[{"body":"","link":"https://danmccoy.co.uk/","section":"","tags":null,"title":"Dan McCoy"},{"body":"","link":"https://danmccoy.co.uk/posts/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Posts"},{"body":"","link":"https://danmccoy.co.uk/series/","section":"series","tags":null,"title":"Series"},{"body":"","link":"https://danmccoy.co.uk/series/using-ai-and-anki-to-make-better-revision-flashcards/","section":"series","tags":null,"title":"Using AI and Anki to Make Better Revision Flashcards"},{"body":"This is the third article in my series about using AI and Anki to make better revision flashcards.\nPart 1: Why Flashcards Work Part 2: Getting Started with Anki In the first article, I looked at why flashcards work. In the second, I went through the basics of Anki: what it is, how to install it, and how the main pieces fit together.\nThis article is about the next step: using AI to help turn learning material into useful flashcards.\nAI can be very good at this, but it is not magic. It can save a lot of time, especially when you have a large amount of material to work through, but you still need to guide it, check the output, and make sure the cards are actually useful.\nThe aim is not to get AI to do all your revision for you. The aim is to use it to produce a good first draft of flashcards, which you can then review, improve, and import into Anki.\nWhere AI fits in Start with good source material Tell AI what you want it to do Getting source material into AI Copying and pasting text Taking screenshots of awkward content Capturing long pages with a browser extension What makes a good flashcard? Do not ask for too much at once Improving the prompt Reviewing and editing the cards Getting the cards into Anki Option 1: Copy and paste cards manually Option 2: Use a spreadsheet Option 3: Import a CSV file Asking for a table or CSV format How the CSV should be structured Importing the CSV into Anki Common import problems The question and answer appear on the same side Everything imports into one field The first row imports as a flashcard Commas break the import Cards are imported into the wrong deck The wrong note type is selected Things to watch out for A simple prompt you can reuse Where this leaves us Where AI fits in Making flashcards manually is useful, but it can be slow.\nYou have to read the material, decide what matters, write a question, write an answer, and then repeat that process again and again.\nThat effort can be valuable. It forces you to think. But if you are working through a long course, a textbook, an exam guide, or a collection of web pages, it can also become a barrier. You may end up spending so much time making cards that you do not leave enough time to review them.\nAI can help with the first draft.\nIt can take a section of learning material and suggest possible flashcards. It can identify definitions, key facts, comparisons, processes, and details that are likely to be worth testing.\nBut it should not be the final authority.\nThink of AI as an assistant. It can help you produce cards more quickly, but you are still responsible for deciding whether those cards are correct, clear, and useful.\nStart with good source material The quality of the flashcards depends heavily on the quality of the source material.\nIf you give AI a vague prompt, it will usually give you vague cards. If you give it clear source material, it has something much better to work from.\nGood source material might be:\na section from a textbook your own notes a course handout a web page a revision guide a PDF a table of facts an exam specification a transcript from a video a page from official documentation Try to work from material you trust. AI can help turn that material into questions and answers, but it can also make mistakes. If the source material is unreliable, the flashcards will be unreliable too.\nIt is also better to work in sections rather than trying to process everything at once. A single page, topic, or sub-topic is usually easier to handle than a whole chapter.\nTell AI what you want it to do One important point: do not just paste learning material into ChatGPT and expect it to know what you want.\nAI tools respond to instructions. If you want flashcards, say so.\nYou can start with something simple like:\nChatGPT may then reply and ask you to paste the content.\nYou can then paste the source material in your next message.\nFor example:\nYou:\nPlease help me turn some learning material into revision flashcards. I am going to paste in a section of content. Pick out facts, definitions, comparisons, and short explanations that would make useful flashcards.\nChatGPT:\nSure — paste the content and I’ll turn it into flashcards.\nYou:\n[paste the learning material here]\nAt that point, ChatGPT should produce a set of flashcards from the material.\nYou can also do it all in one message:\nPlease turn the following learning material into revision flashcards. Each card should test one idea. Keep the answers concise.\n[paste the learning material here]\nBoth approaches are fine.\nThe two-message version can feel more natural if you are new to using AI. The one-message version is quicker once you are used to it.