Zanki strategy

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sunshine02

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I just started zanki and still have thousands of new cards to learn for each subdeck but was wondering what strategy you guys recommend for reviewing each day? I want to get through as many new cards as possible daily so I'll at least have seen every card at least once but on the other hand, if I don't review the cards I went through the days before, I'll forget and the cards will rack up rapidly.

Do you guys recommend studying the subdecks separately or study the master deck as a whole? If the latter, is there a way to review everything you've done before but still introduce new cards from a specific deck? Say if I finished all of Zanki MSK, Zanki Heme and Zanki Cardio and now moving on to Zanki endocrine, is there a way to review everything I've seen before but add new cards from zanki endocrine from the master deck into my daily queue?

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What year are you and what is the methodology your school uses for creating its curriculum (one pass, normal/abnormal two pass, heavy PBL, etc)?
 
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I just started zanki and still have thousands of new cards to learn for each subdeck but was wondering what strategy you guys recommend for reviewing each day? I want to get through as many new cards as possible daily so I'll at least have seen every card at least once but on the other hand, if I don't review the cards I went through the days before, I'll forget and the cards will rack up rapidly.

Do you guys recommend studying the subdecks separately or study the master deck as a whole? If the latter, is there a way to review everything you've done before but still introduce new cards from a specific deck? Say if I finished all of Zanki MSK, Zanki Heme and Zanki Cardio and now moving on to Zanki endocrine, is there a way to review everything I've seen before but add new cards from zanki endocrine from the master deck into my daily queue?
I'd recommend leaving everything where it is and setting the reviews for the Zanki deck to 0.

Then, create a Current deck with however many daily reviews you want. When you want to add new material, go to the subdeck you want, open the Browser, select all the cards in that subdeck (or whichever subset you want to review), tag them, and move them to your Current deck.


There are many, many, many other ways to play around with this involving different Deck Options, changing those options for individual subdecks, or even just setting the Daily New cards to '0' and going to the individual subdeck and Custom Studying new cards as you feel like adding them...but the above is what I recommend as a first line option, because Anki handles subdecks terribly. If you truly can't handle not having subdecks to look at in the Home screen (which is all they do for you that tagging doesn't, other than messing up Anki's randomization), let me know and I'll give more details on the other solutions.
 
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I'd recommend leaving everything where it is and setting the reviews for the Zanki deck to 0.

Then, create a Current deck with however many daily reviews you want. When you want to add new material, go to the subdeck you want, open the Browser, select all the cards in that subdeck (or whichever subset you want to review), tag them, and move them to your Current deck.


There are many, many, many other ways to play around with this involving different Deck Options, changing those options for individual subdecks, or even just setting the Daily New cards to '0' and going to the individual subdeck and Custom Studying new cards as you feel like adding them...but the above is what I recommend as a first line option, because Anki handles subdecks terribly. If you truly can't handle not having subdecks to look at in the Home screen (which is all they do for you that tagging doesn't, other than messing up Anki's randomization), let me know and I'll give more details on the other solutions.


Hi, I believe I have a similar concern to Sunshine01, but I do not completely understand your advice. I too have been going through Zanki and am currently on HemOnc; however, my settings are at 100 cards review each day, but I've still only been reviewing the first section of Biochemistry and haven't reviewed Cardio, Endocrine, or other sections. What would be helpful to advance my review cards from biochem to other sections?
 
I just started zanki and still have thousands of new cards to learn for each subdeck but was wondering what strategy you guys recommend for reviewing each day? I want to get through as many new cards as possible daily so I'll at least have seen every card at least once but on the other hand, if I don't review the cards I went through the days before, I'll forget and the cards will rack up rapidly.

Do you guys recommend studying the subdecks separately or study the master deck as a whole? If the latter, is there a way to review everything you've done before but still introduce new cards from a specific deck? Say if I finished all of Zanki MSK, Zanki Heme and Zanki Cardio and now moving on to Zanki endocrine, is there a way to review everything I've seen before but add new cards from zanki endocrine from the master deck into my daily queue?

I have created my own "master deck" and then as we go through systems I transfer the cards from that system (the subdecks from Zanki) into the new deck. I just keep up on all the reviews and do as many new cards a day as I need to in able to finish the new cards a week before the final in that system while also keeping up on all my reviews. I don't even touch the cards in the Zanki deck.

So far its worked well.
 
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Hi, I believe I have a similar concern to Sunshine01, but I do not completely understand your advice. I too have been going through Zanki and am currently on HemOnc; however, my settings are at 100 cards review each day, but I've still only been reviewing the first section of Biochemistry and haven't reviewed Cardio, Endocrine, or other sections. What would be helpful to advance my review cards from biochem to other sections?
Anki handles subdecks horribly. Basically, if you have a limit of 100 new cards in the main deck, and the same on each of your subdecks, it will pull 100 new cards at a time from subdeck A, until you finish them, and only then start pulling (random) cards from subdeck B, etc.

My advice was to essentially do what this person is saying:
I have created my own "master deck" and then as we go through systems I transfer the cards from that system (the subdecks from Zanki) into the new deck. I just keep up on all the reviews and do as many new cards a day as I need to in able to finish the new cards a week before the final in that system while also keeping up on all my reviews. I don't even touch the cards in the Zanki deck.

So far its worked well.

For more details, try reading through the Anki Central thread in my sig.
 
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Just started this semester with it. I do 100 new cards/day from the block I’m in plus whatever it says I need to review so 200 max per day from the block.

Once I finish the block, those cards go into a master deck that I also do 100 per day from.

I also do 100 per day from the current pharm and the master pharm deck.

I also hate life bc typing this out it sorta seems insane.
 
