 So you're trying to use Anki, you're trying to use flashcards to help yourself get better grades, but right now you just want to pull your hair out. What should you do? Talk about it in this video. Let's get to it. All right guys, welcome to the MD Journey, a channel completely dedicated to helping you succeed on your medical journey with left stress. My name is Lux, I'm an internal medicine physician and resident in training. In this channel we talk about everything medical journey related, including studying productivity. And today we are going to be talking about how to make Anki work for you and make sure you don't fall for those common pitfalls that most med students do. Let's get into it. But before I forget, consider hitting that subscribe button and checking out other videos on the channel after you're done with this one, putting out two videos just like this on a weekly basis and make sure if you do enjoy the video that you hit that like button down below. Now I made a few videos on Anki, one specifically showing you the technique that I used in medical school, as well as one that kind of shows you how to use it faster. But in this video, I want to give you a little bit of an overview as well as answer some questions that you guys keep asking me in the comment section. Now first things first, I want to talk about two tips that I've given in previous videos to help you explain how to use Anki more effectively. Now, the biggest question and kind of comment that I get is about somebody who has loads of flashcards left to review and it's becoming overwhelming. It's been hard to kind of be consistent with your flashcards. So the first tip I'd give you on how to use Anki better is to kind of have a mental or actual physical timer involved in your flashcards. And so I've shared what this in a previous video, so I'm not gonna get too crazy into it. But essentially, instead of just saying, well, I'm gonna have to answer this flashcard and then I can move on, give yourself a very brief timer, maybe like 10 seconds and saying, can I answer this flashcard or not? Because I found through my own experience as well as working with other med students through coaching is that you find the most benefit from Anki cards actually come from making the mistake. So if you have a flashcard that you're not exactly sure how to approach, instead of spending two minutes trying to answer, it's better you probably spend 10 seconds and saying, I don't know it, let me look at the answer and move forward and review. And to avoid falling into a trap where you're spending excesses amounts of time just for one single flashcard, have either a physical timer on your phone or a mental timer where you say, after 10 to 15 seconds, if I don't understand it, I'm just gonna look at the answer. And then when I see the answer, I'm gonna give myself 10, 20 seconds to review and then click that one minute button so I can see it again pretty soon. And so just to hit it home, imagine if you had two students, one who is spending about a minute per flashcard or even more just to make sure they perfectly get all the information and a second student who is giving themselves a timer about 10 to 15 seconds. Student A will be able to get through all the material and maybe have a comfort for their initial phase, but unfortunately their retention will go down. If you compare that to student B, they're gonna have so many more opportunities for repetition. In fact, what you'll find is that student B will notice that the easy topics maybe they repeat and get right on their first try or maybe their second. And that way they can spend the remaining months of time dedicated specifically to things that they're weaker on. So student B not only will have more repetition, they'll also have better ideally retention. And finally, in a bonus, they'll have more time dedicated to their weaker topics compared to student A who's spending about the same amount of time regardless if the flashcard is hard or easy. Now moving on from timing, tip number two on how to use on key cards a little bit more effectively is to try using screenshot tools to be able to kind of expedite your creation phase. Now I've made videos in the past, I'll link them down below, but basically it takes us so much time to actually create the flashcards. You wanna expedite that process as best as possible. So if you're using a PowerPoint slide or if you're using a syllabus or if you're using an online resource to create your on key cards, maybe see if you can actually use a snipping tool or a screenshot tool on your laptop to just be able to replace the typing of the questions or the actual answer of the slide. If there's a PowerPoint slide in your lecture that basically explains what you would have typed anyways, might as well just go ahead and screenshot that and use that as kind of your flashcard. It's a great way to say do I know everything on the slide or do I not? And if you're interested in a more step-by-step approach on how I use on key, then I'll also link down below access to the MedVault. And one of the many different things that we have in this free library for you on the MD journey website is basically my 78 step process that I use in med school, including how I used on key. Next, let's transition to some things that I get questions about all the time, which are my on key settings. Now, if you're unfamiliar, on key basically has its own default settings on how it goes by its space repetition algorithm. But if you click in the option setting of any deck, then go ahead and choose how many new flashcards you want, how many review flashcards you want, and basically kind of what period of time would you want if something is very easy versus something that you were having a little bit of difficulty on. Now, spoiler alert, nine out of 10 times, I'm usually not gonna make any changes to the default settings that on key gives me, usually it does the trick. Now, a few times where I will make some adjustments if I have a deck that's remained, such as like if I'm setting for step one or step two, and those on key cards are just enormous in terms of the deck size. And so I wanna make sure that I'm able to get enough of the new material as well as review as possible. So then I will go ahead and kind of change the numbers. You know, 20 flashcards every day and new material for a thousand plus flashcard deck isn't really realistic. And so that may change that to 50 or more depending on your capabilities. Or if it's a really small deck, but they all have a lot of pieces of information, then maybe I'll change that number to 10. So it's up to you on your preference level, but I usually just kind of stick by the defaults on majority of the things for Anki. Now, if you are using my step-by-step method on how I used Anki, one of the things I do use is kind of a cramming method through Anki to review old flashcards. Now I wanna make sure that I'm gonna reviewing an old lecture, I'm not just kind of getting the weak points, but I'm also getting some things that used to be my strength and I wanna make sure they stay in my strength. So actually go to the custom study option. And if you click down here, study by card state, you can actually say all cards in a random order. And basically it'll show you every single card that needs to be in