\nGetting source material into AI Once you have told AI what you want, the next step is to give it the source material.\nSometimes that is easy. If you have a web page, PDF, document, or set of notes where the text copies cleanly, you can copy and paste the relevant section straight into ChatGPT.\nOther times, the material does not copy neatly. Tables, diagrams, slides, screenshots, and some PDFs can come out jumbled or unreadable when you try to copy the text.\nIn those cases, screenshots can be useful.\nCopying and pasting text If the text copies cleanly, this is usually the simplest option.\nCopy the section you want to revise and paste it into the chat, either after your instruction or after ChatGPT has asked you for the material.\nTry not to paste too much at once. A page or a section at a time is usually easier to work with than a whole chapter.\nIf the material has headings, keep them in. Headings give useful context and help AI understand how the topic is organised.\nTaking screenshots of awkward content If the content does not copy cleanly, take a screenshot instead.\nOn Windows, you can use:\nShift + Windows + S\nThat opens the snipping tool, which lets you select part of the screen. You can then paste the screenshot into ChatGPT.\nThis is especially useful for:\ntables diagrams slides charts screenshots from a course PDF pages where the text copies badly Microsoft has more detail on using the Snipping Tool, but that shortcut is the one I use most.\nScreenshots are not always perfect, but they can preserve the layout of the material better than copy and paste.\nThis matters when the layout is part of the meaning. For example, a table comparing two things is often easier for AI to understand from a screenshot than from badly copied text where all the columns have been mixed together.\nCapturing long pages with a browser extension For long web pages, a normal screenshot may not be enough because the article is taller than the screen.\nWhen I was revising for a Microsoft certification exam, I had good results using a Chrome extension called GoFullPage. It can capture a full web page as one long screenshot, even if the page is many screens high.\nThat meant I could capture a whole article and paste it into ChatGPT, rather than taking lots of separate screenshots.\nThis can be very useful when the source material is awkward to copy, or when a web page has a lot of formatting that you want to preserve.\nYou still need to check the results, but it can save a lot of time.\nWhat makes a good flashcard? AI can produce flashcards quickly, but not all flashcards are good.\nA good flashcard should usually be:\nclear specific easy to mark as right or wrong focused on one idea short enough to review quickly This is a weak flashcard:\nFront:\nExplain biology.\nBack:\nBiology is the study of living things and includes many topics such as cells, organisms, ecosystems, evolution, genetics, and more.\nThe problem is that the question is too broad. It is hard to know what counts as a correct answer.\nThis is better:\nFront:\nWhat is biology?\nBack:\nThe study of living things.\nThat is small, clear, and easy to check.\nGood flashcards usually test one idea at a time. If a card contains three or four separate facts, you might remember some of them and forget the others. That makes it hard to know whether to mark the card as right or wrong.\nIf a card feels too big, split it into smaller cards.\nDo not ask for too much at once It is tempting to paste a huge amount of material into AI and ask for hundreds of flashcards.\nThat can work, but it often produces weaker cards.\nThe more material you provide at once, the more likely AI is to:\nmiss important details create cards that are too broad repeat itself produce shallow questions include things that were not in the source make the output harder to check A better approach is to work in smaller chunks.\nFor example, instead of asking for flashcards from a whole chapter, start with one section. Once that section looks good, move on to the next.\nThis also makes it easier to review the cards. If AI produces 20 cards, you can check them properly. If it produces 200, you are much more likely to skim them and miss problems.\nImproving the prompt Once you have some source material, you can ask AI to turn it into flashcards.\nA simple prompt might be:\nCreate revision flashcards from the material below. Each flashcard should test one idea. Keep the answers concise. Do not add information that is not in the source material.\nThen paste the material underneath.\nThat prompt gives AI some important rules:\nmake flashcards test one idea at a time keep answers concise stay close to the source material You can also ask it to aim the cards at a particular level.\nFor example:\nCreate revision flashcards from the material below for a GCSE student.\nor:\nCreate revision flashcards from the material below for someone preparing for a Microsoft certification exam.\nThe level matters because a useful card for a beginner may be too obvious for an advanced learner, while a useful card for an expert may be too difficult for someone just starting.