Notes on creating good Anki flashcards and notes
What is Anki?
Anki is a app that allows creating and reviewing digital flashcards which can be synced between desktop and phones. It uses scientific based spaced repetition to be effective in making you able to retrieve information long after studying and reviewing.
What is flashcard
Normal flashcards are physical cards where you write a question in the front, and an answer in the back. They can be used to review or learn topics. Digital flashcards can have different types of cards. The above would be a basic card, but you have options for reversed, cloze, fielded, etc.
Why would I use flashcards
Flashcards are used to learn, review and remember things you studied. It is very good for some types of learning and review:
- Definitions of concepts (like biology or geography)
- Memorization
- Languages
- Reading instrument notes Things that it is NOT suited for:
- Learning complex concepts without structure
- Uncontextualized knowleadge, in general
Good practices for when to use flashcards
This depends on what you are using the flashcards for. In general, flashcards are great for microlearning. best to open Anki then a social media when waiting in a line. If you are studying for a big test, you should first STUDY the topic, and CREATE YOURSELF the notes. Creating the notes yourself requires breaking down the concepts into smaller pieces, which already aids with learning. It has the downside that if you do poor notes, it may not be very effective. Shared decks exists but basically only for medicine tests are worth using. More on that later TODO. If you want to become a trivia master, Anki is suited. There are popular shared decks for that (Ultimate Geography and Ultimate Everything). I am not sure you are learning anything useful to be quite honest, but it can be a fun challenge and mental practice. If you want to study for normal high school and college, you should be creating the notes yourself. usually leaving everything in very few decks is best then dividing by class. For example, I would leave everything Math related (calculus 1, 2, algebra, etc) in one Math deck, and everything related to Electrical Engineering in another deck. Remember that doing exercises for a test is usually better then memorizing flashcards. More on that later TODO. If you want to learn a new language, it is very suited. I dont know how because I havent used for that, but people say it is good for that lol.
when NOT to use a flashcard
- trying to learn complex topics only with flashcards
- ONLY using flashcards. You need to practice, create projects or exercise the knowleadge outside flashcards. Flashcards should be REVIEW (there are exceptions for this)
Some personal notes on learning
[[notes on learning]]
AI usage with flashcards
AI can help with formatting and giving ideas for notes/cards. You should never ask the AI to create notes for you. You should create notes and send then to review. Only ask to create new notes after you already attemped breaking down the concept. AI can be very effective if you can control the urge of having it do the work for you.
What are the types of flashcards
In ANKI, a note can generate one or more cards based on the type. These are the main ones:
Basic
- Front has a question, back has the answer.
- Useful for answers that require few words to answer Basic (reversed)
- Same as basic, but generates two cards: one with the front to retrieve the back, and vice-versa
- If a concept makes sense to be reversed, it usually is best to do reversed than basic
Cloze
- Fill in the blank
- Generate one card per cloze
- Great for contrasting and relating concepts.
- IMO a Cloze note should not have more than 4 closes.
Image Occlusion
- same as Cloze but with images
Fielded cards
- Similar to having a front side and multiple back sides
- Used when one or more concepts have similar fields to recall (i.e Geography: Countries have name, flag, map, capital)
When to use each type
Depends on what you are studying. For starters, use the basic card the most. Break down concepts to small and quick questions with short answers. Cloze is good for comparisons between related concepts. Other types and template and exist but only look into them once you are used to Anki and feel like you want more.
Examples of good and bad notes
Basic
Example concept:
Bad card
Good card
Cloze
Example concept: