Learn Anki in Under 15 Minutes 🗂️

Summary

The video script introduces Anki, a flashcard program leveraging spaced repetition and active recall to enhance long-term memory retention. It explains these learning techniques, demonstrates how to create and manage flashcards, and discusses the advantages and limitations of using Anki for studying. The tutorial also covers creating decks, adding various types of flashcards, and utilizing tags for custom study sessions, all aimed at making studying more effective and less stressful.

Takeaways

• 😀 Anke is a flashcard program that employs spaced repetition and active recall to enhance memory retention.
• 📚 Spaced repetition involves reviewing material at increasing intervals to improve long-term memory, which can be visualized on a retention graph.
• 🤔 Active recall is a method where learners use their memory to recall information without prompts, such as answering questions or reviewing flashcards.
• 🔄 The combination of spaced repetition and active recall allows for more frequent review of difficult material and less frequent review of easier material.
• ⏱ Anki helps decide how often to review material by allowing users to set intervals based on the ease of recall.
• 📱 Anki is available on various platforms including Windows, Android (AnkiDroid), iOS (AnkiMobile or AnkiWeb), and can sync flashcards across devices.
• 🛠️ Users can create custom flashcard decks and add cards with questions and answers, including various types like cloze deletion, closed, reverse, and type-in answer cards.
• 🏷️ Tags can be added to flashcards for organizing and creating custom study sessions based on specific topics or categories.
• 📈 The system adapts by increasing the frequency of difficult cards and decreasing the frequency of easy cards over time, enhancing the learning process.
• 📝 Pros of using Anki include more effective studying, no need to plan study sessions, and great for memorizing large amounts of information.
• 🚫 Cons of using Anki include its inability to replace the practice of writing essays or doing exam questions, and difficulty in testing the understanding of broader concepts.

Q & A

What is the main purpose of Anke as a flashcard program?

Anke is designed to enhance memory retention through the use of spaced repetition and active recall techniques, helping users remember information more effectively.

Can you explain the concept of spaced repetition in the context of Anke?

Spaced repetition is a learning technique where material is reviewed at increasingly spaced intervals to improve long-term retention. The intervals between reviews grow longer over time, which helps in remembering the information more effectively.

What does active recall mean in the context of studying with flashcards?

Active recall involves using your memory to remember information without looking at the answer directly. It can be done by answering exam questions or going through flashcards, which forces the brain to actively retrieve the information.

How does Anke decide the frequency of reviewing flashcards based on difficulty?

Anke allows users to decide when to review a flashcard again based on how easily they could remember the information. If the information was hard to recall, the interval is shorter, and if it was easy, the interval is longer.

What are some advantages of using Anke for studying?

Using Anke makes studying more effective by focusing on difficult material more frequently, eliminates the need to plan study sessions, and is great for memorizing large amounts of information over time without last-minute cramming.

What are some limitations of using Anke as a study tool?

Anke cannot substitute for writing essays or doing exam questions to practice skills and understanding. It is also not ideal for applying content or testing the understanding of concepts in a broader context.

How can Anke be installed on different devices?

Anke can be installed on a computer by downloading it from the official website. For mobile devices, there is an AnkiDroid app for Android, and for iOS, users can either purchase the AnkiMobile app or use the online version through a web browser.

What is the significance of creating decks in Anke?

Creating decks in Anke helps organize flashcards by subject or topic. It's recommended to avoid creating too many decks to prevent slowing down Anke, and instead, use tags to group flashcards together.

Can you describe the process of adding a new flashcard in Anke?

To add a new flashcard, select the appropriate deck, enter the question on the front of the card, and the answer on the back. Users can also add images, use different flashcard types like cloze deletion or type-in answers, and even create custom study sessions with tags.

How can tags be used to enhance the study experience in Anke?

Tags allow users to categorize flashcards and create custom study sessions based on specific topics or categories. This feature enables focused review sessions, such as studying all African flags or all stripy flags, by filtering flashcards with the relevant tags.

