Welcome to Medical School, where students utilize an app called ANKI to do or make flashcards to enhance their learning and memory, utilizing spaced repetition to convert material from short-term memory into long-term memory.

The benefits of doing ANKI are excellent, but figuring out how to use ANKI takes time and practice. I learned how to use it more and more by watching youtube videos.

ANKI

First, download ANKI on your laptop and phone; yes, you may have to pay for it on your phone, but trust me, when you have downtime between patients on rounds, you will be so thankful you spent 20-30$?? on it and can study effectively in 5 minutes. 

Second, download the Step 1 Deck (zanki, lolnotacop) or Step 2 Deck (zanki – OME) – check out the blog posts to learn more about how I used those decks for which specific subjects.

Thirdly, spice up doing anki and get a remote controller, setting it up with Joystick Mapper to sit back, relax and click through some cards.

Tips To Using ANKI

Below are the methods I have utilized to effectively utilize ANKI in medical school.

• FILTERED DECKS
  • Click this link for a video tutorial.
  • Create a filtered deck utilizing a hashtag to be able to see certain cards from the whole collection and keep it organized with the cards you create separately.
    • 1. At the top, click “TOOLS”–>”Create a filtered deck.”
    • 2. Under “Deck” –> “Name:” –> Name your deck, I like to put ** at the top to keep it at the top of my ANKI
    • 3. Under “Filter” –> “Search:” insert [tag:#residency (is:new OR is:due)]
  • By creating the hashtag and inserting it into all your cards, it inserts ALL the different cards here, whether I create them or unsuspend them, and keeps it organized to study from.
  • I “limit” to “9999” to allow all cards to appear per day and “select” the cards “randomly” to see all the different materials continuously.

• Examples of Hashtags I Used
  • COMP Step 1 – #inccomp
  • Step 1 – #incstep1
  • Internal Medicine – #incim
  • Psychiatry – #incpsych
  • Surgery – #incsurgery
  • Family Medicine – #incfm
  • Pediatrics – #incpeds
  • OBGYN – #incobgyn
  • Comp Step 2 – #inccomp2
  • Step 2 – #incstep2

• SUSPEND/UNSUSPEND
  • After doing videos, I like to unsuspend corresponding cards that are associated with the topic I have just finished to reinforce the material further. 
  • I tag SOME of the unsuspended cards into my filtered deck based on my uworld incorrect.

• Create my own cards
  • Scroll all the way to the bottom of the uworld question, I create a card based off the UWORLD education objective, and most importantly, HASHTAG it with the corresponding filtered deck that I am currently studying for.
  • After getting a question wrong – I will search in the Anki deck to see what other cards are created in regard to the corresponding topic, for some questions, I may tag a few extra cards if it’s something I am really struggling with.

Conclusion

Learning how to effectively use ANKI may take time, but it is so worthwhile long term and has been the best tool I have used throughout medical school to efficiently learn and retain the material. I hope these tips help you on your next exam.

If you have any additional questions, please contact me on Instagram @dr.sandrakamel or email me down below.