How to Upload Anki Decks to Ankiweb

How to Apply Anki: An Efficient Tutorial for Beginners

December 28, 2020 June 25, 2020

How-do-you-do, this is Lesson i of four in the Anki Fundamentals costless grade. I hope you similar it! Let me know if you have any questions or feedback — I'd like to hear what you lot recollect! 🙂

Hi, welcome here. In this mail service, you're going to larn how to showtime using Anki in the most efficient way possible — based on my experience.

Whether you're using Anki for medical school, MCAT, language learning, engineering (like I did) or for continuous learning (what I practice at present) — I think you're gonna honey this.

Specifically, nosotros're going to cover the nearly essential elements of Anki that you should focus on, and so y'all can:

• Immediately outset using this awesome spaced repetition software
• Avert the aforementioned mistakes that I did; and
• Take a roadmap that tells yous what'south actually important when using Anki

If y'all don't know already, here are a couple of things Anki allows yous to do in a nutshell:

• Schedule reviews automatically, so you don't have to worry about which specific topic to written report
• Study 1714.29% more efficiently as compared to those using conventional flashcards
• Just report data you're about to forget, so you lot study simply what needs studying
• Encode data into long term retentiveness at will, rather than by chance
• Remember near anything you want 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 larn the few core info if you're just looking to start.

The Anki manual is helpful, but it's an app documentation rather than a quick-start guide.

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

Redditors seem to concord:

The very offset version of this commodity was read by thousands of people from Reddit — awesome guys out in that location.

That being said, I made this guide comprehensive, all the same concise so that this will also make you a decent Anki user more quickly.

Hither'south what you're gonna acquire in this post:

Contents

• 1 Real Talk: What is Anki? How does it work?
• 2 Isn't Anki merely for memorizing minor facts?
  • 2.1 "If Anki is so effective, then why practice so many people fail at using it?"
• 3 How to Kickoff Using Anki
  • 3.i Downloading Anki
  • 3.2 Creating and Organizing Decks
  • three.3 Creating and Organizing Cards
• four Here'south How I Make Anki Flashcards
• 5 Rules to Follow when Creating New Cards
  • 5.ane Dominion #1. Learn FIRST, and Then practice spaced practice
  • 5.2 Rule #2. Short question, short answer.
  • 5.3 Dominion #iii. The number of cards doesn't matter
• 6 How You Tin can Study Without Spending Written report Time
• seven Boom That Spacebar
  • 7.1 Why Y'all Should NEVER Miss a Day of Review
  • vii.two Custom Study
• viii Next Steps

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

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

Fifty-fifty if you lot're not born with awesome recall skills, Anki tin help you tointentionally commit information into long-term retentiveness.

But there's a caveat.

That is, Anki works past supplementing your study process.

As good as information technology is, information technology's Not a magic pill nor a substitute for poor learning skills.

Why? Because Anki covers merely the terminal one-third of the brain'south processes for long-term data encoding ¹ .

If the start two-thirds of the arrangement y'all use for studying is messed upward, then Anki isn't really going to help at all.

Then many newbies feel this problem that I made yet another course about it. (I'll tell you about information technology when you stop reading.)

Ultimately, I did this because when you exercise employ Anki with the right process, you could gain tremendous advantage over the competition:

• You basically guarantee that anything y'all study (over 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
• You eliminate the about time-wasting study activity of all — "restudying what you've already studied because you lot forgot"
• You can turn downtime into productive study time (when you use Anki while eating, for example, it allows yous to practice l items in a breeze)

Best of all, y'all get a tremendous long-term efficiency benefit:

Michael Nielsen predicted that in twenty years, he is 1714.29% (120 minutes/7 minutes * 100%) more than efficient for each menu when learning using spaced repetition compared to conventional flashcard learning. ² I plant that this was even greater for me — and it will be true for you, also, after you lot read this mail.

Does any of that sound good then far?

Okay, proficient. Permit'due south move on.

Isn't Anki just for memorizing small facts?

Opposite to popular conventionalities, just because Anki is a flashcard app doesn't hateful it's only used for memorizing words or raw facts.

As I imply in the final section, Anki is besides a tool for LEARNING — which means it helps you lot establish a "library of mental models" for understanding college-level concepts.