What is the benefit of the 'custom study' feature in Anke?

The custom study feature allows users to create tailored study sessions by selecting specific tags, which can help focus on particular areas of study. This is particularly useful for reviewing a large number of flashcards or for last-minute exam preparation.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Introduction to Anki and Spaced Repetition

The first paragraph introduces Anke, a flashcard program that employs spaced repetition and active recall to enhance long-term memory retention. Spaced repetition involves revisiting information at gradually increasing intervals to slow down the forgetting process, visualized as a graph where the retention rate is plotted against time. Active recall is the method of using memory to recall information without looking at the answer, such as through flashcards or exam questions. Anki allows users to customize review intervals based on their ease of remembering the material, with the goal of reviewing difficult content more frequently and easier content less so. The paragraph also outlines the benefits of using Anki, including increased study efficiency, reduced need for planning study sessions, and its utility for memorizing a wide range of information. However, it also acknowledges the limitations of Anki, such as its inability to replace the practice of writing essays or applying concepts in a broader context.

05:04

🖥️ Setting Up Anki and Creating Flashcards

The second paragraph provides a step-by-step guide on how to set up Anki on a computer and import flashcards. It details the process of downloading the software from the official website, installing it, and creating flashcard decks with specific subjects. The speaker also discusses the importance of not creating too many decks to avoid slowing down the program and suggests using tags to group flashcards instead. The paragraph further explains how to add different types of flashcards, including standard, cloze (with missing words), and reverse flashcards, which allow for two cards to be created from one entry. Additionally, it covers the 'type in answer' feature, which prompts users to type out their answers for immediate feedback. The paragraph concludes with instructions on syncing flashcards to the Anki website for accessibility across devices.

10:04

🔍 Customizing Study Sessions with Tags and Reviewing Flashcards

The third paragraph delves into the customization of study sessions using tags and the reviewing process of flashcards in Anki. It explains how to add tags to flashcards, which can later be used to filter and create custom study sessions focused on specific topics or categories. The speaker demonstrates how to create a custom study session for African flags and stripy flags, showcasing the flexibility of Anki's tagging system. The paragraph also touches on the spaced repetition algorithm that adjusts the frequency of flashcard reviews based on the user's performance, ensuring that difficult cards are reviewed more often while easier ones are seen less frequently. Lastly, it describes the 'Browse' feature for reviewing all flashcards and the process of creating a custom study session to review all cards in a deck, which is particularly useful for考前复习.

Keywords

💡Spaced Repetition

Spaced repetition is a learning technique that involves reviewing information at increasing intervals over time to enhance long-term retention. In the video, it is described as a method where reviewing material at the right time delays the onset of forgetting, with intervals between reviews getting longer as retention improves. It is central to the Anke flashcard program, which uses this technique to optimize the frequency of review for better memorization.

💡Active Recall

Active recall is the process of using memory to retrieve information without looking at the material, which is believed to strengthen memory and understanding. The video emphasizes active recall as a superior method for reviewing flashcards, where learners actively attempt to remember the answer before revealing it. This technique is combined with spaced repetition in Anke to make studying more effective.

💡Flashcards

Flashcards are a study tool consisting of a set of cards, each containing a question or a concept on one side and an answer or explanation on the other. In the script, flashcards are the primary medium through which Anke's spaced repetition and active recall techniques are applied, with the program allowing users to create and customize their own flashcards for various subjects.

💡Anke

Anke, often misspelled as 'Anke' in the transcript, is a flashcard program that utilizes spaced repetition and active recall to aid in memorization and learning. The video provides an overview of how Anke can be used to study more effectively, with the ability to adjust the frequency of flashcard reviews based on the difficulty of memorizing the content.

💡Long-term Retention

Long-term retention refers to the ability to remember information over extended periods. The video explains that spaced repetition helps improve long-term retention by timing reviews optimally to counteract the natural process of forgetting. The script mentions a graph of retention against time to illustrate how spaced repetition can delay forgetting.

