How to learn anatomy with Anki

What is Anki?

Anki is a program, which makes remembering discrete facts easy through the use of flashcards. It is based on two concepts: active recall and spaced repetition. Active recall involves trying to remember a piece of information directly from memory without any hints. In other words, active recall means testing. Spaced repetition revolves around reviewing a piece of information multiple times, but there is a catch. Reviewing with Anki does not happen arbitrarily, but it rather depends on how well the information was recalled the previous times. Therefore, while the active recall is the test, the spaced repetition is the teacher.

If you thought learning anatomy was challenging, imagine trying to also keep track of the accuracy of your recall, then planning the review times, reviewing the information and doing the same steps the following day. It would be a nightmare! Luckily, Anki’s algorithm is extremely intelligent and calculates this automatically. The only aspect this magician needs from you, its audience, are the claps provided through the simple touch of a button, telling him if/how well you remembered a piece of information. The possible options are:

Again – incorrectly recalled or forgotten

Hard - correct but it was difficult to remember

Good - correctly remembered without taking too long

Easy - correctly remembered in a fraction of a time

The easier the recall, the lengthier the time will be until you see that particular card again and vice-versa.

Why use Anki?

“Jimmy” Connors, one of the greatest players to ever set foot on a tennis court, said “Use it or lose it”. The human brain follows this policy to a T. In order to remember any piece of information for a long period of time you need to see it again and review it, otherwise you will forget it. In fact, forgetting starts at an alarming rate, the moment you finish learning. Therefore, the more you use the brain to test yourself about how well you know a piece of information, the more consolidated it becomes.

Although all of this is perfectly true, I would like to change Connors saying into “Use it well or lose it”. There is no denying that “well” refers to the active recall part. However, it also refers to the spaced repetition. Daily studying will result in flashcards piling up very rapidly and reviewing all of them each day is not practical. In order to “use it well”, you need to remind yourself only of the challenging information rather than everything day after day. This would increase efficiency and save time in the long run. After all, medicine and anatomy is a marathon so you will be running for many years.

In addition to providing a successful review strategy, Anki offers users several additional advantages:

• Free – most Anki versions are completely free.

• Portable – it can be installed and synced across laptops, desktops, tablets, and mobile phones, allowing you to study anywhere, anytime. Waiting 30 minutes for a bus? Plough through 50 cards. Wishing to enjoy the sunny weather? Grab your phone and go study in a park. It is that easy!
• Digital – since the flashcards are electronic, they are easily searchable, editable, categorized and flourished with images, sounds and videos.
• Ease – although Anki has a lot of study and formatting options, anyone can use it. You just need to create a deck, create some flashcards according to the “Golden Rules” and start studying!
• Flexible - while the focus of this article is to use Anki for learning anatomy, it can help you memorize pretty much anything.

Learning anatomy

When you strip away Anki of its sparkly robe and look at the skeleton, it is ultimately a memorization program. Therefore, it is only natural to be well suited for studying anatomy – a factual subject with a high volume of information.

Step 1: Read the required information. Kenhub would prove an excellent anatomy resource at this point, with its clearly written articles and professional video tutorials. You need to realize that Anki is not a dirt track but rather a paved and straight road. It will get you to your destination more efficiently and faster in the long run rather than offering you instant results but leave you with knowledge gaps and unconsolidated material. Effort is still required when using this program.

Step 2: Take a note of any important facts or concepts that need to be memorized and convert them into flashcards. Anki offers a lot of options, from simple to advanced. You can make standard, double-sided ones or fill in the blanks. You can write an anatomical term on the front and its explanation or a fact about it on the back of the card. For example, you can write “Choracobrachialis muscle innervation” on the front and “Musculocutaneous nerve” on the back. Alternatively, you can convert a concept into a question or insert a picture with blank labels on the front and the same one, but labeled, on the back of the card. Just use your imagination because the possibilities are endless!

Step 3: Immediately review your flashcards after you have finished making them. This is essential for knowledge retention and to minimize forgetting. Anki will schedule each card in the future based on how well you recall it.

Step 4: This is important - Repeat those steps daily to prevent unnecessary cards from piling up. Tackling hundreds of unreviewed cards in one go is an ugly sight that will just set you back and make it more challenging to catch up. Remember, you are running a marathon and not sprinting a race.

Need an extra hand? Find out how to effectively structure your studies using our Human Anatomy Study Guide. 

Golden rules for flashcards

It is very easy to get ahead of yourself and create very complex flashcards with long answers and confusing questions. Anatomy is already confusing so there is no need to create a mountain out of a molehill.

Below are some golden rules to help you create good, clear and useful study cards for anatomy:

• Keep it simple – make discrete cards with one question or one fact/answer
• Make questions unambiguous
• Try formulating “Why?” questions
• Create connections between different cards
• Avoid lists – if indispensible, keep them under five items
• Enhance your cards with media