Setting up Anki for medical school
Anki is very good at one job: keeping facts available for months. Set it up so it stays sustainable.
Settings worth changing
Turn on the FSRS scheduler in deck options. It usually means fewer reviews for the same retention.
Set a desired retention of about 0.85–0.9. Higher costs a lot more time for a small gain.
Start with 15–30 new cards a day. Every new card creates reviews for weeks.
Making good cards
One fact per card. If a card has a list on the back, split it.
Use cloze deletions for definitions and sequences.
Use image occlusion for anatomy and histology.
Write cards from your own lectures where you can, so they match what you'll be examined on.
Shared decks
A good shared deck saves hours, but suspend cards that aren't in your curriculum instead of grinding through them.
Check shared decks against your own lectures. Errors spread quickly.
You can find and share decks in the Anki Exchange on this site.
Keeping it going
Do reviews before new cards, every day, even if it's only ten minutes.
If you fall behind, stop adding new cards until the backlog clears.
St George's Cardiothoracic Surgery Society, City St George's, University of London.