\nReviewing and editing the cards This is the step you should not skip.\nAI-generated flashcards are a draft, not the finished product.\nBefore importing them into Anki, read through them and ask:\nIs the answer correct? Is the wording clear? Is the card testing one idea? Is the answer too long? Is the question too vague? Has AI added anything that was not in the source material? Are there duplicates? Are any important points missing? This review step is part of the learning process. You are not just doing admin. You are thinking about the material and deciding what is worth remembering.\nSometimes you will need to edit the cards yourself. Other times, you can ask AI to improve them.\nFor example:\nSome of these cards are too broad. Please split them into smaller cards that each test one idea.\nOr:\nPlease shorten the answers while keeping them accurate.\nOr:\nPlease remove duplicate cards and keep the best version of each one.\nAI is useful here because it can revise the cards quickly, but you should still check the final version before relying on it.\nGetting the cards into Anki Once you have a set of cards you are happy with, you need to get them into Anki.\nThere are a few ways to do this.\nThe simplest option is to create the cards manually in Anki. That is fine if you only have a small number.\nIf you have more cards, you may want to use a spreadsheet or CSV file so you can import them in bulk.\nFor non-technical users, this is probably the part that feels most awkward. But the idea is simple: you want one column for the front of the card and one column for the back.\nOption 1: Copy and paste cards manually If you only have a few cards, do not overcomplicate it.\nOpen Anki, create a new card, and copy the question and answer into the front and back fields.\nThis is slow for large numbers of cards, but it is the easiest way to start. It also gives you a chance to check each card properly as you enter it.\nManual entry is a good option when:\nyou have fewer than about 10 or 20 cards you are still learning how Anki works the cards need a lot of editing you do not want to deal with imports yet There is nothing wrong with starting manually.\nOption 2: Use a spreadsheet A spreadsheet is often a good middle step.\nYou can ask AI to create a table with two columns:\nFront Back You can then copy that table into Excel, Google Sheets, or another spreadsheet tool.\nThis makes it easier to review and edit the cards before importing them into Anki. You can scan the questions, tidy the wording, delete weak cards, and fix mistakes.\nA simple table might look like this:\nFront Back What is a prime number? A number greater than 1 that can only be divided exactly by 1 and itself. What is active recall? Trying to remember an answer before looking at it. For many people, this is easier to understand than working directly with a CSV file.\nOnce the spreadsheet looks good, you can save or export it as a CSV file.\nOption 3: Import a CSV file CSV import is useful when you have lots of cards.\nA CSV file is just a simple text file that stores rows and columns. CSV stands for comma-separated values.\nFor a basic Anki import, you can think of it like this:\n1Front,Back 2What is a prime number?,A number greater than 1 that can only be divided exactly by 1 and itself. 3What is active recall?,Trying to remember an answer before looking at it. Each row is one card.\nThe first column is the front of the card. The second column is the back of the card.\nIn practice, you may not need to write the CSV file by hand. You can work in a spreadsheet and export the file as CSV when you are ready.\nAsking for a table or CSV format When asking AI to create cards, you can ask for the output in a format that is easier to import.\nFor example:\nCreate flashcards from the material below. Return them as a Markdown table with two columns: Front and Back. Each card should test one idea. Keep the answers concise.\nThat is useful if you want to review the cards on screen or copy them into a spreadsheet.\nIf you are ready to import into Anki, you can ask for CSV instead:\nCreate flashcards from the material below. Return them in CSV format with two columns: Front and Back. Each card should test one idea. Keep the answers concise. Do not include any extra explanation before or after the CSV.\nThat last sentence matters. If AI adds an introduction or closing comment, you may need to remove it before importing the file.\nFor a first attempt, I would usually ask for a table rather than CSV. It is easier to read and check. Once the cards look good, you can convert them to CSV or ask AI to output the final version as CSV.\nHow the CSV should be structured For simple Anki cards, the CSV structure should be boring.\nThat is a good thing.\nYou want something like:\n1Front,Back 2\u0026#34;What is a prime number?\u0026#34;,\u0026#34;A number greater than 1 that can only be divided exactly by 1 and itself.\u0026#34; 3\u0026#34;What is active recall?\u0026#34;,\u0026#34;Trying to remember an answer before looking at it.\u0026#34; The first row contains the column names.\nEach row after that is one card.