3 Evidence-Based Rules for Writing Better Anki Cards for Medical Exams

Stop wasting time on inefficient Anki flashcards. Here are three practical, evidence-based principles to streamline your Anki workflow, reduce cognitive friction, and ensure your medical study sessions are super effective.

Each Anki card must only contain one piece of information to recall. Your Anki card answer should not be recalling multiple lists. If you have to remember more items, it is better to split them up into different cards to make them easier to remember.

❌ Bad Example:

Q: What are the risk factors for asystole?

A:

This card is badly formulated because it asks for a list of multiple items to recall. If you get two of them right but not the other two, it is difficult to know whether to mark the card as correct or incorrect.

✅ Good Example:

Q: Constant PR interval followed by intermittent dropped QRS describes which type of heart block?

A: Mobitz type 2

This is an acceptable card because the answer consists of one piece of knowledge and sticks to the minimum information principle.

Memory interference is the idea of learning similar things which causes you to confuse them.

For example, atropine and adenosine are both abstract words beginning with the letter "a", and both are given when the rhythm of the heart is not normal. It can be confusing to remember which one you give in bradyarrhythmia and which one you give in tachyarrhythmia.

(For the record, IV atropine is given in unstable bradycardia and IV adenosine is given in tachyarrhythmias).

The only way to tackle this is to identify cards that you keep getting wrong and lower the threshold for marking them as a leech. For example, if you get the card wrong three times, the card is automatically tagged "leech". If both your atropine and adenosine cards end up getting marked as a leech, this means you have not remembered the concept properly and have to eliminate this memory interference.

I've made a whole video on how to tackle leech cards and solve memory interference, which you can check out on my channel below:

The idea must be to complete your Anki cards as quickly as possible to reduce response time and reduce the friction required when it comes to recalling the concepts. Avoid unnecessary words which do not add context and format the card in such a way that important keywords are bolded.

❌ Bad Example:

Q: Bordetella pertussis which is the causative organism for whooping cough disease is usually treated as first line using which medication (class of medication)?

A: Macrolide such as clarithromycin / erythromycin

The question is too wordy and contains unnecessary information required to test the knowledge concept.

✅ Good Example:

Q: What is the first line management of whooping cough?

A: Macrolide

The question is much simpler and is formatted properly to highlight the relevant information, to allow you to quickly recall the knowledge concept.

The concepts of making effective Anki cards are inspired by the "Twenty rules of formulating knowledge" by SuperMemo. I've adapted them in such a way to be simple and relevant to medicine.