one:


Edit: also