Q's for those using Anki to study M1/M2

[kautionwirez]

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So I have started using Anki and it takes roughly 3 hours per lecture to make flash cards. I feel like I will have no time to write notes and do Anki as well. I also subscribed to GT but GT seems to be a waste at the moment. I would like to do well in my classes (missed the mark on my first exams) and so I am trying different methods to study for Anatomy/Histo in particular. It doesn't seem feasible to do if I am the only one building decks and need a group of 4 or so to complete all lectures for the next exam.

Do you guys use Anki as your primary study tool without taking notes?
How long does it take you to make flash cards?
Do you have groups building decks?

 

[DocHawk117]

so weird to see this thread because i JUST discovered Anki last night, and i love it so far. you may want to propose the idea to your classmates, and break up the material. or, check out this website. its an m3 from duke who is studying for boards (they have a non-trad curriculum) and he posted his anki cards, per subject, in a public dropbox. he has them wonderfully tagged so you can go in and pick which section you want to review. For example: Anatomy --> lower limb.
I just started using them last night to review m1 year material, and they are great.
Personally, i wouldn't have the time to make my own because I learn by physically writing out notes, but Anki is a great tool.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/wivkl5n0rknfn7t/lUdZziAqlb

 

[kautionwirez]

Thanks for the link. I'll check it out

 

[Caspid]

Your decks shouldn't be replicating the lecture material in its entirety. If the teachers ask ~4 questions per lecture, then you're wasting time if you make 100 cards/lecture. Try to narrow it down to the 8-10 most important points in each lecture and use Anki to test your recall, not understanding.

PS: might I suggest using Anki 2, if you don't already? It's much faster and has a vastly improved workflow, deck organization, and everything else.

 

[Renaissance Man]

Your decks shouldn't be replicating the lecture material in its entirety. If the teachers ask ~4 questions per lecture, then you're wasting time if you make 100 cards/lecture. Try to narrow it down to the 8-10 most important points in each lecture and use Anki to test your recall, not understanding.

PS: might I suggest using Anki 2, if you don't already? It's much faster and has a vastly improved workflow, deck organization, and everything else.

Can you import Anki 1 decks into Anki 2? Worried about losing my cards.

To the OP, making the Anki deck helps me the most because I have to go back through the lecture and decide whats important. As Caspid said, Anki is used for memorizing what you already understand though. I use it mostly for vocabulary and recognition of strucutures. So far I am averaging roughly 12-13 cards per lecture. Idk how long your lectures are, but 3 hours to create cards from 1 lecture seems a bit long.

 

[Doc187]

I typically make notes for a lecture explaining concepts in my own words, and then reconstruct those notes by turning them into flashcards to test each independent fact. It's helpful for testing recall, as others said, but I wouldn't use it as a sole study resource because it doesn't give you a cohesive, logical flow to the material.

I'll read my notes through while reviewing to give me context, and then use the cards afterward to test random recall. It's worked for me fairly well so far.

The only downside is that creating notes for each lecture is fairly time consuming (many hours), but once the notes are made, creating flashcards doesn't take long (maybe 20 minutes). I usually have 20-30 cards per lecture, and it takes me variable time to learn it depending on how challenging or long the lecture was.

 

[islandCrazy]

I typically make notes for a lecture explaining concepts in my own words, and then reconstruct those notes by turning them into flashcards to test each independent fact. It's helpful for testing recall, as others said, but I wouldn't use it as a sole study resource because it doesn't give you a cohesive, logical flow to the material.

I'll read my notes through while reviewing to give me context, and then use the cards afterward to test random recall. It's worked for me fairly well so far.

The only downside is that creating notes for each lecture is fairly time consuming (many hours), but once the notes are made, creating flashcards doesn't take long (maybe 20 minutes). I usually have 20-30 cards per lecture, and it takes me variable time to learn it depending on how challenging or long the lecture was.

👍

That's exactly how I did it. It does only take 20-30 minutes to make flashcards because I would star what I believed should become flashcards using a different color pen. At the end of making notes I would just go through my notes and make flashcards.

 

[Gavanshir]

Your decks shouldn't be replicating the lecture material in its entirety. If the teachers ask ~4 questions per lecture, then you're wasting time if you make 100 cards/lecture. Try to narrow it down to the 8-10 most important points in each lecture and use Anki to test your recall, not understanding.

PS: might I suggest using Anki 2, if you don't already? It's much faster and has a vastly improved workflow, deck organization, and everything else.

Where does one get Anki 2 from? I don't see the release on the official website.

 

[kautionwirez]

I typically make notes for a lecture explaining concepts in my own words, and then reconstruct those notes by turning them into flashcards to test each independent fact. It's helpful for testing recall, as others said, but I wouldn't use it as a sole study resource because it doesn't give you a cohesive, logical flow to the material.

I'll read my notes through while reviewing to give me context, and then use the cards afterward to test random recall. It's worked for me fairly well so far.

The only downside is that creating notes for each lecture is fairly time consuming (many hours), but once the notes are made, creating flashcards doesn't take long (maybe 20 minutes). I usually have 20-30 cards per lecture, and it takes me variable time to learn it depending on how challenging or long the lecture was.

Thank you. I was thinking if I should solely use Anki to be the ONLY studying source. I'll start making separate notes for lecture.

👍

That's exactly how I did it. It does only take 20-30 minutes to make flashcards because I would star what I believed should become flashcards using a different color pen. At the end of making notes I would just go through my notes and make flashcards.