Personally, I've used it with great success for all kinds of things — From Algebra to Advanced Engineering Mathematics, Physics, Electronics Technology, Electronic Communications, Marketing, Business organization, Content Creation, Control Systems Engineering, Birthdays, and so on.

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

"If Anki is so effective, so why do and then many people neglect at using it?"

Glad you asked. Three reasons why:

1. They use shared decks. They keep trying to remember what they haven't even learned yet.
2. They create 1 deck for each topic — a recipe for what'south 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/iii of the encephalon's learning process. They functionally fix themselves into Anki — they run into it every bit "the entire machine" when really, it'south really simply "a pocket-sized part of the engine". Once again, I'll talk more than about it at the end of this post to keep this section tight for the uninterested.

Note: I'grand well aware that y'all tin can utilise shared decks effectively for standardized exams, but I really don't recommend information technology — UNLESS y'all're in Medical School. I know of people who've created and used loftier-quality shared decks with great success, and you can find them here.

Matter is, nigh of these people who neglect at using Anki treat is as a magic pill, instead of a tool that requires skill. (Woah, that rhymed…)

Michael Nielsen, one of the pioneers of breakthrough calculating, put information technology best 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 use well. It'south worth thinking of Anki equally a skill that can be developed to virtuoso levels, and attempting to continue to level upwards toward such virtuosity.

Put another fashion, Anki is just effective if yous know how to make it effective.

How to Get-go Using Anki

To kickoff using Anki, yous need a computer (or laptop) and/or smartphone — preferably, both.

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

Downloading Anki

To download Anki on your figurer, caput over to AnkiWeb and download Anki.

I prefer to use 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 apply it)

Y'all'll still be fine whichever version you intend to use, just keep the add together-on compatibility in heed if you want to use them (which, you'll want to).

UPDATE (1/28/2020): Since Anki started phased out Anki 2.0, I now recommend downloading the latest version, which yous tin can notice at the aforementioned place.

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

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

Creating and Organizing Decks

Once you lot've installed and opened Anki, you'll see 1 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, just hitting the "Create Deck" button on the bottom part of the Anki window. You lot'll be asked for a Deck name; I similar to apply my subject'southward name for this i.

Now here's where it gets interesting.

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

On the other hand, if you're a higher student, and then ask yourself:

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

If you lot answered "yeah", then you should put those "things" in a single deck. (Related: Creating Effective Decks)

Think ahead!

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

Hither'due south what I mean.

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

I literally studied like 4 textbooks on that subject and filtered out unimportant stuff to get ahead more chop-chop.

Hither'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 correct way, your exams transform into black-and-white results. It'southward either:

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

No more "mental cake" type of crap again.

To exist fair, I only had 2-iii months left to learn EST as I deleted all of my decks to get the cards correct. (Lamentable life. That's what I'm talking nigh when I said "easy to mess upward".)

Anyway, I'll elaborate more than on this in the next lesson, simply this should exercise for now.

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

Ane, by using the format "MAINDECK::SUBDECK". Case "Physics::Thermodynamics".

And 2, by dragging the deck over to the desired Main deck. Here'south an illustration.

Don't get me incorrect, though — I don't apply the "subdeck" method very ofttimes, unless my subdivision is a really broad discipline.

Also, I don't recommend y'all create a lot of subdecks—y'all're better off using Tags instead for "Custom Study" purposes (more on this afterward).

Creating and Organizing Cards

To create cards, simply hit the "Add" on the tiptop office of your window.

Past clicking on it, you should be seeing the Add New window containing (1) Type, (2) Deck, (3) Front and Back fields, and (4) Tag field.

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

In the "Add together New" window, the question goes in "Front" and the reply goes in "Back" field, just similar your good ol' newspaper flashcards.

In one case you've entered your desired Question and Answer pair, you can click on "Add" or simply use the shortcut: Ctrl + Enter to brand the bill of fare.

Annotation: Brand sure to DOUBLE CHECK the "Deck" field before adding the carte du jour to forestall future headaches.

By the style, the card y'all've just seen is one of the "Basic" Card Types.

Tthe "Basic" card type allows y'all to perform the traditional flashcard studying.

The Cloze deletion, on the other paw, is a "fill-in-the-bare" type of card.