\nThe first column becomes the front of the card. The second column becomes the back of the card.\nQuotes around the values can help, especially if the question or answer contains commas.\nFor example, this answer contains a comma:\n1A number greater than 1, that can only be divided exactly by 1 and itself. That one would probably be fine without quotes, but many answers will contain commas. Quoting the values makes the file safer.\nIf you are using a spreadsheet, it will usually handle this for you when you export as CSV.\nImporting the CSV into Anki Once you have a CSV file, you can import it into Anki.\nAnki’s manual has a more detailed page on importing text files, but the basic idea is that each row becomes a note and each column maps to a field.\nThe exact screens may change slightly over time, but the basic process is:\nOpen Anki Desktop. Choose the deck you want to import into. Use the import option. Select your CSV file. Choose the note type, usually Basic. Make sure the first column maps to Front. Make sure the second column maps to Back. Check whether the first row should be treated as headers. Import the cards. Review a few imported cards to make sure they look right. The important part is checking the field mapping.\nAnki needs to know which column goes into which field. For a basic card, that usually means:\nCSV column Anki field Front Front Back Back Do not import hundreds of cards and assume everything worked perfectly. Import a small batch first, check the result, and then continue.\nCommon import problems CSV imports are useful, but they can go wrong.\nHere are some common problems.\nThe question and answer appear on the same side This usually means the columns did not map correctly, or Anki did not split the file into separate fields.\nCheck the import settings and make sure Anki is recognising the separator correctly.\nEverything imports into one field This usually means Anki is not reading the CSV as separate columns.\nCheck that the file really is a CSV file and that the separator is correct. In most cases, that means commas between the columns.\nThe first row imports as a flashcard If your first row says:\n1Front,Back Anki might import that as a card unless you tell it to treat the first row as headers.\nIf that happens, you can delete the unwanted card.\nCommas break the import If your questions or answers contain commas, and the CSV is not quoted properly, Anki may split a single answer into multiple columns.\nUsing a spreadsheet to export the CSV can help because it usually handles quoting correctly.\nYou can also ask AI to wrap each value in quotes.\nCards are imported into the wrong deck Before importing, check which deck Anki is going to use.\nIf the cards end up in the wrong place, you can move them afterwards, but it is easier to choose the right deck during import.\nThe wrong note type is selected For normal front-and-back cards, use a basic note type.\nIf you accidentally choose a different note type, the imported cards may not behave as expected.\nThings to watch out for AI can be very helpful, but it can also make mistakes.\nCommon problems include:\nmaking up facts changing the meaning of the source material creating vague questions writing answers that are too long producing duplicate cards missing important details making cards that are too easy making cards that test several ideas at once This is why checking the output matters.\nThe danger is that AI-generated cards can look polished even when they are wrong. A confident answer is not the same as a correct answer.\nFor revision, that matters. If you learn a wrong flashcard, you are training yourself to remember the wrong thing.\nAlways check the cards against the source material, especially for subjects where accuracy is important.\nA simple prompt you can reuse Here is a prompt you can adapt:\nCreate revision flashcards from the source material below.\nRules:\nEach card should test one idea. Keep the question clear and specific. Keep the answer concise. Do not add facts that are not in the source material. Avoid duplicate cards. If a topic is too broad, split it into multiple smaller cards. Return the cards as a table with two columns: Front and Back.\nSource material:\n[paste the material here]\nOnce you are happy with the cards, you can ask:\nPlease convert the table into CSV format with two columns: Front and Back. Wrap each value in quotes. Do not include any extra explanation before or after the CSV.\nThat gives you a practical workflow:\nPaste in the source material. Ask for cards as a table. Review and edit the cards. Ask for CSV when ready. Import into Anki. Where this leaves us AI can make flashcard creation much faster, but it works best when you stay involved.\nThe useful process is not:\nAsk AI for flashcards and trust whatever it gives you.\nIt is:\nGive AI good source material, ask for focused cards, review the output, fix problems, and then import the cards into Anki.\nThat way, AI helps with the repetitive work, but you still control the quality.\nUsed like that, it can turn a large amount of learning material into something much easier to revise: small, focused flashcards that you can review over time.