💡Cramming

Cramming is the act of studying intensively for a short period before an exam, often as a last-minute attempt to memorize information. The video contrasts Anke's spaced repetition and active recall with cramming, suggesting that using Anke over time can lead to better long-term retention and reduce the need for cramming before exams.

💡Study Effectiveness

Study effectiveness pertains to the efficiency and productivity of learning methods. The script highlights that using Anke's spaced repetition and active recall can make studying more effective by focusing on difficult material more frequently and easier material less so, thus optimizing the learning process.

💡Custom Study Sessions

Custom study sessions in Anke allow users to create tailored study plans based on specific tags or criteria. The video demonstrates how to use tags to group flashcards and then filter them for focused study sessions, such as reviewing all African flags or stripy flags, which can be particularly useful for targeted review before tests.

💡Tags

Tags in Anke are labels that can be assigned to flashcards to categorize and group them. The script explains how tags can be used to create custom study sessions, making it easier to study flashcards related to specific topics or themes, which enhances the organization and personalization of the study process.

💡Flashcard Types

The video script introduces various types of flashcards available in Anke, such as cloze deletion (missing word), closed (two separate cards from one entry), reverse (two cards with front and back flipped), and type-in answer cards. These different formats cater to different learning preferences and needs, allowing for a more versatile and comprehensive study experience.

Highlights

Anke is a flashcard program using spaced repetition and active recall for effective memorization.

Spaced repetition involves reviewing material at increasing intervals to enhance long-term retention.

Active recall is a technique where learners use their memory to recall information without prompts.

Combining spaced repetition and active recall tailors the review frequency to the difficulty of the content.

Anki allows users to decide when to review flashcards based on their ease of recall.

Anki's system adapts the intervals between reviews to optimize the learning process.

Anki offers various flashcard types, including closed, reverse, and type-in answer cards.

Flashcards can include images and formatted text for a richer learning experience.

Anki's mobile apps and web version enable syncing of flashcards across devices.

Creating decks and subdecks in Anki helps organize flashcards by subject and topic.

Tags in Anki allow for custom study sessions, filtering flashcards by specific criteria.

Anki's Browse feature enables reviewing all flashcards and their types.

Pros of using Anki include more effective studying and reduced need for cramming before exams.

Cons of Anki include its limitation in practicing essay writing and applying concepts in broader contexts.

Anki is recommended for memorizing large amounts of information, such as quotes, chemical reactions, or vocabulary.

The video provides a step-by-step guide on installing Anki and creating flashcards.

The presenter shares personal tips on using Anki effectively, such as custom study sessions for exam preparation.

The video concludes with an invitation to subscribe for more study and student life content.

