The Best Way to Use Anki | Blog
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Do you want the freedom of storing information on the traditional paper notecards? Anki (the Japanese word for "memorization") is an app for memory that makes use of spacing repetition to distribute the learning time so that it is easier to remember what you have learned.
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What is the best way to start Anki?
To learn how to make use of Anki Begin with downloading the application for free on your computer or phone.
It's not a big deal which device you first download it to since Anki synchronizes smoothly across multiple devices. Have it downloaded and installed? After that, sign up for your account.
This is all you really need to get started. Be assured that we'll guide you through how to proceed in the next few moments.
What Does the App Do and how do they work?
Anki is super flexible, and you are able to utilize the software to design and study flashcards on every subject you'd like.
Once you've created the flashcards you want to use in Anki, you test yourself similar to how you learn the physical flashcards. In contrast to normal flashcards, Anki allows you to evaluate whether you discovered the answer to be easy to moderate, difficult, or easy. Anki utilizes these ratings to decide on the spaced repetition intervals you should use.
What exactly is spaced repetition? It's a learning technique that shows you materials (your flashcards) at the right intervals to help you understand the material and increase retention. In essence, it will teach you more challenging subjects more frequently so they are retained in your mind more easily.
"Over the course of time, as I go through my flashcards over and over I'm rating myself terms of how hard I came across the material in the first place, and later Anki keeps surfacing relevant items in the right way according to when I'm the most likely to pass the threshold of not forgetting" Says Abdaal.
How Can You Make Use of Anki?
Utilize Anki to learn about everything you'd like to keep long-term. Some examples include:
- Vocabulary to learn a new language
- Exams for law and medical school
- Geography
- History
- Literary devices and grammar
- Names of teams in sports as well as locations and players
- Lyrics to songs
...and lots and more! This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it should give you an idea of the flexibility of this program to help you master the new topics.
So, how do you make use of the application? Let's dive in!
Step 1: Download and Install Anki
This step is the easiest (especially given that we've already covered it earlier): Download Anki to your computer, laptop or mobile device, the same way you'd download any other application.
After Anki is installed, you'll be required to sign up for an account using your username and password. Once that's done it will show an empty screen. This is fine. You'll soon add content.
Step 2: Design an Deck
It is now time to build a deck to organize your flashcards individually. You can create as many decks or flashcards you want.
We recommend organizing your deck by topic. In the case of, say, if you want to match the names of cities that are capital to their nations, you can create a deck named "Capital Cities."
You can do it by clicking"Create Deck" or clicking the "Create Deck" button and name your deck in accordance with.
Step 3: Make an electronic flashcard
The next step is to make your own flashcards. Each deck has an "add" button that allows you to add flashcards and make them. It will display an editing window in which you are able to enter your personal information to the card.
So, if you are researching capital cities, you can make the front of the card ask "Capital of France" and include the response of "Paris" to the back.
If you'd prefer to go with a simple design, you can just leave it that way. However, you can customize your cards with different styles, images, fonts and much more (which we'll cover more in the coming section).
After you click the blue "add" button again, the screen will tell you that it's waiting on editing to complete. After you have closed the "add" screen, you'll see that a card has been saved.
Step 4: Customize Your Flashcards
There's another feature you should be aware of in Anki How to utilize multimedia in order to improve your flashcards and studying experience.
By using the toolbar on the upper-right corner of the composition window, you can easily insert media files such as audio clips, images, screenshots, and videos on your cards.
It is also possible to label your cards so that you to search for your decks by a certain word. It's a great option to build subdecks. So, if you want to understand how to utilize Anki during medical school for instance it is possible to tag your cards with the various examinations you'll have to take.
Step 5: Study Your Flashcards
Anki includes two types of learning flashcards which are fresh but not yet studied and flashcards that have been researched and must be reviewed again. The decks are marked "learning" or "to be reviewed" according to the category.
You can study flashcards in your deck by simply clicking on the name of the deck and pressing the "study now" button. Find out what you think the answer is and let Anki provide how to answer.
After that, you'll be able to find the correct answer with three buttons labeled "again," "good," and "easy." It's the place where you can rate how challenging you thought the question was and Anki could use this for spacing the repetition intervals.
They can be confusing at start. However, the most important thing to understand is that Anki employs " learning steps" to assist you in mastering new information. The way you evaluate the cards tells Anki what step that card is supposed to move on towards. The gist of it is:
- Another time: Moves the card back to the first step (so that you'll be able to see it very soon)
- Great: Moves the card into the next stage of learning (so you'll come across it a little later)
- Simple: Moves the card from the status of a "review" card rather than a "learning" card (so you won't be able to see it until you get into the review phase)
Anki is a efficient tool for learning new information, and you do not have to be alone. The decks can be shared with your friends or even downloading shared decks from other sources. For example, if you're wanting to learn how to use Anki to prepare for MCAT There are at least 50 decks to get you started.
Whatever you decide to pursue, Anki will help you to master new subjects quickly efficiently, and maybe even help that you can enjoy it.
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