Anki Tutorial

MCASOM Orientation 2021

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Ning McKenzie and Chris Allen (Class of 2024)

Goals for this presentation

1. Give everyone a clear idea of what Anki is and when to use it
2. Teach them to avoid common pitfalls that make Anki unsustainable/overwhelming
3. Give them skills to build their own decks
4. Give them skills to unsuspend cards efficiently from pre-made decks
5. Use the Anki Guide for reference https://docs.google.com/document/d/1D8VrmDB1E4gfK1yxjjmSMu1NOzU7jA-YaV9JZRDFC9g/edit#heading=h.twms03v41v6w

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What is Anki?

• Flashcards (active recall) + Spaced Repetition
• More efficient than note-taking, highlighting, rereading

Who should use Anki?

• Not necessarily for everyone
• It has a steep learning curve
• Most people use it for at least one subject at some point
• It’s useful for memorizing facts
• It helps you review old material in different contexts
• It’s worth knowing how to use

Pre-made Decks vs. Homemade Decks

Pre-made Decks

• Saves time making cards
• Takes time looking for cards
• Different level of detail than class
• Has extra resources on the back of cards
• Prepares you for STEP

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Homemade Decks

• Making cards takes a long time
• Hard to assess how much detail to put
• You have to manually put in references or extra information
• More prone to error

Pre-made Deck Options

AnKing: based on First Aid, constantly being updated - most comprehensive/popular deck

Lightyear: based on Boards and Beyond, different style but similar content

Pepper: based on Sketchy videos, cards are more concise than Anking and is best used for microbiology and pharmacology

MCASOM Course Specific Decks: past students made course-specific decks for histology and anatomy that can be found in the Mega Drive

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Anki Interfaces

Doing/learning cards

Making/unsuspending cards

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The Cards

Card Types:

• Basic: front and back
• Cloze: fill in the blank
• Image Occlusion: cover an image

Buttons:

• “again”, “hard”, “good”, “easy”
• Help customize your timing, answer honestly

Let’s get Started!

• Get some Add-ons
• Download Histo deck
• Practice making cards

Anki Add-Ons

• Not necessary for functionality but can enhance your experience
• Examples of popular Add-Ons
• Heat Map: Displays your daily anki habits and streak
• Hierarchical Tags: Organizes tags allowing for easy unsuspension
• Image Occlusion: Fill in the blank card but with pictures

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Image Occlusion Example

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How to Install Add-Ons

• Tools → Add-ons

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How to Install Add-Ons

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• Click “Get Add-Ons”

How to Install Add-Ons

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• Enter the following codes in the space provided:
• Hierarchical Tags:
• 594329229
• Don’t need for most recent version of Anki
• Image Occlusion:
• 1374772155

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More Add-Ons

• How to install all the add-ons you’ll ever need (video by Anking)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEL5Ru5kkQY

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• How to download anki heat map only
• https://tinyurl.com/anki2021

Histology Anki Deck

• Available on the Histology Blackboard site and on the MEGA drive
• Corresponds with the prerecorded VoiceThread lectures
• Unsuspend cards with tags corresponding to each VoiceThread
• Approximately 1500 cards in deck

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Making Anki Cards

Making Anki Cards: Basic Type

Making Anki Cards: Cloze Type

Making Anki Cards: Image Occlusion

Subdecks vs. Tags

Decks contain subdecks (each card is in one subdeck) - use this to thin down your options when doing cards

Hierarchical tags contain tags (each card can have many tags) - use this to search for cards within a subject

Ex. A card can be related to biochemistry, cardiology, and genetics and you don’t want to duplicate it in multiple subdecks

Unsuspending cards by tag

First, suspend all cards

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Example: you just watched Boards and Beyond video on DNA Structure

1. Press “Browse” from main screen
2. Scroll down to “Tags” section
3. Go to #AK_Step1_v& tag
4. Go to #B&B tag
5. Go to 03_Biochem tag
6. Click on 01_DNA_Structure tag
7. Unsuspend (control J) cards you want to study

Activities!

Apply the skills you just learned and make:

1. A simple Cloze deletion card (absence policy)
2. A Cloze deletion card with multiple cards (recipes for success)
3. An Image Occlusion card (WellConnect)

Activities!

