How To Add Addons To Anki

Hi, this is Lesson 1 of 5 in the Anki Fundamentals free course. I hope yous like information technology! Let me know if you have whatever questions or feedback — I'd similar to hear what y'all recollect! 🙂

Hi, welcome hither. In this post, you're going to learn how to start using Anki in the near efficient manner possible — based on my feel.

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

Specifically, we're going to cover the near essential elements of Anki that you lot should focus on, so you can:

Immediately showtime using this awesome spaced repetition software
Avoid the same mistakes that I did; and
Have a roadmap that tells you what's really important when using Anki

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

Schedule reviews automatically, so you don't have to worry virtually which specific topic to study
Study 1714.29% more efficiently as compared to those using conventional flashcards
Only report data you lot're nigh to forget, then y'all written report but what needs studying
Encode data into long term retentiveness at will, rather than by chance
Recollect almost annihilation y'all want without having to re-read
Study anywhere! Studying felt less effortful than ever the moment I started using Anki earlier. What a approving.

Now, this guide exists because I believe yous just need to acquire the few core info if you're only looking to outset.

The Anki transmission is helpful, but information technology's an app documentation rather than a quick-first guide.

You want a guide that'due south Lean, rather than filled with information y'all tin can't readily use.

Redditors seem to agree:

The very beginning version of this article was read by thousands of people from Reddit — awesome guys out there.

That beingness said, I made this guide comprehensive, nevertheless curtailed so that this will also brand y'all a decent Anki user more than quickly.

Hither's what you're gonna learn in this post:

Contents

1 Real Talk: What is Anki? How does information technology piece of work?
2 Isn't Anki but for memorizing pocket-size facts?
- ii.1 "If Anki is so effective, and then why do so many people fail at using it?"
3 How to Start Using Anki
- 3.1 Downloading Anki
- 3.ii Creating and Organizing Decks
- 3.iii Creating and Organizing Cards
4 Here'southward How I Make Anki Flashcards
5 Rules to Follow when Creating New Cards
- 5.1 Rule #one. Learn FIRST, and Then do spaced practice
- 5.2 Dominion #2. Short question, brusk answer.
- v.3 Dominion #three. The number of cards doesn't matter
half dozen How You Tin Report Without Spending Study Time
seven Smash That Spacebar
- seven.1 Why You Should NEVER Miss a Twenty-four hours of Review
- seven.two Custom Study
viii Side by side Steps

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

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

Even if you lot're not born with crawly call back skills, Anki can help you tointentionally commit data into long-term memory.

But there'southward a caveat.

That is, Anki works by supplementing your report process.

As proficient as it is, information technology's NOT a magic pill nor a substitute for poor learning skills.

Why? Because Anki covers merely the final 1-third of the brain'southward processes for long-term information encoding ¹ .

If the showtime 2-thirds of the system you employ for studying is messed up, then Anki isn't actually going to help at all.

So many newbies feel this trouble that I made yet another course about it. (I'll tell you lot about it when you terminate reading.)

Ultimately, I did this because when you do use Anki with the right process, you could gain tremendous reward over the contest:

You lot basically guarantee that anything you written report (again, using the right process) WILL get remembered for a long time
You build upwardly a tall stack of prior knowledge that allows you to understand circuitous concepts quickly
Y'all eliminate the well-nigh time-wasting report activity of all — "restudying what you've already studied because you forgot"
You tin turn downtime into productive study time (when you utilise Anki while eating, for instance, it allows y'all to practice 50 items in a breeze)

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

Michael Nielsen predicted that in xx years, he is 1714.29% (120 minutes/7 minutes * 100%) more efficient for each carte du jour when learning using spaced repetition compared to conventional flashcard learning. ² I found that this was fifty-fifty greater for me — and it volition exist truthful for you, too, later on you read this post.

Does whatever of that sound skilful so far?

Okay, good. Let'due south move on.

Isn't Anki merely for memorizing small facts?

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

Equally I imply in the final department, Anki is likewise a tool for LEARNING — which means it helps you plant a "library of mental models" for understanding higher-level concepts.

Personally, I've used it with neat success for all kinds of things — From Algebra to Avant-garde Engineering Mathematics, Physics, Electronics Engineering, Electronic Communications, Marketing, Business, Content Creation, Control Systems Engineering, Birthdays, and then on.

I never skip Anki considering in my listen, if I don't retain all the prerequisite knowledge I'm required to recollect, then information technology'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, then why do so many people fail at using it?"