Out of the many card types, I have found that the "Cloze" card blazon was the most flexible one—as well the easiest to create. (Only that was back when I used Anki 2.0.)

Either works fine, tho. Anyway, let'due south move on to organizing your cards.

Like I said, I like to use Tags instead of subdecks.

Why tags? Because it simplifies everything. You need non worry about creating subdecks for each subject because you can use "Custom Study" more selectively later on.

You can add together Tags to your cards in ii ways: During Menu Creation, or using the Card Browser.

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

To add Tags, y'all only enter the name of your desired Tag on the "Tags" field of the Add New window.

Here'due south something to remember: Supersede spaces with underscores.

Note: If yous missed that and accidentally entered two words separated past spaces, you'll exist creating Two tags for your cards, not i.

At present, creating that card, you should notice that the Tag name yous entered in the Tags field did not go away.

This means you tin create and create several cards without having to worry nearly putting Tags in every single time—that's pretty handy.

The second method is via the Carte du jour Browser. You open it up past clicking on "Browse" on the Habitation Screen or pressing "B" in the same place.

And then, just find your cards by clicking on a deck where you put your new cards in (1), and then select your cards on the right-hand side (2), and press Ctrl + Shift + A.

I don't prefer this method because it's rather easy to mess this up. Imagine accidentally adding tags to other cards when you already have a large collection of cards — just thinking about organizing it is already a disaster.

Let's motion on to the more than practical guide—How I make Anki Cards.

Here'southward How I Brand Anki Flashcards

When you're creating your cards, the most convenient manner to create loftier-quality cards is to include:

• A well-formulated question
• A short, specific respond
• Screenshot of source
• Tags (optional)

Yous should be good as long every bit you call back those.

To demonstrate, I'll be using a random volume from the medical field (a field I don't know annihilation about) merely to demonstrate this process from a beginner standpoint.

And so, when I run across something on my volume like this:

This bill of fare below is the one I make. I included the Question, Answer, Screenshot, and Tag.

Notice that I italicized and bolded the word "previously" to show accent. Information technology'due south a style to make a cue for an respond more than salient and easier to process.

At present, I highlight the answer along with the screenshot and then press Ctrl + Shift + C. That's the shortcut for a Cloze deletion.

Notation that you tin totally use a bones card for this. I just used Cloze because:

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

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

Shortcut for Cloze Deletion: Ctrl + Shift + C

Allow's look at the carte du jour previews.

By the fashion, I want to tell you that for conceptual subjects, I break each concept downwards into more than questions that test my agreement .

From the same passage in the book:

My questions go like this:

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

Respond: Antibodies and Activated Lymphocytes.

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

Answer: Previously Encountered Agents.

Basically, for conceptual data, y'all take to encourage your understanding of the material.

Facts are proficient to include as cards, but ultimately, our questions should ALSO simulate situations that use the concept itself then we don't miss out on actually applying what nosotros take learned.

For example, this menu:

Meet how that works?

Alright, let'southward motility on to what you need to recall when creating new cards.

Rules to Follow when Creating New Cards

Rule #i. Learn Commencement, and THEN practice spaced practice

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

NOT to exam what you haven't learned — which many people do.

It's easy to go confident that you lot can call back annihilation using Anki, but none of that matters if you do not understand the cloth you're putting in. (Unless you lot're really memorizing isolated facts, but even so, context matters for retention)

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

Yous'll know how to answer the flashcard merely you'll observe out that you lot cannot apply the "knowledge" anywhere else.

In other words, you but become pseudoknowledge.

Dominion #2. Short question, short answer.

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

Don't even try to put "Explain" blazon of questions.

Break them down as much as possible.

This brings me to my next signal.

Rule #three. The number of cards doesn't matter

When adding cards, it doesn't matter if you have plenty of cards simply by studying a chapter as long as you follow the two rules in a higher place.

What matters is you actually learn the concepts thoroughly.

So, again, break a concept equally much equally possible. By doing this, y'all'll exist able to recall each carte du jour in less than a second. (Well, not less than a second, but that's how it'll feel similar 😉)

Information technology's much, much faster compared to creating a few simply long, complicated cards.