Goal: Simple Cloze deletion card

Activities!

Goal: Multiple (3) Cloze deletion card

Bonus: Suspend specific cards by looking at the number after “Cloze”

Activities!

Goal: Image Occlusion Card

Activities!

Now it’s time to use the pre-made decks and find:

• Histo voice thread 1 tag
• Citric Acid Cycle (hint: try searching synonyms, and try looking through tags under various resources)

How many cards did you find for each?

Activities!

Hints:

• Use specific phrases, if no results, try simpler or related phrases (“citric acid cycle” -> 0; “TCA” -> 73; “Kreb” -> 12)
• Find a card that fits what you want, then look at its tags
• #AK_Step1_v7::#B&B::03_Biochem::02_Metabolism::08_TCA_Cycle
• #AK_Step1_v7::#FirstAid::01_Biochem::06_Metabolism::14_TCA_cycle_(Krebs_cycle)
• #AK_Step1_v7::#Physeo::05_Biochem::05_Metabolism::04_TCA_Cycle
• #AK_Step1_v7::Biochem::metabolism::carbs
• Look within those tags

Common Pitfalls

• Getting behind
• Solution: Will cover on next slide
• Memorizing the card pattern rather than the content
• Solution: Make sure to read the whole card
• Trying to use Anki to learn content or understand concepts
• Use other primary resources
• Seeing cards too frequently
• Hit the “easy” button or change settings (later slides)

Keeping up with Cards

• Don’t unsuspend too many
• Be comfortable re-suspending cards
• Make time in your schedule to do cards
• Make it fun
• Do cards in different environments: hot tub, sitting by the pool, on a cardio machine, outside, etc.
• Customize the app with “Custom background image and gear icon” add-on (1210908941)
• Gamify it with a game controller

Learning Pathways?

• Everyone has different preferences
• One pathway such as the citric acid cycle can lead to 40+ cards
• Try drawing or active recall

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One step of the cycle is 4 cards:

Acetyl-CoA (1) is combined with oxaloacetate (2) via the enzyme

citrate synthase (3), forming

citrate (4)

Modifying Cards

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• Add in class details with a note
• Change the number of cards in a multiple Cloze card: change all the “c#” to “c1”

Activity: modify your “Recipes for Success” card and see what happens

Anki Mobile & Syncing

• Sync your Anki across your devices
• Mobile Anki is free for android, $25 for iPhone/iPad
• Not a good interface for unsuspending cards, just for doing them
• Instructions: https://medshamim.com/med/anki-mobile

Questions?

Extras (if time permits)

• Studying by subdeck can help you stay in the same mindspace when doing cards, but others prefer doing AnKing as a whole
• Keeping cards after you finish a block
• Prioritize new cards/blocks
• You will learn most things twice
• You have 2 years until STEP
• Only keep cards after pathology or organ blocks
• Devil’s advocate: Revisiting material from previous blocks with new knowledge is extremely educational
• Settings: I changed mine so I see them less frequently and it’s been a game-changer, see Anki Guide

Extras: details

Subdecks vs. Tags (subdecks does cards in orders, tags helps you label them but lets you do them in random order). Studying by subdeck can help you stay in the same mindspace when doing cards.

“Bury related new cards” (useful if you feel like you’re only getting cards right because you saw the other cloze deletion card, not good in Pepper deck)

Keeping cards after you finish a block (make sure to prioritize new cards, remember that you will cover most things twice, you have 2 years until STEP -- I would personally recommend keeping cards from organ blocks. Revisiting material from previous blocks with new knowledge is extremely educational)

Settings (I changed mine so I see them less frequently and it’s been a game-changer, see Anki guide for details)

Extras:

Catching Up

Resources to get Started (if you missed/forgot the tutorial)

Anki Guide from Recipes for Success: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1D8VrmDB1E4gfK1yxjjmSMu1NOzU7jA-YaV9JZRDFC9g/edit#

Basic tutorial for making cards: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=e9GtFLAI2RU&ab_channel=RachelSouthard

Overview on Anking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbi90aa-h3I&ab_channel=ZachHighley

Anking channel (everything is here)