Glad yous asked. Iii reasons why:

They utilise shared decks. They go on trying to call back what they haven't even learned yet.
They create ane deck for each topic — a recipe for what'southward chosen domain dependence.
Intermittent Reviews. They do Anki reviews intermittently—as if natural forgetting can be "skipped."
Their thinking is stuck in Anki and ignore the other 2/3 of the brain's learning process. They functionally fix themselves into Anki — they run into it as "the entire automobile" when really, it'southward really just "a small office of the engine". Once again, I'll talk more about it at the end of this mail to keep this section tight for the uninterested.

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

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

Michael Nielsen, ane of the pioneers of breakthrough computing, put it best in his essay:

Anki is an extremely simple program […] Despite that simplicity, information technology's an incredibly powerful tool. And, like many tools, it requires skill to utilise well. Information technology's worth thinking of Anki as a skill that can be adult to virtuoso levels, and attempting to continue to level up toward such virtuosity.

Put another mode, Anki is only constructive if you know how to make it effective.

How to Start Using Anki

To beginning using Anki, you 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 computer, caput over to AnkiWeb and download Anki.

~~I prefer to use version 2.0 because more than add together-ons are readily available for this version compared to the 2.i one. (I also haven't felt the demand to use it)~~

~~You'll withal be fine whichever version you lot intend to use, just go on the add-on compatibility in mind if yous want to use them (which, you'll want to).~~

UPDATE (ane/28/2020): Since Anki started phased out Anki 2.0, I now recommend downloading the latest version, which you can detect at the same place.

Then, for your smartphone, if you're on Android, it's bachelor in Google Play Shop, just search for "AnkiDroid" and look for this 1:

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

Creating and Organizing Decks

Once you've installed and opened Anki, you'll come across one specific deck named "Default".

You can either choose to rename it or only create another deck of your own.

To create a new deck, just hit the "Create Deck" button on the bottom office of the Anki window. Y'all'll be asked for a Deck name; I like to use my subject field'due south name for this one.

Now here'south where information technology gets interesting.

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

On the other hand, if you lot're a higher student, then enquire yourself:

"Am I learning things that would come up in a single exam in the futurity?"

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

Think alee!

That's because by doing information technology this manner, you would be learning the concepts as a WHOLE unit (via Interleaving), rather than equally ideas 'filed' in a single topic — unable to transfer itself freely.

Hither'due south what I mean.

Back when I was reviewing for my Technology Board Exams hither in the Philippines, I put together all of the things I learned on Communications Engineering under "EST" — the exam name.

I literally studied like iv textbooks on that subject and filtered out unimportant stuff to get ahead more quickly.

Here's what the deck looked similar.

IIRC, I got 86 on that specific exam — and get this — with conviction. When I counted my unsure answers, they were 16 items. Turns out I got 2 of those correct.

When you use Anki the right style, your exams transform into black-and-white results. It's either:

You truly know it
Or yous don't

No more "mental cake" type of crap again.

To be off-white, I only had 2-3 months left to learn EST equally I deleted all of my decks to go the cards right. (Deplorable life. That'south what I'm talking almost when I said "easy to mess upward".)

Anyhow, I'll elaborate more on this in the next lesson, but this should do for now.

In improver to creating decks, you can organize your decks into subdecks in two ways:

One, past using the format "MAINDECK::SUBDECK". Example "Physics::Thermodynamics".

And 2, past dragging the deck over to the desired Master deck. Hither's an illustration.

Don't go me incorrect, though — I don't use the "subdeck" method very frequently, unless my subdivision is a really broad field of study.

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

Creating and Organizing Cards

To create cards, but hitting the "Add" on the top office of your window.

By clicking on it, yous should exist seeing the Add New window containing (ane) Type, (2) Deck, (3) Front end and Dorsum fields, and (iv) Tag field.

At present, I wouldn't worry about the "Fields…" and "Cards…" buttons just yet. To tell you the truth, I don't call back you lot even need them. I have successfully used Anki effectively without even touching those things.

In the "Add together New" window, the question goes in "Front end" and the answer goes in "Dorsum" field, just like your adept ol' paper flashcards.

Once you lot've entered your desired Question and Answer pair, you tin click on "Add" or just utilize the shortcut: Ctrl + Enter to make the menu.

Notation: Make certain to DOUBLE CHECK the "Deck" field before adding the carte to prevent futurity headaches.

Past the fashion, the carte du jour you've just seen is 1 of the "Basic" Bill of fare Types.