For example, instead of:

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

You write questions like:

• "What is Newton's First Law of Movement?"
• "What is Newton's Third Law of Motion?"
• "Which constabulary states F=ma?" (obviously, this question covers 1 law in another angle — also chosen redundancy)

This reduces ambiguity — making your cards faster to reply. Compare that to doing a mini-encephalon dump for each bill of fare and you'll realize information technology gets tiresome pretty apace.

How Yous Can Study Without Spending Study Time

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

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

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

This volition let automatic syncing of your deck to the AnkiWeb servers—which allows you lot to sync your cards to ALL devices.

It's pretty neat, specially if you lot're going exterior with your smartphone. (or when you're sitting on the toilet — non exactly neat, tho)

When you're waiting in line, or just doing zilch at all, instead of scrolling through Facebook, y'all can respond v to xx cards in a minute, depending on how good you create cards.

That means you're converting idle time into STUDYING.

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

Yous can turn it off and manually sync your cards by pressing Y on the habitation screen, but it's e'er a good idea to sync your cards automatically upon open/exit just to avoid forgetting.

Smash That Spacebar

Studying using Anki is pretty straightforward.

Yous simply open the app, click a deck with due cards, and y'all're set up.

When a card shows upwards, y'all just press on the spacebar to show the respond.

When the answer shows up, you are given choices below to cull from: Again, Expert, Easy. (This is for new cards only — we'll get more into this in Lesson four)

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

• Again – Less than a minute, the bill of fare will show up again
• Proficient – The card will show up in less than 10 minutes
• Easy – The card will evidence upward after 4 days

Y'all press Again when you failed to think the answer, Good when you successfully recall the answer, and Piece of cake when you recall the reply in an instant. Yous can use shortcuts as shown below:

Every bit a side note for default settings, pressing "Again" on a mature carte for a total of 8 times makes your card "disappear" and non show upwards for review.

This is chosen a "Leech menu", and is usually classified as a poorly created card.

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

Alright, now earlier I end this, I would like to give y'all some tips that would assist you lot report smarter using Anki.

Why Y'all Should NEVER Miss a 24-hour interval of Review

Retentiveness works every single day, which means seldomly used data are DELETED every single day.

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

Another reason not to skip is you terminate up with a mountain of cards the next twenty-four hours. Yup, at present you'll take to review your overdue cards PLUS your due cards — that's a hell of a review session to go through (trust me, I've been through 1500 cards in a day and I virtually cried merely doing that).

Then, try do report every single day without fail.

Custom Study

In dissimilarity, at that place might be some days that y'all have a lot fewer cards than you used to.

It'due south probably because most of your cards are mature plenty and/or you actually have few cards in your deck.

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

When you practise a custom study session, you tin can select cards from specific Tags in a certain Deck.

Information technology's smart to use information technology right before an exam if you lot're a student, simply to take advantage of that "fresh" state of recall.

Next Steps

As powerful as Anki is, information technology'due south simply a tool that needs to exist operated the right way — and I desire to brand certain I drive that point abode.

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

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

Otherwise, let's become dorsum to the "information encoding" part earlier.

Remember I told yous this?

If the first ii-thirds of the system you lot employ for studying is messed upward, then Anki isn't really going to help at all.

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

Work with it and yous guarantee retentiveness & learning speed.

Otherwise, you guarantee forgetting and wasted time.

It'southward as uncomplicated equally information technology gets. However, many don't seem to get this.

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

They endeavor to overoptimize Anki every bit though it's the only thing that matters for learning.

That's why I've put together a 2d free course for yous so you tin can avoid this big trap — I telephone call information technology "Tool-first Thinking" and it'southward i 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 correct now, or you constantly feel behind of your study schedule, I insist that you devour the next class with all your center.

Information technology'south 100% gratis.

When you're ready, only click the red button downwardly below.

P.S. I previously made the exclusive "Advanced Anki Learner Training" PDF available to everyone, but I removed it because I decided it'south not really for everybody. I'm at present making it bachelor simply to my private newsletter subs. I've set up a "filtering mechanism" for people who are the best fit for it. You can become it at the Start Here page.

Footnotes

1. Melton, A. W. (1963). Implications of short-term memory for a general theory of memory. Journal of Exact Learning and Verbal Beliefs, ii(i), 1–21.
2. Nielsen, K. (2018). Augmenting Long-term Retentivity. http://augmentingcognition.com/ltm.html

garnergint1999.blogspot.com

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