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How to Use Anki: An Efficient Tutorial for Beginners

December 28, 2020 June 25, 2020

How-do-you-do, this is Lesson 1 of four in the Anki Fundamentals free course. I promise y'all like it! Allow me know if you take whatever questions or feedback — I'd like to hear what you think! 🙂

Hi, welcome here. In this post, yous're going to learn how to starting time using Anki in the most efficient mode possible — based on my experience.

Whether you're using Anki for medical school, MCAT, linguistic communication learning, technology (like I did) or for continuous learning (what I do at present) — I remember yous're gonna love this.

Specifically, nosotros're going to comprehend the most essential elements of Anki that you should focus on, so you tin can:

• Immediately start using this awesome spaced repetition software
• Avoid the same mistakes that I did; and
• Accept a roadmap that tells you what's really important when using Anki

If you lot don't know already, here are a couple of things Anki allows you to practice in a nutshell:

• Schedule reviews automatically, so you don't have to worry about which specific topic to study
• Study 1714.29% more efficiently as compared to those using conventional flashcards
• Only written report information you're virtually to forget, so you study just what needs studying
• Encode data into long term memory at will, rather than by chance
• Remember most anything yous desire without having to re-read
• Study anywhere! Studying felt less effortful than e'er the moment I started using Anki earlier. What a blessing.

Now, this guide exists because I believe you simply need to learn the few core info if you're just looking to offset.

The Anki transmission is helpful, but information technology's an app documentation rather than a quick-start guide.

Yous want a guide that's Lean, rather than filled with information yous tin't readily use.

Redditors seem to agree:

The very starting time version of this commodity was read past thousands of people from Reddit — crawly guys out there.

That being said, I fabricated this guide comprehensive, all the same curtailed then that this will too make you lot a decent Anki user more quickly.

Here's what you're gonna acquire in this post:

Contents

• 1 Real Talk: What is Anki? How does information technology piece of work?
• 2 Isn't Anki just for memorizing small facts?
  • 2.1 "If Anki is then effective, then why practise and then many people neglect at using it?"
• 3 How to Beginning Using Anki
  • 3.1 Downloading Anki
  • 3.2 Creating and Organizing Decks
  • 3.three Creating and Organizing Cards
• 4 Hither's How I Make Anki Flashcards
• 5 Rules to Follow when Creating New Cards
  • 5.1 Rule #one. Learn Outset, and THEN do spaced practice
  • v.2 Rule #two. Brusk question, short answer.
  • v.3 Rule #3. The number of cards doesn't matter
• half dozen How You Can Study Without Spending Study Time
• 7 Smash That Spacebar
  • vii.1 Why You Should NEVER Miss a Day of Review
  • seven.ii Custom Study
• 8 Side by side Steps

Real Talk: What is Anki? How does it work?

Equally you lot may know, Anki is an open-source flashcard app that uses spaced repetition algorithms to aid you prevent natural forgetting.

Even if y'all're non born with awesome recall skills, Anki can help you tointentionally commit data into long-term retentivity.

Just in that location's a caveat.

That is, Anki works past supplementing your study process.

As good every bit it is, it'southward Not a magic pill nor a substitute for poor learning skills.

Why? Because Anki covers merely the concluding one-third of the encephalon'southward processes for long-term information encoding ¹ .

If the start two-thirds of the system you employ for studying is messed upwards, then Anki isn't really going to help at all.

So many newbies experience this problem that I made yet another course about information technology. (I'll tell yous about it when you lot finish reading.)

Ultimately, I did this considering when yous practice apply Anki with the right process, you could gain tremendous advantage over the competition:

• You basically guarantee that annihilation you written report (once again, using the right process) WILL get remembered for a long time
• You build up a tall stack of prior knowledge that allows you to understand complex concepts quickly
• Yous eliminate the nearly time-wasting written report activity of all — "restudying what you've already studied because you forgot"
• You can turn downtime into productive study time (when yous employ Anki while eating, for example, it allows you to practice fifty items in a breeze)

Best of all, you become a tremendous long-term efficiency do good:

Michael Nielsen predicted that in 20 years, he is 1714.29% (120 minutes/seven minutes * 100%) more efficient for each card when learning using spaced repetition compared to conventional flashcard learning. ^two I found that this was even greater for me — and it will be true for you lot, too, afterwards you read this mail service.