Tthe "Basic" bill of fare type allows you to perform the traditional flashcard studying.

The Cloze deletion, on the other hand, is a "backup-the-blank" type of card.

Out of the many card types, I have institute that the "Cloze" card type was the well-nigh flexible one—too the easiest to create. (Simply that was back when I used Anki 2.0.)

Either works fine, tho. Anyway, let'southward motility on to organizing your cards.

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

Why tags? Because it simplifies everything. You need not worry nigh creating subdecks for each field of study because y'all can apply "Custom Written report" more selectively after on.

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

I recommend adding Tags during Menu Creation — information technology's much faster and more proactive.

To add Tags, you lot just enter the name of your desired Tag on the "Tags" field of the Add together New window.

Hither's something to remember: Replace spaces with underscores.

Annotation: If you lot missed that and accidentally entered two words separated by spaces, you'll be creating TWO tags for your cards, non one.

At present, creating that carte, you should notice that the Tag name you entered in the Tags field did non go abroad.

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

The second method is via the Card Browser. You open it up past clicking on "Scan" on the Home Screen or pressing "B" in the same place.

So, just find your cards past clicking on a deck where y'all put your new cards in (1), then select your cards on the correct-mitt side (2), and press Ctrl + Shift + A.

I don't prefer this method because it'due south rather like shooting fish in a barrel to mess this up. Imagine accidentally calculation tags to other cards when you lot already have a large collection of cards — only thinking about organizing information technology is already a disaster.

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

Here's How I Make Anki Flashcards

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

A well-formulated question
A brusque, specific answer
Screenshot of source
Tags (optional)

You should be skillful as long as you call back those.

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

And then, when I see something on my volume like this:

This card below is the one I make. I included the Question, Answer, Screenshot, and Tag.

Observe that I italicized and bolded the word "previously" to bear witness emphasis. It's a way to make a cue for an respond more than salient and easier to process.

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

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

Basic carte du jour blazon is pretty straightforward and doesn't demand explaining
Creating a Cloze card is somehow mystified for beginners

Over again, just press CTRL + SHIFT + C upon highlighting what you lot need to Cloze.

Shortcut for Cloze Deletion: Ctrl + Shift + C

Let'south look at the card previews.

By the manner, I want to tell yous that for conceptual subjects, I interruption each concept down into more questions that test my understanding .

From the same passage in the book:

My questions go like this:

"What does specific immunity utilise human activity against agents? (2x)"

Answer: Antibodies and Activated Lymphocytes.

"To what type of amanuensis does specific amnesty react?"

Reply: Previously Encountered Agents.

Basically, for conceptual data, you have to encourage your understanding of the material.

Facts are expert to include as cards, but ultimately, our questions should Likewise simulate situations that use the concept itself so nosotros don't miss out on actually applying what nosotros have learned.

For example, this card:

Come across how that works?

Alright, let's move on to what yous need to remember when creating new cards.

Rules to Follow when Creating New Cards

Rule #1. Learn Get-go, and And then practice spaced practice

If you're simply starting out, all yous need to know is that the purpose of these flashcards is to exam what you lot already learned.

Not to test what you oasis't learned — which many people practise.

It's like shooting fish in a barrel to get confident that you can remember annihilation using Anki, merely none of that matters if you do not understand the fabric y'all're putting in. (Unless yous're really memorizing isolated facts, just notwithstanding, context matters for retention)

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

You'll know how to respond the flashcard merely y'all'll find out that you cannot apply the "knowledge" anywhere else.

In other words, you lot just become pseudoknowledge.

Rule #2. Short question, curt respond.

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

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

Break them downwards as much equally possible.

This brings me to my next bespeak.

Dominion #3. The number of cards doesn't matter

When adding cards, information technology doesn't matter if you have enough of cards just past studying a chapter as long as you follow the two rules above.

What matters is y'all actually larn the concepts thoroughly.

And then, over again, break a concept as much as possible. By doing this, you'll exist able to think each card in less than a second. (Well, not less than a 2nd, but that's how it'll feel like 😉)

It's much, much faster compared to creating a few but long, complicated cards.

For example, instead of:

"What are Newton's Three Laws of Motility?"

You write questions like:

"What is Newton's Offset Constabulary of Motion?"
"What is Newton'due south 3rd Constabulary of Motion?"
"Which law states F=ma?" (apparently, this question covers ane police in another angle — also called redundancy)

This reduces ambiguity — making your cards faster to answer. Compare that to doing a mini-brain dump for each carte and y'all'll realize it gets tedious pretty quickly.

