Anki: learn in half the time with spaced repetition

Reading your notes a fourth time is one of the least effective ways to study there is. The brain remembers things best when it actively recalls them right before it would forget them — not when it passively rereads them over and over. Anki is a flashcard app that automates exactly this principle (spaced repetition): it remembers on its own what you know well and what you don't, and quizzes you at exactly the right moment.

A typical scenario

Bára, a medical student, learns anatomical terms by rereading her notes over and over — the first pass takes an hour, by the next day she remembers half of it, and by the third day she has to go through almost everything again. A week before the exam she's sitting through four desperate hours of rereading, still not sure what will actually stick by morning.

With Anki, she enters the same terms as flashcards once, and the algorithm decides on its own when to show them to her again — terms she knows confidently come back in a week, ones she hesitated on come back the very next day. She spends fifteen minutes a day, and a week before the exam most of the material is already sitting in long-term memory, not in a shaky "I think I remember this" state.

How to do it

1. Download Anki (free on desktop; on mobile there's a free version for Android and a paid one for iOS) and create a deck with a question on the front of each card and the answer on the back.
2. Go through whatever Anki serves you each day — for every card you rate how well you recalled the answer (again, hard, good, easy), and the algorithm shifts when that card will show up next based on your rating.
3. The algorithm stretches the interval between repetitions with every successful recall — terms you know well get asked less and less often, so your time goes mostly toward what still trips you up.
4. Don't try to plow through the whole deck at once — 15 minutes a day systematically beats four rushed hours of reading the day before an exam, because spaced repetition builds long-term memory, not short-term.
5. Phrase cards as simple, unambiguous questions — the more atomic (one concept per card), the more reliably recall works, and the less likely you are to just "recognize" the answer instead of actually retrieving it.

The best tools

• Anki — a free, open-source tool built entirely around a spaced-repetition algorithm at its core, works on both desktop and mobile.
• Quizlet — a simpler alternative with a nicer interface and ready-made decks from other users, good for a quick start with no setup.
• RemNote — combines notes and spaced-repetition flashcards in one tool, useful if you want to build cards directly out of your study notes.
• AnkiWeb — free syncing between devices, so you get the same deck on your computer and your phone.

What you get out of it

• Time: fifteen minutes a day beats hours of rushed reading before an exam in the long run — an estimated 30 minutes or more of total study time saved for a typical exam.
• Longer-lasting memory: spaced repetition is one of the most scientifically well-supported study techniques there is; knowledge lasts months, not days.
• Less pre-exam stress: because you're studying continuously, you don't have to rely on one exhausting night before the test.
• Visibility into your gaps: you see exactly which concepts trip you up, instead of a vague sense of "I think I know this already."

Pro tip

Make your own cards from your own notes, not from ready-made decks made by someone else — writing the question yourself is half of the learning, because it forces you to work out what actually matters in the material.