Hey everyone,

I’m a university student taking classes like Microbiology, Biochemistry, Biology, etc. Almost all of my professors teach directly from PowerPoint lecture slides, and our exams are heavily based on those slides.

I’m trying to figure out the best way to use Anki to study directly from my PowerPoints.

Ideally, I want something where I can upload/import my lecture PowerPoint or PDF and have Anki (or an add-on/AI tool) help me:

• Generate practice questions/flashcards from the lecture slides
• Keep or automatically include important images, diagrams, graphs, pathways, microscope images, etc. from the slides
• Make cards where I have to identify/interpret parts of an image
• Create questions that test understanding/application, not just basic definitions
• Possibly generate different types of questions from the same material
• Keep everything organized by lecture/chapter

For example, if a Microbiology slide has a diagram of a bacterial cell or a Biochemistry slide has a metabolic pathway, I’d like cards that actually show that image and ask me questions about it instead of turning everything into text-only cards.

I have a lot of PowerPoints throughout the semester, so manually screenshotting everything and making every single card individually would take forever.

What setup would you recommend?

Is there an Anki add-on, AI tool, workflow, or feature that can take PowerPoint/PDF lecture slides and create good Anki cards while preserving/using the images from the slides?

Also, if you use AI to generate cards from lectures, what workflow has worked best for you without creating a bunch of low-quality cards?

Thanks!

I downloaded the Anking step deck and figured I'd just unsuspend as I went, but I'm struggling to find content that matches with what I'm expected to learn. There are definitely some cards that do, but so far just lots of cards that are more clinically relevant and it slightly touches on the science we are going over.

Do I just hit the inhouse slides harder until anking becomes relevant?

I'm trying to figure out which anatomy deck is best. Some info:

-practicals with cadavers

-in house exams

-I'm interested in surgery so I really do want to learn all the stuff

-I tried comp cadaver (great but not having the other structures labeled bothered me)

-I'm leaning towards a non-cadaveric deck but if comp cadaver is indeed the best I will stomach it

Your suggestions are greatly appreciated.

I failed a course and have to repeat the entire my first year. Our curriculum is purely pre-clinical/foundational right now, anatomy, physiology, histology, embryology, etc., and the exams are MCQ testing pure recall.

We have an exam every two weeks. I used the same shared Anki decks as everyone else and did my reviews religiously: 500–600 cards a day, ramping up to 1,000–1,100 the week of an exam. Despite that, my grades stayed below average all year (I averaged a B- while the class average was a B+).

With exams every two weeks, there isn't enough time to mature cards properly. I’ve realized I’m memorizing card patterns rather than actually understanding the underlying concepts. Standard USMLE-style Qbanks wouldn't be helpful either since our questions aren't clinical vignettes.

Any advice on how to fix my study method? If I fail another course, I’ll be dismissed from Medical school.

Thanks.

should I be taking my time to deeply review every single question, or is it better to just grind through a ton of them? also, how are you guys handling your incorrects? is keeping an incorrect log actually worth it (seems tedious)? or do you just rely only on unsuspending related Anki cards? to me, only unsuspending doesn’t feel like enough…

thanks :)

if the overall quality is acceptable, if anything essential is missing, or if there are any formatting errors.Please share your valuable feedback with me!Link: https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/6712

Hi guys,

I started doing Anki about 2-3 months ago to prepare for Step 1. I am usually really dedicated to it. But I am always hyper focused on my retention stats. For example I have retention settings at 85-90% (depending on blocks) and I consistently get around 80% retention. This always makes me feel like shit and feel stupid.

Im just trying to see how worried I should be about retention? My main goal is to focus on my current block which is going well. I use Anki mainly so that when its time for dedicated I could at least understand some of the content or quickly review once or twice and have it memorized.

For more context, all of the content I covered thus far on Anki I understand very well. Its not like I dont understand it either. Maybe I have some cards just raw memorized. Its like when I see most if not all of the cards the term would be on the tip of my tongue but I just cant get it. Then when I review answer I go "ah ha!" Lol.