\nThat brings this short series to an end. I hope it helps you get started with flashcards, Anki, and AI without making the process feel more complicated than it needs to be.\nGood luck with your studying.\n","link":"https://danmccoy.co.uk/posts/better-flashcards-with-ai/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Using AI to Make Better Flashcards"},{"body":"This is part two of my Using AI and Anki to Make Better Revision Flashcards series. In part one, I looked at why flashcards are useful. This article is about Anki: what it is, how the main pieces fit together, and how to use it without getting lost in all the options.\nAnki is powerful, but it can feel a bit odd at first. Some of the terminology is not immediately obvious, and the relationship between the desktop app, AnkiWeb, and the mobile apps can be confusing.\nThe good news is that you do not need to understand everything on day one. You only need enough to create a deck, add some cards, review them, and sync them to your phone if you want to use Anki away from your computer.\nWhat is Anki? Anki, AnkiWeb, and the mobile apps Installing Anki 1. Installing the Anki desktop application 2. Creating an AnkiWeb account 3. Installing and syncing to the mobile app The main Anki terms Decks Notes and cards Fields Card types Tags Creating your first deck Creating your first card Syncing your cards to your phone Reviewing cards A simple daily routine Things I would not worry about yet Where this leads next What is Anki? Anki is a flashcard app.\nLike physical flashcards, it shows you a prompt, asks you to remember the answer, and then lets you check whether you were right.\nThe extra thing Anki adds is scheduling. It tries to show you each card again at the right time. Cards you find difficult come back sooner. Cards you know well come back later.\nThis is called spaced repetition.\nThe idea is that you do not review every card every day. Instead, Anki keeps track of what you need to review and when. That makes it useful when you are revising over weeks or months, especially if you are building up a lot of cards.\nAnki, AnkiWeb, and the mobile apps One of the first confusing things about Anki is that there are a few different parts with similar names.\nThe main pieces are:\nAnki Desktop: the main app for Windows, Mac, and Linux. AnkiWeb: the online service used for syncing. AnkiDroid: the Android app. AnkiMobile: the official iPhone and iPad app. For most people, the easiest way to work is:\nCreate and organise cards in the desktop app. Sync them using AnkiWeb. Review them on your phone or tablet. You can create cards on a phone, but I would not start there. It is much easier to type, edit, copy and paste, and organise things on a computer.\nI think of Anki Desktop as the place where I do the main work, and the mobile app as the place where I review cards when I have a few spare minutes.\nAnkiWeb is important, but I would not think of it as the main app. It is mainly the service that keeps everything in sync between your devices.\nInstalling Anki There are three parts to the setup:\nInstall the Anki desktop application. Create an AnkiWeb account. Install the mobile app and sync your cards. You do not have to do all of this at once. You can start with just the desktop application and add syncing later.\nHowever, if you know you want to use Anki on more than one device, it is worth setting up AnkiWeb early. That way your cards and review progress can stay in sync from the start.\n1. Installing the Anki desktop application The safest place to get Anki is from the official Anki website.\nI would install the desktop application first. That gives you the best place to create, edit, import, and organise your cards.\nAnki Desktop is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Download the version for your operating system, install it, and open it.\nOnce it is installed, you can create your first deck and start adding cards straight away. You do not need a mobile app or an AnkiWeb account just to try Anki on one computer.\n2. Creating an AnkiWeb account AnkiWeb is the free online service that Anki uses to sync your cards between devices.\nYou can create an account at AnkiWeb.\nOnce you have created an account, sign in from the desktop application and sync your collection.\nAnkiWeb can be used in a browser, but I would not think of it as the main way to use Anki. It is mainly there to keep your cards and review progress synchronised between the desktop app and your mobile devices.\nThe official AnkiWeb page describes it as a companion to the computer version of Anki, and recommends starting with the computer version if you have not used Anki before.\n3. Installing and syncing to the mobile app Once you have Anki working on your computer and have created an AnkiWeb account, you can install the mobile app.\nThere are two main mobile apps:\nAnkiDroid for Android. AnkiMobile for iPhone and iPad. The Anki manual describes Anki, AnkiWeb, AnkiMobile, and AnkiDroid as the official Anki ecosystem, and links to them from the official Anki site.