Ali Abdaal : https://www.skillshare.com/classes/Learn-Anything-With-Flashcards-The-Ultimate-Guide-To-Anki/

Note: Ali Makes it clear that, it is best to absorb it slow and stick to the first section of class before moving on to the advance sections.

This is a legacy note. Might be completely outdated.

Basics of Anki

Theory of Anki

12-05-2021

Flash cards are physical cards with a question in front and its answer on the back! There is will be a deck of cards from which you can test yourself.

Active Recall through testing using flash cards helps you do that.

Flash cards also helps is practising spaced repetition. To compensate for the forgeting curve.

Based on science, if you repeatedly test yourself for recall, you can lengthen the forgetting curve to your advantage. It is also interesting to note that if you time the spaced repetition correctly, the interval required to strengthen your memory gradually increases.

You need to forget stuff a little bit and then recall it to strengthen your memory.

Physical flash cards can be used for spaced repetition by categorizing them into into boxes like: “I know well”, “Average Knowledge” and “No I forget these stuff”

Anki is the digital version of the physical flash cards.

What is Anki?

Anki is the digital version of flash cards where you can upload questions and aswers. You can test youself and check for answers. Based on how difficult or easy it was for you answer something you can place it in various “boxes”.

What makes it special is the algorithm it uses to determine when to bring the cards before you. It is rightly tuned to keep your memory well inside the forgeting curve. If you place a fact that you want to keep in memory and you practise it everyday, you can be confident that you brain will be introduced to it on a repeated basis.

Why Anki?

It is free
It is open source and comes with amazing community addons
Other options are there, like quizlet
Anki is for memorization and it can be used with notion where notion can be used for developing a big picture overview of a subject.

Note: Ali also has a google sheets method for cramming stuff. Anki can also be used for memorizing chunks of paragraphs and paper references.(More than just facts)

Mechanics of Anki

Installation
Anatomy of Anki
Just default deck first
Create a deck
Add front and back content to it
Import File Ctrl i

Basic Flash Card

Create Basic flash cards
Shortcuts for adding flash cards
A - Add Card
Cntrl Enter to confirm the card
Tab to switch between and also Shift tab to go back
Again(1), Good(2), Easy(3)
If you have any slight hesitation go for again. Easy is best avoided

Reverse Flash Card

A - Add card
Change type to Basic and Reverse Cards
2 way connections improves two way assosication

Cloze Deletions

Single most powerful feature of anki
Change the type to cloze
Text and Extra
For remembering bits of sentences
Cloze deletion button : cntrl + shift + c
Show answer : Space Bar
Cntrl + N helps to change type of the card
All this happens in the text area
2 cloze deletions is possible (like reverse cards)
For specific facts inside large paragraphs
Cloze deletions are better than basic cards as it is more optimised to used your notes directly
E for Editing a card
Using :: you can add more hints to your cloze card or reframe it as questions
You are creating the cards for your future self. So hints help you remember the context or the sort of the answer you are looking for
By changing the c1 attribute you can make two ore more delitions at the same time

Editing a flash card

As you are working through you cards, you to need edit and add stuff to make the card more richer
Using Edit (E) option you can come in add images by pasting the extra section in the cloze card

Flash cards carry the risk of developing memory in isloation, that is not ideal. By editing and adding more to it you can expand what you are learning into a larger framework of knowledge (Mental Modes and Lattice Work). For developing more hooks to connect to, to understand something as concept rather than floating facts

Undertand these things first and then apply the flash card method.

Also there is a principle of minimum information that Ali states, do not try to cram too much cloze deletitions in the same card.

Image Occlusion

Cntrl Shift O

Image occlusion is used to hide part of images and then test you for it
Helpful when trying to learn maps or diagrams
It has to be downloaded as an addon
How to download an addon on anki:
Go to tools
Add on
Add Addons
Browse Addons
Copy the code of the addon
Paste it and press enter the add on is ready
Image occlusion will be added in the cloze type card as a small button
Press it and copied image automatically appears on it

Best settings for anki

To change settings every deck has a gear icon next to it
There is actually a lot to learn and understand when it comes to choosing anki settings
Here is a good resource to learn that in detail.
For now I have followed along and used Ali’s recommended settings
He notes that review intervals will be shorter if he was trying to learn something like a new languag
Ali’s Settings
Steps : 15 1440 8640
Grad interval: 15
Easy Interval: 60
90 Lapses
Reviews: 9999

Anki on Different Platforms

Apps.anki.web.net
Use the anki app official website to download your apps as there are so many fakes around

Syncing Anki

It’s free and easy
Short Key is Y
Never upload stuff from an empty device as it will clear out your exisiting deck?
You can share you deck and also download other people’s deck

Section 2

Flashcards from a lecture

First step is to understand the topic of the lecture well and then make your flash cards. Otherwise you don’t really know why you are making these cards.

