It seems like it can tick many of the boxes for effective long term learning if used properly (including not just surface learning but also deep conceptual understanding). However, my impression is that there is a learning curve and a cost associated to using it consistently, which leads to it not being used as much. Idk. What’s your experience?
Anki was a part of my language learning routine, but now, it has become my language learning routine. It’s not ideal, nor do I like it, but as I’ve decided to temporarily stop my language learning, I continued doing Anki in hopes that whatever I’ve learned continue to stick, and not be forgotten.
Now, with that out of the way, I want to describe how I actually used and continue to use Anki.
I’ve been keeping up a streak that has gone unbroken since 2020. Before that, I’ve got a good streak going on in 2019, but felt too burnt out I had to stop. The highest number of reviews I had to make was just under a thousand. Some Anki users might think it’s rookie numbers, but that’s really a bit too much for me especially as I’ve only got like an hour devoted to Anki-related stuff.
The way I do it, I only have one review session (though this review session might be scattered throughout the day). I go through each of my decks, review them, and then move to another deck. Sometimes, I add new cards to the review queue when the reviews for that deck go below a certain threshold. For some decks, it’s zero, but for some others, it’s some value I’ve come up via trial and error. More about this later.
Anyways, there is really a learning curve to using it, but I think the biggest issue people face in trying to use Anki is pacing.
One problem I faced quite early on is just the number of reviews I have to do everyday rising up. Even just adding one new card to the review queue every day would quickly add up, and adds up at a faster rate if you’ve got lots of decks. So at some point, I was reviewing well over 500 cards in a day, and I was close to burning out. Then I decided to just stop adding new cards to the review queue, and just let the review pile get lower and lower. It got to the point where I was reviewing only a card or two per deck in a day, at which point, I shouldn’t bother, right?
So, I came up with a way to try to keep my reviews at a healthy number: by varying the number of new cards I add to the review queue. For some decks, it’s a simple threshold (e.g.: if reviews < 32, add a new card), for others, it’s multiple thresholds e.g.:
if reviews < 8, add 1 new card;
else, if reviews < 4 add 2 new cards;
else, if reviews < 2, add 3 new cards;
else, if reviews < 1, add 4 new cards
Currently, I’m averaging just above 120 cards for all my decks per day, which is an amount I’m okay with.
Some people might disagree with me and think my way is inefficient, but I think it’s really all about finding your own way to use Anki the way that best fits your situation. I am not a medical student and I don’t need to study for exams (I currently have no plans of taking language certification exams, like the JLPT or the DELF), so I don’t really need to cram. Furthermore, I am in no rush, so slow and inefficient might just be okay with me.
If your method allows you to study consistently, I think it’s fine.
Thanks for sharing your method.
As to your take on Anki, I think it’s fair and accurate. I agree with you in that the learning curve is not in the features or the interface, but as you said: in the pacing. I really hope I can try to space the cards as much as possible, so that a regular practice doesn’t become burdensome.
Med student here. I probably would’ve failed a lot of in house exams/step 1 if I didn’t use anki. IMO it’s best for solidifying knowledge and quick recall of facts, but doing a shitload of practice questions is the best way to apply what you’ve memorized through anki (this last bit is most applicable to med school/mcat prep).
Really the main cost with it is your time. If you miss a day or two it can be daunting to get back in the groove and work on your review backlog. I usually have enough downtime during the day and time on the shitter to get through my reviews + whatever new cards I add. Anki itself is free but they do have a paid iOS app that I got just to use whenever I had a few mins of spare time.
As for the learning curve, this will vary if you’re making your own cards vs using a premade deck for a large standardized exam. Once you know the formatting it isn’t that difficult to make cloze cards for what you’re trying to learn.
If you miss a day or two it can be daunting to get back in the groove and work on your review backlog.
This is really why a lot of people I’ve talked about this are adamant about never missing a day of Anki reviews. Far more than keeping the streak going (which is a nice ego boost), avoiding this backlog of reviews is why you shouldn’t miss a day of reviews.
But even without missing a day, you might still face an ever increasing amount of reviews, which in my personal experience, has put people off Anki—people who I managed to convince to give it a try.
To the other great responses here, I want to add that the act of creating cards for your deck, especially when you go beyond a straightforward multiple choice format, is in itself a form of study. To create a good test question usually you are digesting the information more deeply
It helped me tremendously in college, and I still use it today, both for past knowledge retention, as well as learning some new things. It is an incredible tool.
As far as the learning curve goes, I would recommend this: just use it as is. You can dive down a rabbit hole of optimizing your learning approach and adding the right extensions, but that time is better spent just studying what you want to learn.
Use the Cloze format, keep cards limited to a couple sentences at most, and practice daily for a couple minutes, and you can’t go wrong.
yeah, the dark priest has lots of disadvantages to start, but once you can get a crew of undead and the Marriage going, he really comes into his own-- wait, what are we talking about?