Does whatsoever of that sound good so far?

Okay, proficient. Let's move on.

Isn't Anki merely for memorizing small facts?

Contrary to pop belief, but because Anki is a flashcard app doesn't mean it'south only used for memorizing words or raw facts.

As I imply in the last section, Anki is also a tool for LEARNING — which means it helps y'all found a "library of mental models" for agreement higher-level concepts.

Personally, I've used information technology with great success for all kinds of things — From Algebra to Avant-garde Engineering Mathematics, Physics, Electronics Engineering science, Electronic Communications, Marketing, Business, Content Creation, Control Systems Engineering, Birthdays, and so on.

I never skip Anki considering in my mind, if I don't retain all the prerequisite noesis I'm required to remember, then information technology'd be hard for me to understand higher-level concepts in the future. (Ultimately, this causes even more wasted time.)

"If Anki is so constructive, then why practise so many people fail at using it?"

Glad you asked. Three reasons why:

1. They apply shared decks. They keep trying to retrieve what they haven't fifty-fifty learned yet.
2. They create one deck for each topic — a recipe for what's called domain dependence.
3. Intermittent Reviews. They exercise Anki reviews intermittently—as if natural forgetting can be "skipped."
4. Their thinking is stuck in Anki and ignore the other ii/3 of the brain's learning process. They functionally fix themselves into Anki — they see information technology every bit "the entire auto" when really, it's really just "a pocket-size part of the engine". Once more, I'll talk more about it at the end of this postal service to go along this department tight for the uninterested.

Note: I'chiliad well aware that yous tin can use shared decks finer for standardized exams, only I really don't recommend it — UNLESS yous're in Medical School. I know of people who've created and used loftier-quality shared decks with great success, and you lot tin can detect them here.

Thing is, almost of these people who fail at using Anki care for is every bit a magic pill, instead of a tool that requires skill. (Woah, that rhymed…)

Michael Nielsen, i of the pioneers of breakthrough computing, put it all-time in his essay:

Anki is an extremely simple program […] Despite that simplicity, it's an incredibly powerful tool. And, like many tools, it requires skill to utilize well. It'southward worth thinking of Anki equally a skill that can be adult to virtuoso levels, and attempting to continue to level upwardly toward such virtuosity.

Put another fashion, Anki is only effective if you know how to make it effective.

How to Get-go Using Anki

To get-go using Anki, you need a figurer (or laptop) and/or smartphone — preferably, both.

(Plus, it's much, much faster to create flashcards using a calculator.)

Downloading Anki

To download Anki on your computer, head over to AnkiWeb and download Anki.

I prefer to employ version 2.0 because more add-ons are readily available for this version compared to the ii.1 one. (I also haven't felt the need to use it)

You'll even so exist fine whichever version y'all intend to use, only keep the add-on compatibility in heed if y'all want to utilize them (which, you'll desire to).

UPDATE (ane/28/2020): Since Anki started phased out Anki 2.0, I now recommend downloading the latest version, which you can find at the same identify.

Then, for your smartphone, if you're on Android, it's available in Google Play Store, just search for "AnkiDroid" and await for this i:

iOS users are required to pay for the app because that's where the app gets its funds, after all. Heck, fifty-fifty if it's a paid app on Android, I'd still pay for information technology. Information technology'south that amazing.

Creating and Organizing Decks

Once you've installed and opened Anki, you lot'll see one specific deck named "Default".

You tin can either choose to rename it or just create another deck of your ain.

To create a new deck, simply hit the "Create Deck" button on the bottom part of the Anki window. You'll be asked for a Deck name; I like to use my subject's proper noun for this one.

Now here'due south where information technology gets interesting.

If you're a lifelong learner like me, you ideally want to create a single deck only. That'due south because y'all'll find that a lot of concepts, even in seemingly unrelated fields, tend to be loosely related.

On the other mitt, if you're a college student, and so ask yourself:

"Am I learning things that would come up in a single test in the future?"

If you answered "yep", then yous should put those "things" in a single deck. (Related: Creating Constructive Decks)

Think ahead!

That's because by doing it this fashion, you would be learning the concepts as a WHOLE unit (via Interleaving), rather than every bit ideas 'filed' in a single topic — unable to transfer itself freely.