\nThis is worth knowing because there are other apps with similar names. To avoid installing the wrong thing, start from the official Anki website and follow the mobile links from there.\nBe aware that AnkiDroid is free, while the official iPhone and iPad app, AnkiMobile, is paid. That can surprise people, especially because Anki Desktop and AnkiWeb are free.\nAfter installing the mobile app, sign in using the same AnkiWeb account you used on the desktop application, then sync.\nThe usual workflow is:\nCreate and edit cards on your computer. Sync from Anki Desktop. Sync on your phone or tablet. Review your cards on the mobile app. I would still do most card creation on the desktop application. The mobile app is very useful for reviewing cards whenever you have a few spare minutes, but a computer is much easier for typing, editing, importing, and organising.\nThe main Anki terms Anki has a few terms that are worth understanding early.\nThe important ones are:\nDecks Notes Cards Fields Card types Tags These sound more complicated than they are.\nDecks A deck is a collection of cards.\nYou might have a deck for a subject, an exam, a language, or a topic.\nFor example:\nGCSE Biology French Vocabulary Driving Theory Microsoft AZ-204 At the start, keep your deck structure simple. It is easy to spend too much time organising and not enough time actually revising.\nA small number of clear decks is better than a complicated system you have to maintain.\nNotes and cards This is one of the bits that can confuse people.\nIn Anki, a note is the information you enter.\nA card is what Anki shows you when you revise.\nFor a simple flashcard, one note usually creates one card.\nFor example, you might create a note with:\nFront:\nWhat is a prime number?\nBack:\nA number greater than 1 that can only be divided exactly by 1 and itself.\nAnki then turns that note into a card. When you review it, Anki shows the front first, then reveals the back when you ask to see the answer.\nFor basic use, you do not need to worry too much about the distinction. Just remember that you enter notes, and Anki generates cards from them.\nLater, this becomes useful because one note can create more than one card. For example, with language vocabulary, one note could create a card from English to French and another card from French to English.\nBut that is not something you need to use straight away.\nFields Fields are the parts of a note.\nFor a basic card, the fields are usually:\nFront Back The front is the question or prompt. The back is the answer.\nOther note types can have more fields. For example, a language note might have:\nWord Meaning Example sentence Pronunciation But again, you do not need to start with anything complicated. A basic front-and-back card is enough to begin.\nCard types A card type controls how a note is turned into a card.\nFor a basic note, the card type is simple: show the front first, then show the back.\nAnki also has other card types, such as cloze deletion cards. A cloze card hides part of a sentence and asks you to remember the missing part.\nFor example:\nThe capital of France is [...].\nThat can be useful, but I would not start there unless you already know you need it.\nFor now, basic cards are enough.\nTags Tags are labels you can add to notes.\nThey can help you find, filter, or organise cards later.\nFor example, you might tag cards with:\nbiology definitions difficult exam-paper chapter-3 Tags can be useful, but they can also become a distraction. When you are starting out, do not worry about creating the perfect tagging system.\nIt is better to make a few useful cards and start reviewing them.\nCreating your first deck To get started, create one simple deck.\nChoose a name that describes what you are learning. For example:\nGCSE Biology\nor:\nFrench Vocabulary\nor:\nDriving Theory\nThe exact name does not matter. The point is just to have somewhere to put your first cards.\nAvoid creating lots of decks before you have added any cards. It feels productive, but it is usually just organising work that can wait.\nCreating your first card Once you have a deck, create a basic card.\nA good first card should be small, clear, and easy to mark as right or wrong.\nFor example:\nFront:\nWhat is a prime number?\nBack:\nA number greater than 1 that can only be divided exactly by 1 and itself.\nThat is a useful flashcard because it tests one idea. The answer is not a single word, but it is still concise. There is not much room for waffle.\nAt this stage, do not worry about making perfect cards. You will get better at writing them as you use Anki.\nA good rule of thumb is:\none card one idea one clear answer If a card feels too big, split it into smaller cards.\nSyncing your cards to your phone Once you have created some cards on the desktop app, you can sync them using AnkiWeb.\nThe basic process is:\nCreate an AnkiWeb account. Sign in from Anki Desktop. Sync your collection. Install the mobile app. Sign in to the same AnkiWeb account on your phone. Sync on the phone. After that, your decks should appear on your mobile device.\nThis is useful because reviewing cards does not require much setup. You can do a few cards while waiting for something, sitting on the sofa, or having a spare five minutes.