Transcripts

Anke is a flashcard program that uses

space repetition and active recall to

help you remember things that easily but

what exactly does that mean

what is space repetition and what is

active recall you may ask space

repetition is a learning technique where

you go over facts and concepts and

increasingly spaced intervals to improve

your long-term retention you can picture

this by putting a graph of retention

against time

say below this line is when you begin to

forget something when you first learn a

new concept or a new facts or an idea

you will slowly begin to forget it over

time quite quickly but if you review it

at just the right time it will take

longer for you to forget it and as you

can see the interval between reviews

increases over time but how should you

review the material the best way to

review material is to use active recall

this means to only use your memory to

remember things this could be done by

doing exam questions on a topic or going

through questions on flashcards

combining these aren't two ideas of

spaced repetition and active recall

means that you will go over harder

content and harder facts more frequently

and easier facts and content less

frequently but how do you decide on how

often you should go over the material

and this is where ANCA comes in

essentially you make a bunch of

flashcards on things you want to

remember and when you go through the

flashcards and you decide how long

before you want to see the flashcard

again and that depends on how easy it

was for you to remember if you couldn't

remember at all you choose ten minutes

before you see again if it took some

effort but you remembered it you may

choose a day and if it was really easy

to remember

you may choose four days say I chose a

one day and a day later I opened up an

key and I see the flashcard again if I

forgot what the answer was then I choose

ten minutes if I still remember it

then I'd increase their interval before

I see the flashcard again two free days

eventually you will begin to go over

harder content more frequently and so

that harder content becomes easier and

this is exactly what you want

like with everything and kids have some

pros and cons the pros include number

one your studying will be much more

effective because you're going over the

things you find hard more often number

two you don't have to plan which topics

and which things to study on which day

if you have flashcards for those things

you just open up Anki everyday and go

over the flashcards to chew that day and

number three it's great for memorizing a

bunch of things such as quotes chemical

reactions or words in a number language

rather than cramming them last minute

before an exam you can just use Anki

over a few months and you will be able

to remember a much larger portion of it

however the cons include obviously you

can't use this as a substitute for

actually writing essays and actually

doing exam questions you still have to

do those to practice your skills and

useful learning content not for applying

content and you cannot use it to easily

test your understanding of a concept and

see how it fits into the wider picture

you'll see what I mean as we go along I

recommend you first install Anki on your

computer as it's the fastest way to make

and import flashcards you can do this by

going on the website and links in the

description and pressing it and download

so I'm using Windows and I have the

64-bit version so I'm just gonna press

download here so now that it's

downloaded I just open the file and go

through the Installer

and after that I can just open a panky

and here we go it's installed now if you

want to go for your flashcards and go

you can download it for your mobile and

if you have an Android phone then you

can download an app called ankidroid and

if you have an iPhone or an iPad you

have two options you can even bind the

Anki mobile app on the store for around

twenty-five dollars or you can go to

your browser and go to Anki web net and

use the online version instead and now

go to Yankee web net and make an account

this will help you sync your flashcards

between your mobile device and your

computer and finally using an key on

your computer you can go here and press

sync and then log into your account here

and now each time you press sync it will

sync all your flash cards to the Anki

website and then the next thing to do is

to create flash contacts to do their so

you press creates deck and then give

your deck a name so I'm going to write

chemistry I could create one for biology

too and let's say I want to make a deck

inside this chemistry deck you would

just create a deck and call it chemistry

and double colon and then say reactions

and now there's a reactions deck inside

this but don't make too many decks or

subjects because having too many

consumer Anki down it's better to use

tags to group flashcards together rather

than having too many decks so I've made

a couple more decks to add flash

constitute is deck so you press ant and

then over here you choose which deck you

insanity so let's say biology and then

this is where you write in the question

for the front of the flashcard so I

could write a new one is is the power

house of the cell and then my toe conned

Rhea

and over here you can add various things

like a bold make Tex it italic pala

cover had to make chemical equations and

mathematical equations on flashcards in

another video if it's already out it

should be linked right now somewhere but

let's just add this flashcard and let's

say I want to make the flashcards in the

flag stack the nice thing is you can add

images as well

there's also type of flashcard called a

closed flashcard and if you want to add

it then you go to type and press manage

and then press add and you should see

add clothes over here but since I

already have it then I just select this

and choose that as a flashcard type now

in hair and the psycho flash code

I could write Albert Einstein formulated