It takes my group about 2-3 hours to do per lecture and we try to cover all bases for that lecture. I don't know how you guys do it so fast unless you are looking at the 10 most important topics of the lecture.

Where does one get Anki 2 from? I don't see the release on the official website.

http://ankisrs.net/download/mirror/beta/

 

[DrWily]

so weird to see this thread because i JUST discovered Anki last night, and i love it so far. you may want to propose the idea to your classmates, and break up the material. or, check out this website. its an m3 from duke who is studying for boards (they have a non-trad curriculum) and he posted his anki cards, per subject, in a public dropbox. he has them wonderfully tagged so you can go in and pick which section you want to review. For example: Anatomy --> lower limb.
I just started using them last night to review m1 year material, and they are great.
Personally, i wouldn't have the time to make my own because I learn by physically writing out notes, but Anki is a great tool.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/wivkl5n0rknfn7t/lUdZziAqlb

This resource is great.

I'm usually pretty technical savvy but this program gives me a headache. When trying to use the anatomy deck with Anki 2, none of the pictures show up, but they show up in Anki 1.

 

[kautionwirez]

This resource is great.

I'm usually pretty technical savvy but this program gives me a headache. When trying to use the anatomy deck with Anki 2, none of the pictures show up, but they show up in Anki 1.

I have no problem with Anki 2 using pics.

Shifting from 1 to 2 is a problem. The media doesn't attach with the cards.

 

[DrWily]

I have no problem with Anki 2 using pics.

Shifting from 1 to 2 is a problem. The media doesn't attach with the cards.

How can I reattach the media to the cards then?

In Anki 1, the images are located in, for example, anatomy.media inside the Documents/Anki folder.

Where do I put the media folder for Anki 2? or is there a different pathway I should be following?

If I have to reattach each picture manually I guess I'm sticking with Anki 1!

 

[Hamiltonian]

So I have started using Anki and it takes roughly 3 hours per lecture to make flash cards. I feel like I will have no time to write notes and do Anki as well. I also subscribed to GT but GT seems to be a waste at the moment. I would like to do well in my classes (missed the mark on my first exams) and so I am trying different methods to study for Anatomy/Histo in particular. It doesn't seem feasible to do if I am the only one building decks and need a group of 4 or so to complete all lectures for the next exam.

Do you guys use Anki as your primary study tool without taking notes?
How long does it take you to make flash cards?
Do you have groups building decks?

I think as you go, you'll get a feel for what's important/testable information vs. what's junk information. Using the Anki keyboard shortcuts helps too.

Do you guys have powerpoints with info? The info we need to know is pretty condensed. They don't make us hunt for it. I usually just read through slides with a pen, mark all the tidbits that will make good cards, then go back through and make the cards.

 

[achamess]

Hey all,

Those are my Anki decks up there on Dropbox. I'm so glad you guys are enjoying them!

So, what should you be making cards for?

The short answer: anything that is worth remembering.

The problem with med school is that there is a tension between studying for class and studying for boards. Anki can help with both, but it really excels for long term retention of knowledge. I found most of the information I got in class was not worthy of remembering.

I tell people that the best strategy is to make cards for those facts that are durable and high-yield. Thankfully, we have a resource that has just such facts in it. It's called First Aid. So a good strategy is to use First Aid alongside your class studying. When you're reviewing your notes or reading a textbook, capture everything in First Aid that is relevant to the area you're studying.For example, let's say you just had a lecture on cardiac electrophysiology. Go over your notes, and as you do, have the accompanying section in FA open. Make cards for everything relevant to that topic. More likely than not, the FA material will overlap maybe 30-60% with what you're doing in class. So it's not like your Anki efforts won't be useful toward class performance. But there still will be gaps. That's OK. You can use the "cram" function to quickly review all the cards that are relevant to your exam. To help you do that, make sure to tag those cards with something like, "Exam 2" or whatever. In addition to cramming, try to get maybe 30-50/day into your normal review schedule so that you continue to review those cards after your exam is done. That is the magic of Anki!

The remaining info on your class notes that you didn't make cards for you should mark or star in some way to show that you didn't make a card. Then, before your tests, just cram that info in the way you normally would before you had Anki. Yeah, you'll likely quickly forget it after the test, but who cares?

I think this approach is a good compromise. The #1 reason I hear about why people don't use Anki is because they become overwhelmed by either the review burden or by the time it takes to carefully curate every single fact they learn. I think First Aid is a manageable goal that most people can handle, and that meets both the goals of your class and Step 1. There is no wasted effort.

I'm currently studying for Step 1 using the Anki cards I made using this strategy and I'm rocking my UWorld and NBMEs. So I think this works. Was I a class superstar during the preclinical year? Nope. But I didn't care. I made a conscious effort to focus on long term retention and Step 1 prep and I think it's going to pay dividends.

Re: Anki 2. Looks good. I haven't migrated yet because Ankimobile for iOS is not out yet. When that happens and the bugs are worked out, I'll move over.

Good luck!

 

[achamess]

This resource is great.

I'm usually pretty technical savvy but this program gives me a headache. When trying to use the anatomy deck with Anki 2, none of the pictures show up, but they show up in Anki 1.

http://ankisrs.net/docs/dev/changes.html

Good info here. Media are now on the Anki site. DL the media folder and keep that on your desktop with the Anki file. Make sure you've selected to "sync media" int he card preferences. That should help.