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I have created my own "master deck" and then as we go through systems I transfer the cards from that system (the subdecks from Zanki) into the new deck. I just keep up on all the reviews and do as many new cards a day as I need to in able to finish the new cards a week before the final in that system while also keeping up on all my reviews. I don't even touch the cards in the Zanki deck.

So far its worked well.

With this method, how many new cards do you do a day to finish the subdeck a week before the exam? Does it vary much depending on which system you are in and how many cards are on that system?
 
Just started this semester with it. I do 100 new cards/day from the block I’m in plus whatever it says I need to review so 200 max per day from the block.

Once I finish the block, those cards go into a master deck that I also do 100 per day from.

I also do 100 per day from the current pharm and the master pharm deck.

I also hate life bc typing this out it sorta seems insane.
Holy crap you're doing 300 new cards per day? How many old cards do you have to review? I do 75 new per day and it takes me about 2 hours to get through my 350-400 old cards that build up plus the new ones.
 
I've made a mater deck like everyone else has said but I don't move anything into it until after we've finished the block. Then I just put them on random and do 75 new from that master deck only per day. I end up having about 400 old cards and 75 new each day which takes a while to get through. You won't be able to organize anything by organ system that way but I think I prefer just having random cards show up.
 
With this method, how many new cards do you do a day to finish the subdeck a week before the exam? Does it vary much depending on which system you are in and how many cards are on that system?

Yeah it depends on the system.
 
Disregard
 
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Holy crap you're doing 300 new cards per day? How many old cards do you have to review? I do 75 new per day and it takes me about 2 hours to get through my 350-400 old cards that build up plus the new ones.
I do 100 new cards per day from the current block. This number varies because I want to have went through all the related cards for the block about a week before the block exam. I set the reviews of old cards at a max of 100 per day from the current block. So about 200/day from the current block, but 100 of those were review from the previous days of that block.

I do the same with pharm from that block. But I usually don’t start with pharm at the beginning of the block bc we haven’t had enough relevant phys/biochem yet. So I might be finishing up the main decks new cards for the block and starting the pharm. There is typically a terrible part where they overlap where I’m doing 200+ new cards/day.

My big review deck was set at 200 reviews per day, but Ive upped it to 500 since that post.

So typically anywhere from ~500-900 cards per day but only 200 are new for the most part.

Don’t forget to do qbanks, read FA, watch pathoma/sketchy, workout, and crank out research. #yeahright
 
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I've made a mater deck like everyone else has said but I don't move anything into it until after we've finished the block. Then I just put them on random and do 75 new from that master deck only per day. I end up having about 400 old cards and 75 new each day which takes a while to get through. You won't be able to organize anything by organ system that way but I think I prefer just having random cards show up.
Forgot to mention. Reviews go super quick. Just did about 250 cards this morning in 45 minutes. New cards suck. It used to take me 2 hrs to get 75 new cards, but now I’m at least twice as fast. You will be too if you keep at it.
 
What should the Zanki strategy be for someone who wants to start Zanki in the summer between M1-M2?
 
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What should the Zanki strategy be for someone who wants to start Zanki in the summer between M1-M2?
Also this question. I’m having trouble finding easy ways to separate relevant parts of zanki into decks. Just using an example, let’s say I’m on neuro block and I need to go through specific neuro cards for the first exam but also specific pharm for that exam. What’s the easiest way to get all of the relevant cards into the exam deck?
 
Also this question. I’m having trouble finding easy ways to separate relevant parts of zanki into decks. Just using an example, let’s say I’m on neuro block and I need to go through specific neuro cards for the first exam but also specific pharm for that exam. What’s the easiest way to get all of the relevant cards into the exam deck?

You can just drag the relevant pharm sub-deck and stick it under the neuro tab.

What should the Zanki strategy be for someone who wants to start Zanki in the summer between M1-M2?

calculate how many cards a day you need to do to finish by January-Februaryish, then do that many new cards a day and do every review. You might have to sacrifice the first 3-4 hours of your day but it will be worth it.
 
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Kinda late but similar quick questions:

I had already started a diferent Zanki deck with its own tags and subdeck arrangement. As I learn more, I can see the use of tagging things and getting rid of the subdecks and just having the combined review and class decks. 2 questions:

  1. Is the point of having a different deck to randomize the order of the question and not have the ?s go down by subdeck? Is this better for prepping/learning for step 1? I just added tags to all my deck to identify them from what deck they came from but a little scared to pull the trigger of moving them since I will never have the decks the same again.

  2. Do you all mix other decks (like lolnotacops) with zanki in your master review deck? Ever any problems with this?
Thanks a ton for any help!
 
Kinda late but similar quick questions:

I had already started a diferent Zanki deck with its own tags and subdeck arrangement. As I learn more, I can see the use of tagging things and getting rid of the subdecks and just having the combined review and class decks. 2 questions:

  1. Is the point of having a different deck to randomize the order of the question and not have the ?s go down by subdeck? Is this better for prepping/learning for step 1? I just added tags to all my deck to identify them from what deck they came from but a little scared to pull the trigger of moving them since I will never have the decks the same again.

  2. Do you all mix other decks (like lolnotacops) with zanki in your master review deck? Ever any problems with this?
Thanks a ton for any help!
Yes, that is the purpose of it. And yes, it is better for prepping and learning. Mixed review is the best way to test recall. After all, your Step isn't going to have 1 section of Biochem, followed by 1 section of GI, etc. You'll have to jump around without necessarily priming yourself for one topic.
Also, you can easily have all the decks the same again. If you tag them before you move them, you can remake the subdecks as easily as typing "tag:oops:ldDeck1 tag:oops:ldSubdeckC" in the Browser, selecting all, and hitting "Move Cards to..."

2. I would if I did other decks. But tbh I'm not a huge fan of using decks I didn't make myself, so I don't have a ton of cards from them to mix and match.
 
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