How You Tin Written report Without Spending Study Fourth dimension

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

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

Become to the "Network Tab" and check the outset 2 boxes.

This will allow automatic syncing of your deck to the AnkiWeb servers—which allows y'all to sync your cards to ALL devices.

It's pretty keen, particularly if y'all're going exterior with your smartphone. (or when you're sitting on the toilet — not exactly neat, tho)

When y'all're waiting in line, or just doing zip at all, instead of scrolling through Facebook, you can answer 5 to xx cards in a minute, depending on how good you create cards.

That means yous're converting idle fourth dimension into STUDYING.

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

You tin can plough it off and manually sync your cards by pressing Y on the domicile screen, simply information technology's ever a good thought to sync your cards automatically upon open/exit but to avoid forgetting.

Blast That Spacebar

Studying using Anki is pretty straightforward.

You but open the app, click a deck with due cards, and you're set up.

When a card shows upward, you just press on the spacebar to bear witness the answer.

When the reply shows up, you are given choices below to cull from: Again, Good, Easy. (This is for new cards but — nosotros'll get more into this in Lesson iv)

Using Anki default settings, Anki will prove the carte again afterwards a sure amount depending on how difficult it was for you to retrieve the carte du jour.

Again – Less than a minute, the menu volition prove up over again
Good – The card volition show upward in less than 10 minutes
Easy – The card will show up after 4 days

Yous press Again when y'all failed to call up the answer, Good when you successfully recall the answer, and Piece of cake when y'all recall the answer in an instant. You tin employ shortcuts every bit shown below:

Every bit a side note for default settings, pressing "Again" on a mature card for a total of 8 times makes your bill of fare "disappear" and not show upwards for review.

This is called a "Leech bill of fare", and is ordinarily classified as a poorly created card.

When you lot get Leech cards, all you take to exercise is reformulate your questions. Again, refer back to how I told you to create flashcards.

Alright, now before I end this, I would like to give you some tips that would aid yous study smarter using Anki.

Why You Should NEVER Miss a Day of Review

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

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

Another reason not to skip is you end upward with a mountain of cards the next 24-hour interval. Yup, now yous'll accept 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 near cried just doing that).

So, try do written report every unmarried day without neglect.

Custom Study

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

Information technology'southward probably considering about of your cards are mature enough and/or you really take few cards in your deck.

Retrieve the "Tag" arrangement that I mentioned earlier? This is where it comes in.

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

It's smart to employ it right before an examination if you're a pupil, just to take advantage of that "fresh" country of call up.

Next Steps

As powerful as Anki is, it's simply a tool that needs to be operated the right way — and I want to brand sure I drive that signal home.

If you lot need more than help in using Anki than I was able to encompass in this guide, you lot might want to go through the other post in the Anki Fundamentals series to learn more:

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

Otherwise, let'due south go dorsum to the "information encoding" role earlier.

Remember I told you this?

If the kickoff two-thirds of the system you apply for studying is messed up, and then Anki isn't really going to help at all.

I told you that because learning is actually a product of the brain's information encoding organization.

Piece of work with it and you guarantee retention & learning speed.

Otherwise, y'all guarantee forgetting and wasted time.

It'south as simple as it gets. Nevertheless, many don't seem to get this.

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

They try to overoptimize Anki equally though information technology's the only affair that matters for learning.

That'south why I've put together a second gratis course for you so you can avoid this big trap — I call it "Tool-commencement Thinking" and it'southward 1 of the biggest reasons why many Anki newbies still don't get meaningful results with Anki. (or ANY written report tool, for that thing)

If you lot're preparing for exams right now, or yous constantly feel behind of your study schedule, I insist that yous devour the next course with all your heart.

It'due south 100% free.

When you're ready, only click the reddish push button downwards below.

P.S. I previously made the exclusive "Advanced Anki Learner Training" PDF available to everyone, only I removed it because I decided it's not actually for everybody. I'grand now making it available only to my individual newsletter subs. I've prepare a "filtering machinery" for people who are the best fit for it. Y'all can get it at the Start Here page.

Footnotes

Melton, A. West. (1963). Implications of brusk-term retentiveness for a general theory of retentivity. Periodical of Verbal Learning and Exact Behavior, two(1), 1–21.
Nielsen, M. (2018). Augmenting Long-term Memory. http://augmentingcognition.com/ltm.html