Here's what I hateful.

Back when I was reviewing for my Engineering science Board Exams here in the Philippines, I put together all of the things I learned on Communications Engineering under "EST" — the exam name.

I literally studied similar 4 textbooks on that subject and filtered out unimportant stuff to get ahead more speedily.

Here's what the deck looked like.

IIRC, I got 86 on that specific exam — and get this — with confidence. When I counted my unsure answers, they were 16 items. Turns out I got 2 of those right.

When you use Anki the right way, your exams transform into black-and-white results. It's either:

1. You lot truly know it
2. Or you don't

No more than "mental cake" type of crap over again.

To be fair, I just had 2-iii months left to learn EST as I deleted all of my decks to get the cards correct. (Deplorable life. That'southward what I'm talking nearly when I said "easy to mess upward".)

Anyway, I'll elaborate more on this in the next lesson, but this should do for now.

In addition to creating decks, you can organize your decks into subdecks in two ways:

One, by using the format "MAINDECK::SUBDECK". Example "Physics::Thermodynamics".

And two, by dragging the deck over to the desired Master deck. Here's an illustration.

Don't go me wrong, though — I don't use the "subdeck" method very ofttimes, unless my subdivision is a really wide subject.

Besides, I don't recommend you create a lot of subdecks—y'all're better off using Tags instead for "Custom Written report" purposes (more on this afterwards).

Creating and Organizing Cards

To create cards, just hit the "Add" on the top function of your window.

By clicking on it, you should be seeing the Add New window containing (ane) Type, (2) Deck, (3) Front and Back fields, and (4) Tag field.

Now, I wouldn't worry about the "Fields…" and "Cards…" buttons just however. To tell you the truth, I don't think y'all fifty-fifty need them. I accept successfully used Anki effectively without even touching those things.

In the "Add together New" window, the question goes in "Front" and the answer goes in "Back" field, simply like your good ol' paper flashcards.

In one case you've entered your desired Question and Reply pair, you lot can click on "Add together" or just use the shortcut: Ctrl + Enter to make the carte du jour.

Note: Make sure to DOUBLE CHECK the "Deck" field before adding the menu to prevent hereafter headaches.

By the fashion, the card you've just seen is one of the "Bones" Bill of fare Types.

Tthe "Basic" bill of fare type allows yous to perform the traditional flashcard studying.

The Cloze deletion, on the other mitt, is a "fill-in-the-blank" blazon of card.

Out of the many carte du jour types, I have constitute that the "Cloze" card type was the most flexible i—also the easiest to create. (But that was back when I used Anki 2.0.)

Either works fine, tho. Anyway, permit'southward motion on to organizing your cards.

Like I said, I similar to employ Tags instead of subdecks.

Why tags? Considering it simplifies everything. You need non worry nigh creating subdecks for each bailiwick because you can employ "Custom Study" more selectively afterwards.

You tin add Tags to your cards in two ways: During Card Creation, or using the Carte Browser.

I recommend adding Tags during Card Creation — information technology's much faster and more proactive.

To add Tags, you only enter the name of your desired Tag on the "Tags" field of the Add together New window.

Hither's something to recall: Supersede spaces with underscores.

Note: If you missed that and accidentally entered two words separated by spaces, you'll be creating Ii tags for your cards, non 1.

Now, creating that carte du jour, y'all should find that the Tag proper name you entered in the Tags field did not go away.

This means you lot can create and create several cards without having to worry almost putting Tags in every single time—that'southward pretty handy.

The second method is via the Card Browser. You lot open it up past clicking on "Scan" on the Home Screen or pressing "B" in the same place.

Then, just find your cards by clicking on a deck where yous put your new cards in (1), then select your cards on the correct-hand side (2), and printing Ctrl + Shift + A.

I don't prefer this method considering information technology'south rather easy to mess this up. Imagine accidentally adding tags to other cards when yous already accept a large collection of cards — just thinking virtually organizing information technology is already a disaster.

Allow's motility on to the more than applied guide—How I make Anki Cards.

Here's How I Make Anki Flashcards

When you're creating your cards, the virtually user-friendly way to create high-quality cards is to include:

• A well-formulated question
• A brusk, specific reply
• Screenshot of source
• Tags (optional)

You should be good equally long as you lot retrieve those.