that deck. And that way you can make sure that when you're reviewing all the flashcards, both the easy ones and the hard ones will show up at once. And so if you're somebody who is ending up with a really large review deck of old cards that you need to review, usually when I'm reviewing an old lecture for an upcoming quiz, I'll use this cramming function that way when I say I'm studying chapter one, I'll review all those lectures from chapter one, not just the ones that Anki will recommend on that specific day. Now, one of the features I do enjoy using is a stats function above. Now, if you're going through a very large deck or if you're preparing for an upcoming exam, sometimes it's important to kind of understand how many flashcards you still haven't gone through. And so I like to go down below. And so for the step two deck that I have downloaded, actually have 2,000 cards that I still have left good to go through if I was studying for step two. And so this is a great way of being able to understand do I need to increase how many new cards I'm shown in a daily basis, or do I just need to do more flashcards on a daily basis? The stats function really helps. Now, as we're kind of diving into the settings, one of the related questions that I do get is should you download the apps on your devices? Now, for Android right now, Anki's actually free, so the answer for that is definitely. But for Apple devices like your iPhones or your iPads, there actually is a fee. And I think the last time I had to pay for it is about 20 to 30 bucks, but it's a one-time fee. And the question is, should you have to pay that or should you as a beneficial? I honestly recommend that if you do have an iPhone or an iPad to go ahead and just spend that one-time charge to make sure that if you ever do have your iPad or your iPhone near you and you're gonna do those flashcards, you can do it without having to wait to get to your computer or your Android device. Or you can just go ahead and get an Android device, but I know you Apple lovers won't like that. But with all jokes aside, I did like to go ahead and buy the app on my iPad, and I would use that app for my rotations as well as in-between classes. And so to wrap up this video, I wanna share a few other techniques you can use to really make Anki more effective as well as increase your retention when using the flashcards themselves. So the first thing that I would recommend doing is to work in focus intervals. Often we'll say I need to do 200 flashcards a day, which individually may not seem like a lot, but if you do miss a day, then doing 400 flashcards the next day is kind of a little overwhelming. And 600 cards the following day, if you were to miss two days in a row can basically just done deal. You're not gonna do it. So the best way to actually process getting through as many cards as you've assigned yourself is to try to break it into many focus sessions. So maybe you find that you could do 25 flashcards before kind of starting your day or having breakfast or going to class. Doing those 25 flashcards may only take you about 10 minutes to do, but you're already about a fourth of the way done if you were assigned yourself 100 flashcards in a day. So if you have these mini focus sessions throughout the day where you're able to do it during some downtime before a meal, after a meal or before some transition in your medical schedule, you'll be able to get through a lot of flashcards without feeling like it's overbearing or that you're doing tons of flashcards in a daily basis. So each seem like a very manageable task and it's much likely for you to do those individual small mini tasks instead of that big task in one sitting. And so our focus intervals can help you take a lot of flashcards and make them more manageable. One of the questions I do get is how to go about your review. Now we talked about the cramming function to be able to see all the flashcards in one place, but one of the things that many students have issues with is just the flashcards starting to gather up and not really knowing how to approach them do you use the flashcards that Anki recommends or do you just go through the lectures? Now personally, I like to have all my lectures assigned to a specific day of the week on when I review them. So for example, if lecture one was today then the second time I would review lecture one would probably be over the weekend and then I have a specific day of the week coming into an exam day of when I would review it for the third or fourth time if I'm allowed to. And I would specifically assign an hour block or 30 minute block depending on my comfort level for that lecture to review those Anki cards and use that cram session. Now how I go about scheduling the various lectures throughout my schedule before a week of an exam really varies from what most people do. Most people will probably start from the first lecture and move down chronological order, but it's very easy to get overwhelmed because it's been a while since you've learned that initial material and then as you get towards the end there's also a likelihood that you'll forget lecture one for the second time. So what I actually like to do is kind of go from outside in approach. So if my first day review I would have had enough time to review three lectures I wouldn't just do lecture one, two and three I would actually probably do lecture one and two as well as the last lecture of that block. So if there was 20 lectures for an exam I would do lecture one, two and 20 and day two I would do lecture three, four and 19. This way I'm getting a little bit of old material and new material that way my confidence is kind of there and not beaten up by old material that I may have forgotten but I'm also making sure that each topic is being covered with a little bit of a variety the same way that it would show up on exam day. So if you're struggling to figure out how to review your flashcards for Anki for an exam I encourage you to maybe get away from using the flashcards Anki gives you instead try to basically assign specific times of the week coming into an exam for a specific lecture trying to use that custom option to see all of your flashcards in one time and maybe also using that outside in approach to make sure you're seeing each lecture in a very authentic way. So those guys are the tips for this video on how to use Anki better to make sure that they're more effective but I know you guys probably still have questions about Anki so make sure you drop them in the comment section and while you're down there go ahead and also consider checking out some of the free resources including the MedVault which is a full free library of resources for all your medical journey as well as some of the books and courses that we have for you on theamdetraining.com and if you somehow made it to the end of the video and you still haven't subscribed then go ahead and support the channel and your boy by hitting that like button and that subscribe button or putting out two videos just like this on a weekly basis but with that being said guys thank you so much for watching as always I appreciate your support thank you for making it to the end hopefully I've been a little help to you on your journey thanks for being a part of mine I'll see you guys in the next one, peace.