Less is more, make flash cards of the stuff you need to memorize
Obvious things need not be added to your flash card system
Cloze deletions can be used as a basic a card and Ali’s approach is based on it. The advantage is you don’t have to switch between card types every now and then
Cloze deletions all lets you add images and other details which will be very useful for your future self as you further distance your self from context which you were trying to learn that stuff
It is best if you avoid making flash cards during your first session of study into a new topic. Because you won’t know which parts of the subject you can take for granted. This is a good advice we all have our strong suits in a particular subject.
Frame the flash cards in such a way that it is useful for you (This requires skill as it is all about optimising you learning methods to match your ultimate goals as the student here)

There is also the need to outsmart your brain, cause it can develop subconsious cues to patterns that might not be so obvious. Like how you might be able to recall facts when you see other related facts but in actual test conditions those related facts might not be availble to you as memory hooks.

Making Flash cards from videos

Some good questions to ask yourself when you making the flash cards:

How am I going to be tested?
Because even thought there is a “minimum information priciple” some times you to need to remember things as a whole. While this makes the recall process harder, the particular information isn’t useful isolation.

Other than this all the same principles discussed earlier applies. You mind should be more focussed on how you can make the card as simple as possible at the same time making sure it aiding you memorize what that is absolutely essential.

Making Flash Cards from Paragraphs

The soul of Anki is in the minimum information principle. Small chunks of facts that can be reviewed in quick succession. That is what makes Anki effective.

But Ali has also used Anki to memorize references for essays. While this is a complicated process and not somthing that beginners should be doing it is worth knowing it can be used.

In Ali’s case he has mental model for different essays that he memorizes in the form of mind maps or spider webs.

Now these models, will have key terms that are supposed to be explained with the use of external references. So Ali conntects the “key terms” with the name of the paper, publication year and facts or results he want to keep in his mind.

By doing so, while executing the mental model for an essay, he can use the keywords in question to recollect the reference. Anki system makes sure that he has this recollection practised every day.

The problem with this system is that, the recollection will take longer time per card and that is not exactly how anki is designed to be. When using for this purpose it would be better to keep the number of cards to a lower number.

If at all try to avoid this strategy!

Improving your flashcards

Add not just the answer, but all the prerequisites I need to understand that question
Optimise as you see fit

Section 3

When to use Anki

When should you be reviewing your flash cards?
Everyday
Wen should you create one?
After the lecture (One way) from notes
He converted the lecture directly into Anki
Start making the cards directly from the lecture when you get good
For individual factoids (names and definitons)

When should I start making Anki

As soon as possible
After getting an overview of what the exams will be like or what you want to focus
You must know what you know and what you don’t and then make flash cards to address that
Too much flash cards is off putting
Spread out the world load

What should I put on my flash cards

First develop your understanding of overall scope of the subject
Then ask yourself what are the things you will be tested with if you are preparing for exams or what are the things you need keep readily available in your memory
Test yourself with exam paper and find out which stuff you get wrong and then make flash cards for it
It is the wrong answers that you must on focus on to improve

How long should a flash card be?

” Minimum information principle ” : Single fact per card
Paragraphs for preparing for essays (Ali’s Technique)
Use anki in a way that you will use it consistently
Once you gain experience with the technique you can modifiy the cards \
Notes Vs Flash Cards
Ali’s take is note taking is unneccessary when you are preparing for exams
There are caveats though:
Note taking is helpful when you can’t undertand something inside your mind, in those casing, note taking helps reach better comprehension
Note taking is useful for exams where there is cross refereced questions, that is anything that you want to take forward in life, it is better you make notes of them
Note taking helps condensing stuff
You can add more details to the extra’s stuff so that you can use anki as your note
For medical student anki serves better than notes when used in conjection with mind maps
To generate insights you need notes

Managing card overload

Be consistent with you revisions
Avoid making cards for the stuffs you know
Split revision throughout the day
There is a load balancer add on as well

How to stay consistent

Force yourself to do it untill it becomes a habit
Heat Map Addon
5 minutes principle

Anki Vs Quizlet

Anki is optimisable, faster, quicker and customizable

Anki vs Google Sheets

It’s a cramming system. No spaced repetion
Useful when you have less than 2 months for exam and you to focus on the key concepts

Anki vs Notion

It is a false dichotomy
Anki is for detaile storage of something
While preparing notes in notion will help you get the bigger picture of any topic
It serves the function of a mind map or a spider web

Importance of Playing the Long Game

As with all the things playing the long game is important! Anki needs time and consistency from your side to find its full value

Optimisation

Heirarchical Tags addon

Organises the browsing of tags based on heirarchy
Useful when you are dealing with a single deck with large number of cards with no other ways to differentiate the content (when sub decks are not used)

Pre-made decks

Premade decks are decks made my others and shared online
These are very useful as it saves your time
But purely relying on premade decks are a bad way to go as they do not come with any context
So you must develop contextual understanding yourself and then use a premade decks to memorise the important factoids
These can be found in anki web platform itself or you can search on communities such as reddits to find the right ones for you
It is important to note as that as you use a premade deck, you must modify it according to your level, some cards might have to be suspened while for others context has to be added.

Add Ons

Heat Maps

For motivation and consistency. Similar to the one we have in Keybr

Pop up wikipedia

Cntrl Shift W to quickly grab data from wikipedia

Frozen Field

Very useful when creating multiple cards from the same context

Speed Focus Addon

Increasing speed / physical reminder that you are slow
5s and show answer at 8s

Zettel Garden🪴

Explorer

Learn Anything With Flashcards - The Ultimate Guide To Anki