To demonstrate, I'll exist using a random book from the medical field (a field I don't know anything about) just to demonstrate this procedure from a beginner standpoint.

And then, when I see something on my book like this:

This card below is the one I brand. I included the Question, Answer, Screenshot, and Tag.

Detect that I italicized and bolded the word "previously" to prove emphasis. It'southward a way to brand a cue for an reply more salient and easier to process.

Now, I highlight the answer forth with the screenshot and then printing Ctrl + Shift + C. That's the shortcut for a Cloze deletion.

Note that you tin totally utilise a basic card for this. I but used Cloze because:

1. Basic card type is pretty straightforward and doesn't need explaining
2. Creating a Cloze card is somehow mystified for beginners

Again, just press CTRL + SHIFT + C upon highlighting what yous need to Cloze.

Shortcut for Cloze Deletion: Ctrl + Shift + C

Let's look at the card previews.

By the way, I desire to tell yous that for conceptual subjects, I intermission each concept down into more than questions that test my understanding .

From the same passage in the volume:

My questions go like this:

"What does specific immunity apply act against agents? (2x)"

Answer: Antibodies and Activated Lymphocytes.

"To what type of amanuensis does specific immunity react?"

Answer: Previously Encountered Agents.

Basically, for conceptual data, you have to encourage your understanding of the material.

Facts are good to include every bit cards, but ultimately, our questions should ALSO simulate situations that use the concept itself and then we don't miss out on actually applying what we have learned.

For example, this card:

See how that works?

Alright, permit's move on to what you need to call up when creating new cards.

Rules to Follow when Creating New Cards

Rule #1. Learn FIRST, and And then practise spaced exercise

If you're just starting out, all you demand to know is that the purpose of these flashcards is to examination what you already learned.

NOT to examination what you haven't learned — which many people exercise.

It's easy to become confident that y'all can remember annihilation using Anki, simply none of that matters if you practice non understand the material you lot're putting in. (Unless you're really memorizing isolated facts, but even so, context matters for retention)

Well, what'southward the worst that could happen when yous don't follow this rule?

You'll know how to answer the flashcard but you'll notice out that y'all cannot utilise the "knowledge" anywhere else.

In other words, you merely get pseudoknowledge.

Dominion #2. Short question, short answer.

Don't try to put in paragraphs in a carte.

Don't even try to put "Explicate" type of questions.

Break them down every bit much as possible.

This brings me to my next point.

Rule #3. The number of cards doesn't affair

When adding cards, it doesn't matter if you lot accept plenty of cards just by studying a chapter as long as y'all follow the 2 rules above.

What matters is you lot actually larn the concepts thoroughly.

And so, again, break a concept as much every bit possible. By doing this, you lot'll exist able to think each card in less than a second. (Well, non less than a second, just that's how it'll feel like 😉)

It's much, much faster compared to creating a few but long, complicated cards.

For example, instead of:

"What are Newton's 3 Laws of Motion?"

You write questions like:

• "What is Newton'due south Start Law of Motion?"
• "What is Newton'south Third Law of Motion?"
• "Which law states F=ma?" (manifestly, this question covers one law in another angle — also called redundancy)

This reduces ambivalence — making your cards faster to respond. Compare that to doing a mini-encephalon dump for each menu and you'll realize information technology gets tiresome pretty speedily.

How You Can Study Without Spending Study Time

Head over to Anki Sign Up and annals for an account. It's totally free. That'southward why Damien Elmes is a hero.

So, later creating a gratuitous account, head over to Anki settings by clicking on Tools>Preferences or by pressing Ctrl + P on your Anki window.

Go to the "Network Tab" and check the first two boxes.

This will allow automatic syncing of your deck to the AnkiWeb servers—which allows y'all to sync your cards to ALL devices.

Information technology's pretty neat, especially if you're going outside with your smartphone. (or when you're sitting on the toilet — not exactly groovy, tho)

When you lot're waiting in line, or but doing null at all, instead of scrolling through Facebook, you lot tin answer five to 20 cards in a minute, depending on how good you create cards.

That means you're converting idle fourth dimension into STUDYING.

If that isn't called studying smart, I don't know what is.

You can turn it off and manually sync your cards past pressing Y on the home screen, but it'southward e'er a skilful idea to sync your cards automatically upon open/go out just to avoid forgetting.

