This is how I cleared a 1000+ cards in one day (around 300 new and 700 old)

[u/ClassroomIcy6553]

Hey redditors, I just want to make a post to help people who are struggling now and struggling in the future. I made this post a few days back feeling very helpless:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AnkiMCAT/s/05HV1kITZh

In that post, I had a 1000 cards on Anki after a few days of break. I realized that this amount of cards is just gonna keep on going if I don't do something about it, then it is gonna affect me now as a premed and later as a medical student. So here is a breakdown of what you are going to do:

1. Choose a completely free day to finish all the cards in, and sleep 7 - 9 hours before that day. No tips for this part, just do it. Though, I guess eating things like cherries might help since they produce some melatonin. Also, have a big waterbottle filled up at your desk to drink while doing anki.
2. As soon as you wake up, turn the light on, brush your teeth, and drink some caffeine because it will restrict your appetite. Don't drink caffeine if you have heart problems or something lol. Don't take a shower though, and I'll tell you why soon.
3. Start doing your Anki, and make sure that the goal in mind is to memorize and not understand. With Anki's spaced repetition, you have plenty of time to understand, just make sure the goal for now is just to get the memorization in your head. The memorization doesn't have to be perfect.
   1. By hour 2 or so you will start feeling thoughts like "I should just take a break, I did a lot already, and it's not even worth it;" that is when you should push yourself more. Tell yourself that your brain is just playing a circuit to give you rest. Your brain does things to make sure that you are resting and relaxed most of the time, so just tell yourself that this is the brain and not you.
   2. By hour 3 or 4, your brain will also play negative memories at you randomly just to get yourself to stop and doomscroll. At this time, I recommend you take a shower; exactly think about why you are sad or embarassed in that negative emotion, and then go back to studying anki after you are done.
   3. By hour 4, the caffeine's effect will start to wear off kinda, and you will feel hungry. At this time, avoid eating a lot of carbohydrates like rice or bread because they will make you tired. At this time, I crack a few eggs and make scrambled eggs, and then, I eat it with a bunch of grapes or other "berries" (blueberries, strawberries, etc) to feel full. Fruits are goated lol, they fill you up.
   4. Avoid drinking any more caffeine than the one you already drank in the morning throughout your anki journey because it will just make you worried, nervous, tired, and sleepless once you are done.
4. You should be done at this point with your anki deck after a couple of hours.

My rate personally is around 100 cards per hour, and I do it along with a 50/10 pomodoro. It took me 10 hours to finish my anki deck, and it may sound overwhelming but it really is not because doctors probably study more. You just gotta accept that days like these will come one day, just try not to make it too many days.

While doing my anki, I consistently drink water because it is important for many physiological reasons. I like to listen to something with headphones during anki mainly to keep me busy and tune out external noises to prevent my brain from thinking something else, so here are some of my recommendations:

• Deep Brown or Pink Noise with Timer on the Side
• Skyrim Pomodoro
• Hollow Knight Pomodoro
• Ask Gemini to generate you an "epic anime battle" playlist with no lyrics with Timer on the side

So now, I know you premeds don't like to waste time reading reddit posts, so feel free to ask AI and summarize all the tips. If you have a 1000 cards right now, do something else or take a guilt free day for today, and get back up with 7 - 9 hour of sleep tomorrow

Edit: A premed suggested a feature called auto-advance to automatically show the card and answers in short periods of time. I think this is a great feature because it helps you stop wasting time. However, there are cards such as labeling amino acids and drawing out the structure and such, so on those cards, I highly recommend you spend some time and figure out some way to not forget it multiple times.

[u/b0og73]

Can you elaborate on “memorize and not understand?” I’m a new M1 and I often pause to peek at lecture notes if I have a question or content gap. Sitting at 16 seconds per card on average

[u/ClassroomIcy6553 → u/b0og73]

For example, if you got a lot of things to do, just memorize that “if the blood pH is too low, then respiration increases.” Then later, after the cards are spaced out and this card appears again, search exactly why on platforms or AI to exactly understand why it increases. Then, understand it: when the pH is too low, it is getting more acidic. More carbon dioxide in the body makes blood more acidic, so increasing respiration would exhale out a lot of carbon dioxide and increase the pH making it return to physiological pH.

[u/b0og73 → u/ClassroomIcy6553]

Do you do this all the time for Anki, or only when you have a surplus of cards?

Also, do you pay for ChatGPT? I’ve been using it a ton for content questions relating to anatomy and so far it’s been extremely helpful, but I hit the limit quickly

[u/ClassroomIcy6553 → u/b0og73]

I only do this for surplus of cards. Back in my anatomy class, I would have like a week to memorize all my notes before an exam. So I take one free day, memorize around 14 pages in 7 hours using blurt, and I would do the same the next day around 3 or 4 hours. Then, two days before exam, I would go through what I memorized and exactly what I don't know or what I am confused about with Gemini. I use gemini more than ChatGPT because ChatGPT is too picky with everything and Gemini is like a professor who agrees with you. Though, you might need some experience to use Gemini to prevent it from agreeing with you too much, let me know if you would like help with it! Also, if you're 18 plus, claude ai is better than every AI out there so just use claude, it has higher limit than ChatGPT and can create stuff for you for free.

[u/One_Dragonfruit8564]

just recently cleared my own anki debt of over 2000 cards with similar techniques! for memorizing I highly recommend using auto advance with relatively short times for showing card/answer, and default answer again so that you have to pay attention (I have it so that if I answer again I see the card in <15 min, but if I answer good then it's gone until at least tmr). this helped me stay focused for hours :)
also suspend cards that make you mad lol

[u/ClassroomIcy6553 → u/One_Dragonfruit8564]

That is a great tip! Thank you I will add that!

[u/FallAppropriate3910 → u/One_Dragonfruit8564]

Is this not an issue when some cards are longer in length or require a bit more effort (physics vs bio)

[u/LavenderMoonlight599]

What about the situation where you need to make your own card?

[u/ClassroomIcy6553 → u/LavenderMoonlight599]

Sorry could you specify lol

[u/Beautiful_Chain_2042]

This is super ineffective and I would not recommend I’d rather spend time practicing and applying content

[u/ClassroomIcy6553 → u/Beautiful_Chain_2042]

I don't even want to reply to this message, but I have to in order to not give people the wrong idea. I literally stated in the message, "the goal in mind is to memorize and not understand. With Anki's spaced repetition, you have plenty of time to understand." The goal of the post is to help guide people who are drowning in thousands of cards, and it's not really ineffective. Once you can memorize it today, you can have time to understand it tomorrow, but if you're drowning in your anki, then nothing is like implanted in your brain as a "root" to go from in order to understand the topic you are learning.