\nI would still create and edit most cards on the desktop app. The phone is great for reviewing, but less pleasant for lots of typing and organising.\nOne important habit: sync before and after using Anki on different devices. That reduces the chance of conflicts where two devices have different versions of your collection.\nReviewing cards Reviewing cards is the main point of Anki.\nWhen a card is due, Anki shows you the front. You try to answer it from memory. Then you reveal the back and decide how well you knew it.\nAnki then gives you buttons such as:\nAgain Hard Good Easy The exact buttons and timings can vary depending on your settings, but the idea is simple.\nIf you got it wrong, choose Again. Anki will show it again soon.\nIf you got it right but had to think hard, choose Hard.\nIf you got it right reasonably comfortably, choose Good.\nIf it was very easy, choose Easy.\nYou do not need to overthink this. Most of the time, Good is the normal answer for a card you remembered.\nThe important thing is to be honest. If you got the card wrong, mark it wrong. That is not a failure. It just tells Anki to bring the card back sooner.\nA simple daily routine Anki works best when you use it regularly.\nThat does not mean spending hours in it every day. A simple routine is enough:\nStudy a topic. Add a few cards for the important points. Review the cards that are due. Repeat the next day. The reviewing is the important bit. Creating lots of cards and never reviewing them is not very useful.\nIt is also worth starting small. Add a handful of cards and get used to the process. Once it feels natural, you can add more.\nTry not to create hundreds of cards before doing any reviews. That can make Anki feel overwhelming before you have built the habit.\nThings I would not worry about yet Anki has a lot of features. You do not need most of them at the beginning.\nI would not worry yet about:\ncustom card templates add-ons complicated deck hierarchies advanced scheduling settings perfect tags importing large files statistics changing how the review algorithm works Those things can be useful later, but they are not needed to get started.\nAt the beginning, the goal is simple:\ncreate a deck add some basic cards review them honestly sync to your phone if useful That is enough.\nWhere this leads next Once you understand the basics of Anki, the next challenge is creating good cards without spending forever doing it.\nThat is where AI can help.\nIn the next article, I will look at how to use AI to turn learning material into flashcards, how to avoid creating bad cards, and what makes a flashcard useful in the first place.\n","link":"https://danmccoy.co.uk/posts/getting-started-with-anki/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Getting Started with Anki"},{"body":"Hi, I’m Dan. This site is where I share notes, posts, and ideas.\n","link":"https://danmccoy.co.uk/about/","section":"","tags":null,"title":"About"},{"body":"When I first started revising properly again, I had to remind myself what actually works.\nIt is very easy to spend hours reading notes, watching videos, highlighting text, or copying things out, and feel like you are making progress. Sometimes you are. But quite often, you are just becoming familiar with the material rather than learning it well enough to recall it later.\nThat is where flashcards can help.\nThey are simple, slightly old-fashioned, and not especially exciting. But used well, they are one of the most useful revision tools available.\nWhat are flashcards? How people usually use flashcards Active recall Why flashcards are useful Why flashcards can be better than reading notes What makes a good flashcard? Where physical flashcards fall short Where Anki fits in What are flashcards? A traditional flashcard is just a small card with a question, prompt, or clue on one side, and the answer on the other.\nFor example, one side might say:\nAnd the other side would say:\nYou look at the question side first, try to remember the answer, then turn the card over to check whether you got it right.\nThat is the basic idea.\nYou can buy blank cards, make your own from paper, or use ordinary index cards. There is nothing wrong with physical flashcards. They are cheap, simple, portable, and they do not need an app, a login, a subscription, or an internet connection.\nFor some people, writing the cards out by hand is part of the learning process. You have to decide what matters, phrase the question, and think about the answer. That effort can be useful in itself.\nHow people usually use flashcards The usual method is straightforward:\nRead the question or prompt. Try to answer it without looking. Turn the card over. Check whether you were right. Put the card into a pile depending on how well you knew it. You might have one pile for cards you know well and another pile for cards you need to practise again. Over time, the aim is to move more cards into the “known” pile.\nThat sounds basic, but the important part is step 2: you have to try to remember the answer before you look.\nThat is what makes flashcards different from just reading notes.