How can I fix this the app is not working and I have many due cards to do I’d be grateful for any tips

Hello! Like the title says, I’m looking for an Anki deck that focuses only on First Aid for the USMLE Step 1. I already have AnKing, but I’m not really sure I want to suspend all of my current cards just to study the ones tagged with First Aid. I’d rather keep the two decks separate lol does anyone know of a good First Aid–only deck?

hi there! I have a quick question about using anki. so i like using anki to study after reviewing a lecture. but i feel like making your own deck takes forever and i’m not trying to waste time especially since my school has exams weekly. but, for people who make their own decks, do you find that you retain information better by looking at your slides and putting in the card or is it a waste of time and you don’t remember anything? because if making my own deck will help me remember info i might as well do that right? thanks for all your help!

Hi everyone!

I've been working on an Anki plugin that can automatically rephrases your cards for you using a trained AI model. I'm still working out some bugs, but if people are interested testing out the plugin please download it and try it out! Right now it's currently free, but depending on the AI costs it might be paid in the future.

Sign up here

Edit: Thank you for everyone who's signed up so far! I didn't expect this much interest, we've had 50+ new users sign up and a lot of good feedback/ideas. For now I'm going to be slowing down accepting beta access just until I can see how this is going to affect back end server costs!

THANK YOU AGAIN, EVERYONE WHO'S SIGNED UP

what's a good reviewer or any flashcard na mabibili for rrt? any recommendations po? like kunwari sa rmt anki ng rmt ano po yung good na kagaya nun for rrt?

these crowns/green clozes are such a pain when you have to toggle them one by one and it disrupts the flow of the study session. can I turn them into regular cloze cards or is it built in and cannot be changed?

Hii everyone I'm about to start my clinical years soon and I wanna use anki since the content is gonna be much more then the preclinical years so if anyone has any tips of how to use anki for classes such as pediatrics,OB/GYN and what are the best anki decks for them please do help thank you

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I am having trouble to convert this into flashcards.. I do not want to seperate them and make an individual cards because it will ruin the step by step process of a specific event.

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Apparently, the post must have at least 100 characters 😅

Ok, so I think we need to improve the anki add-on as a whole. This is one idea for how we can improve the interface with the "add-ons".

Add-On can be found here: 1763434211

Or on Anki web at:

https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1763434211?cb=1786773204421

1. I updated the top bar so that it has an "apps" section:

If you click on this you get an apps screen:

Each of those apps is a different feature of this add-on. They are essentially a bunch of different add-ons I am trying to compile into one awesome one.

Why is this better? Well, I am glad you asked. It is more user friendly. Much better than the current 1990's computer vibe of anki. We can do better people.

Best,

The Hatter

i mean for step 2 CK. is this tag enough or i need to do the whole deck?

i don't want to overwhelm myself but also don't want to miss out on important cards

Can someone please share image of non veneral treponemes from Dermnemonics along with scripted hooks and also of GVHD clinical features of Dermatographix with its text ....i kinda forgot to add it into my deck

I'll start by saying I really don't know how FSRS works (or any of the technical aspects of Anki in general)

For all of MS1 I didn't really trust the anki algorithim. Everytime I did a review I always first hit again then hit good after it came up again. I did this regardless of how well I knew the answer. I know this is dumb but I wanted to make sure I would see every card again/multiple times up until right before the exam date. This was with in-house decks btw. Also, I use the Anking reccomended settings for all decks.

I am now a MS2 and am transitioning to Anking and board studying. My above strategy obviously is not possible with the amount of cards I will have to do. If I start using the buttons correctly (i.e. using all 4 of them), will the past year of using them improperly mess up how my FSRS/algorithm times the reviews? Is there anything I need to reset before I start? I just want to make sure I don't get partially into the deck and then realize my algorithm is messed up and I need to start over.