Nail That Spacebar

Studying using Anki is pretty straightforward.

You just open the app, click a deck with due cards, and yous're prepare.

When a menu shows up, you just printing on the spacebar to show the answer.

When the respond shows up, you are given choices beneath to choose from: Again, Skilful, Piece of cake. (This is for new cards only — nosotros'll go more into this in Lesson 4)

Using Anki default settings, Anki will show the card over again after a certain amount depending on how difficult information technology was for yous to recall the menu.

• Once again – Less than a minute, the card volition testify upwardly again
• Expert – The card will show up in less than 10 minutes
• Easy – The card will show upwards subsequently 4 days

You press Once more when you failed to think the answer, Proficient when you successfully retrieve the answer, and Easy when y'all recall the answer in an instant. Yous can use shortcuts as shown beneath:

Equally a side notation for default settings, pressing "Over again" on a mature bill of fare for a full of viii times makes your card "disappear" and not show up for review.

This is called a "Leech card", and is ordinarily classified as a poorly created carte.

When you get Leech cards, all you have to do is reformulate your questions. Again, refer back to how I told you to create flashcards.

Alright, now before I end this, I would similar to give you lot some tips that would help you study smarter using Anki.

Why Y'all Should NEVER Miss a Day of Review

Retention works every single day, which means seldomly used information are DELETED every unmarried day.

Anki works to combat this effect; that'south pretty much all the reason why.

Another reason non to skip is you end upward with a mount of cards the next day. Yup, now you'll take to review your overdue cards PLUS your due cards — that's a hell of a review session to become through (trust me, I've been through 1500 cards in a twenty-four hours and I virtually cried but doing that).

And then, endeavor do study every single 24-hour interval without neglect.

Custom Study

In contrast, there might exist some days that yous accept a lot fewer cards than you used to.

It'due south probably considering most of your cards are mature enough and/or you really take few cards in your deck.

Remember the "Tag" system that I mentioned earlier? This is where information technology comes in.

When you do a custom report session, you tin select cards from specific Tags in a certain Deck.

It'south smart to employ it right earlier an exam if you're a student, only to take advantage of that "fresh" country of recall.

Next Steps

Equally powerful as Anki is, it'southward simply a tool that needs to exist operated the right way — and I desire to make sure I drive that point dwelling.

If you need more than help in using Anki than I was able to cover in this guide, you might want to go through the other post in the Anki Fundamentals series to learn more:

• How to Create an Anki Deck That Maximizes Learning
• How to Make Meliorate Anki Flashcards: Principles for Loftier-Quality Questions
• Best Anki Settings: My Recommended Values

Otherwise, permit's go dorsum to the "data encoding" part earlier.

Retrieve I told you this?

If the outset two-thirds of the system you use for studying is messed upwards, then Anki isn't actually going to help at all.

I told you that because learning is really a product of the encephalon's information encoding system.

Work with it and you guarantee memory & learning speed.

Otherwise, you lot guarantee forgetting and wasted time.

Information technology'due south as simple equally it gets. Notwithstanding, many don't seem to get this.

They slice together multiple hacks and create a "duct tape system" in the hopes of getting more results.

They try to overoptimize Anki as though it's the but thing that matters for learning.

That's why I've put together a 2d free form for you and so you can avoid this big trap — I phone call information technology "Tool-kickoff Thinking" and it'south one of the biggest reasons why many Anki newbies still don't get meaningful results with Anki. (or Any study tool, for that thing)

If you're preparing for exams right now, or you constantly feel backside of your study schedule, I insist that you devour the next class with all your middle.

It's 100% gratis.

When you're set, just click the carmine button downwardly beneath.

P.S. I previously made the sectional "Advanced Anki Learner Preparation" PDF available to everyone, but I removed it because I decided information technology's not really for everybody. I'g now making information technology available only to my individual newsletter subs. I've gear up a "filtering mechanism" for people who are the best fit for it. You can get it at the Commencement Here folio.

Footnotes

1. Melton, A. W. (1963). Implications of short-term retentivity for a general theory of memory. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 2(ane), one–21.
2. Nielsen, M. (2018). Augmenting Long-term Memory. http://augmentingcognition.com/ltm.html

macqueennoins1972.blogspot.com

Source: https://leananki.com/how-to-use-anki-tutorial/

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