\nActive recall Flashcards work because they force you to use active recall.\nActive recall means trying to bring the answer out of your memory, rather than just recognising it when you see it.\nBirmingham City University’s guide to active recall makes the same point: retrieval practice is what turns passive familiarity into usable knowledge.\nReading notes can feel productive because the material becomes familiar. You read a paragraph and think, “Yes, I know this.” But knowing something when it is in front of you is not the same as being able to remember it later in an exam, interview, meeting, or real situation.\nFlashcards make that gap obvious.\nIf you cannot answer the question before turning the card over, you have found something you do not know yet. That is not a failure. That is the point.\nA good revision tool should expose what you do not know, because those are the things you need to spend more time on.\nWhy flashcards are useful Flashcards are especially good for small, focused pieces of knowledge.\nThey work well for things like:\ndefinitions key facts dates commands formulas vocabulary comparisons rules short explanations exam details things that are easy to confuse For example, in a technical subject, a flashcard might ask what a command does, what a particular setting means, or when you would use one service rather than another.\nFor school revision, a card might ask for a definition, a quote, a scientific term, a historical fact, or a short explanation of a process.\nThe real benefit is that flashcards break a large subject into smaller pieces. Instead of trying to “revise biology” or “learn French”, you are dealing with one small question at a time.\nThat makes revision feel more manageable.\nWhy flashcards can be better than reading notes Reading notes is not useless. You often need to read, watch, or listen to something before you can understand it.\nThe problem is that reading is easy to mistake for learning.\nYou can read the same page several times and still not be able to explain it from memory. You can highlight half a textbook and still not know which parts you can actually recall.\nFlashcards make you answer.\nThat tiny bit of friction is the useful part. You have to stop and think. You have to commit to an answer. Then you find out whether you were right.\nGetting a card wrong is not a problem. In fact, it is useful feedback. It tells you exactly what needs more practice.\nWith notes, weakness can stay hidden. With flashcards, weakness becomes visible.\nWhat makes a good flashcard? A good flashcard is usually small and specific.\nFor example, this is not a great card:\nExplain networking.\nThat is too broad. It is hard to answer, hard to mark, and hard to learn from.\nThis is better:\nWhat does DNS do?\nOr:\nWhat is the difference between an IP address and a domain name?\nA useful flashcard should normally test one idea at a time. If a card has too much on it, you might get part of it right and part of it wrong, which makes it harder to judge whether you really know it.\nSimple cards are usually better than clever cards.\nWhere physical flashcards fall short Physical flashcards are still a good tool, but they do have limits.\nThey can be awkward to organise once you have a lot of them. If you want to group them by subject, difficulty, exam topic, or priority, that can quickly become messy.\nThey are also easy to lose, damage, or leave at home. If you make a mistake, you either have to cross it out or write the card again. If you want a duplicate card, you have to copy it manually.\nThe biggest limitation is scheduling.\nWith physical cards, you have to decide for yourself when to review each one. Cards you know well should appear less often. Cards you struggle with should appear more often. You can do that manually with different piles or boxes, but it takes effort to maintain.\nThat is where digital flashcard tools become useful.\nWhere Anki fits in Anki is basically a digital flashcard system.\nThe core idea is the same as physical flashcards: you see a prompt, try to remember the answer, then check whether you were right.\nThe difference is that Anki adds features that are difficult or annoying to manage with paper cards.\nIt can schedule cards for you, so difficult cards come back sooner and easier cards come back later. It lets you organise cards into decks, add tags, search your collection, edit cards, duplicate them, and sync them between devices.\nThat does not mean physical flashcards are bad. They are still a perfectly valid option.\nBut if you are making lots of cards, revising over weeks or months, or dealing with a large subject, a tool like Anki can make the whole process much easier to manage.\nIn the next article, I will go through what Anki is, how to install it, and how the main pieces fit together.\n","link":"https://danmccoy.co.uk/posts/why-flashcards-work/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Why Flashcards Work"},{"body":"","link":"https://danmccoy.co.uk/categories/","section":"categories","tags":null,"title":"Categories"},{"body":"","link":"https://danmccoy.co.uk/tags/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Tags"}]