special relativity now if I wanted to do

a missing word which I fill in then I

could select this and now you see these

closed tongues around it and then select

that again so c1 and c2 means they're

going to be two different flashcards and

you will see this in a second when I go

over it and if you want them to be on

the same flashcard then you could say

mitochondria is power house of the cell

let's add that see the biology one and I

could just choose close on this closing

this but change this C 2 into C 1 and

that means they're going to be on the

same flashcard so now if I go through

these close flashcards then you should

see this pot is missing and when I show

answered this comes up and if I go to

the biology 1 this is the old flashcard

see this one they both appear on the

same flashcard

whereas for the physics we have two we

have one for Albert Einstein and then we

have another for special relativity

because C 1 and C 2 we used here C 1 and

C 1 we used it in their biology card

there's also another type of flashcard

called a reverse flash card so you go to

type and then you do and reversed card

press choose and this basically means

it's going to make two flash cards for

this one with the front and back as you

enter it and another with the flipped so

I could write Spain and then

copy this flag into Yankee and press and

now when I go through this flash card in

the flags you're going to see two flash

cards this is one I made before and then

it says Spain and the flag was over here

and then there's another one and it

shows the flag and then when I press

show answer it shows Spain so it's two

flash cards from one card so the final

type of flash card is a type in answer

so if I go to type and then choose basic

type in answer and press choose on the

front I could write war is capital of

England and then on the back that would

be London and then I press add and now

when I go through this flash card it's

going to ask me to type an answer so

that if I pressed London London bonus

browser then it'd show me like the what

I typed in versus the actual answer and

if I said yeah this is fine I knew how

to spell anyway that was just a mistake

then I could say it's good or easy and I

could even go back and sync it to the

Anki website so now if I go to thank you

website or refresh the page you can see

on my cards here so let's say I was on

my phone because I didn't decide to buy

the app on iOS then I could just go on

the website and press study now and then

go through the cards here so the good

thing about this is over time all the

cards which you find harder to remember

they will come up more frequently and

the cards you find easy to remember will

come up with less frequently and the

idea is a spacing micelle and forcing

yourself to actively recall this

information will make it stick over time

also you can use the Browse feature to

see all the flashcards you have made and

these are the various types of

flashcards which I've made and let's say

I go I go to physics I can see the two

ones which I have for

special relativity and remember these

two are close flashcards so they're

going to be two separate ones

so before I mentioned you could add tags

to flashcards so how exactly are they

useful so it lets say I was adding more

flash constants to the flags deck and I

wanted to add one for South Africa so I

would load up a flag of South Africa and

then just copy and paste into there and

in this tag section let's say I wanted

to tag them by constant and I would just

write in Africa here press and let's say

I wanted to make one for Ghana as well I

would search corner flag and then just

copy this in here and that's the same

Africa tag and let's say I wanted to

make one for Germany Germany flag and

just copied that in ten and four times I

change it to Europe and let's say I

wanted to add another tag I just press a

space and let's say I wanted to make a

tag for striped flags I could do

stripy flags so stripy - flags because a

space is counted as a separation between

tags press add so the advantage of this

is that you can make custom study

sessions let's say you have a test

coming up on all the African flags then

you can filter out all the African flags

from your flag stack and study them all

this is much better than having a lot of

subjects for various topics because you

can add multiple tags to one one card

and then still be able to filter out so

let's see this in action if I go into

the flag stack and then press custom

study all these should be

self-explanatory except for the last one

study by card state your tag if I press

choose tags and then require one or more

of these tags

if I wanted to say let's say I wanted

study African flags and stripy flags

then I would select Africa press ctrl

and press dry P as well and then press

ok and now you see here it's made me a

custom study session which I could

rename if I want if I go here and press

study then you can see the Tigers which

I've away both Africa I have appeared so

South Africa flag gone flag and now the

stripy Flags have also did so now if I

go back to decks and I delete this

custom study session then all those

cards which were in that deck haven't

actually been deleted they've just gone

back to the flag stack so if I could say

flag exact again I could do another

custom study session and let's say I

wanted to review every single college

from this deck let's say had like 500

cards or well even if I had 408 choose

all of them if I wrote 500 and all cards

in a random order choose choose tags

I'll require a number tags because I

don't want I wants to be all the cards

and then it's made me a custom study

session with all the cards inside and

this is useful if some of the cards

aren't actually June that day because

you can study all your cards at once

quickly I usually do this on the weekend

before an exam and I easily went for a

deck of about 400 500 cards in a few

hours

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I'll catch you in the next one