The goal of the SRS cards is to develop strong memories quickly. This is accomplished by making the cards short and targeting exactly where the gap in memory is. The “gap” is marked using what Anki calls Cloze Deletion. Information on using Cloze Deletion can be found here http://ichi2.net/anki/wiki/ClozeDeletion. With cloze deletion it is only necessary to type the fact once, then highlight and click the “Cloze Deletion” button in Anki. It is very important to utilize cloze deletion when making cards. Anki will automatically generate the […], copy the fact into the “Back” area of the card, and give a nice blue highlight.
Basic Facts:
If we want to know the capital of the United States we would write it as such:
Front: […] is the capital of the United States
Back: Washington D.C. is the capital of the United States
Note how the fact is included as a whole rather than an isolated answer. This builds the memory stronger and faster by keeping everything together. We know now that Washington D.C., capital, and United States are all part of a single fact. Let’s look at another example. If we want to memorize where Los Angeles is found:
Front: Los Angeles is located in […state]
Back: Los Angeles is located in California
Of course Los Angeles is located in California. It is also located in the United States. North America. Northern Hemisphere. Earth. Milky Way. Which is the correct answer? All of them! However, we are looking at the state level and leave ourselves a hint to remind us of this. It is important to memorize the fact instead of the fact + what the card is asking.
Definitions:
Definitions are quick and easy with Anki. Often a standard card as shown above can be used interchangeably with a definition. Which one is more suitable to which model will become clear with practice. Definition cards are marked by definition -> word. This takes a bit longer to learn than a standard definition card in an SRS, and builds a stronger memory as well. Here is an example:
Front: […]: Loss of water by leaves
Back: Transpiration: Loss of water by leaves
In some cards it is helpful to maintain part of the thing we are asking. Here is an example:
Front: […] speciation: Geographic isolation
Back: Allopatric speciation: Geographic isolation
Front: […] speciation: Genetic or behavioral isolation
Back: Sympatric speciation: Genetic or behavioral isolation
Leaving speciation in is a small boost. The second card does contain two facts as “genetic or behavioral”, however they are related and were markedly different from Geographic isolation, so I kept them in. It would be easy to just make a series of cards as such:
Front: […] speciation: Genetic or behavioral isolation
Back: Sympatric speciation: Genetic or behavioral isolation
Front: Sympatric speciation: […] or behavioral isolation
Back: Sympatric speciation: Genetic or behavioral isolation
Front: Sympatric speciation: Genetic or […] isolation
Back: Sympatric speciation: Genetic or behavioral isolation
This will take only a few moments using Anki with Copy and Paste and Cloze Deletion.
Lists:
Lists of information can be memorized as well. This card type is useful when given a related set of short facts and almost nothing else about the topics. This happened a lot in my Political Science course. Here is an example when this is useful:
Front: Unprotected Speech
[…]
Obscenity
“Fighting Words”
Commercial speech
Back: Unprotected Speech
Libel/Slander
Obscenity
“Fighting Words”
Commercial speech
Front: Unprotected Speech
Libel/Slander
[…]
“Fighting Words”
Commercial speech
Back: Unprotected Speech
Libel/Slander
Obscenity
“Fighting Words”
Commercial speech
Front: Unprotected Speech
Libel/Slander
Obscenity
[…]
Commercial speech
Back: Unprotected Speech
Libel/Slander
Obscenity
“Fighting Words”
Commercial speech
Front: Unprotected Speech
Libel/Slander
Obscenity
“Fighting Words”
[…]
Back: Unprotected Speech
Libel/Slander
Obscenity
“Fighting Words”
Commercial speech
Front: […] Speech
Libel/Slander
Obscenity
“Fighting Words”
Commercial speech
Back: Unprotected Speech
Libel/Slander
Obscenity
“Fighting Words”
Commercial speech
However if we wanted to memorize the organs of a body, it would be more useful to make standard facts about the cards instead of using this model.
List cards allow memorizing of lists very quickly. It creates more cards, though it took me less than a minute to create the five-series of cards just shown. The information will be memorized faster and stronger because it is broken up into pieces. Again, this model is a backup in case the only information given in class about the items is the fact they exist. If we were given more information regarding the items then we can make normal cards with their facts without the list model. List model is PLAN B.
This can also be used to memorize ordered information like Freshman –> Sophomore –> Junior –> Senior. Putting numbers is optional and I found just adds more things to memorize. It is more important to memorize that Junior comes after Sophomore and before Senior than the fact it is number 3. This also helps memorize the surrounding items.
Pictures/Diagrams:
Pictures are a great help to learning information and are excellent ways to build memories. They can be useful in many areas and often require just a little bit more work to build a stronger memory. Some things can only be reasonably learned in a picture, like geography. Let’s say we want to memorize where Germany is on a map. We would take a picture of a map of Europe, or at least Germany + surrounding countries, and block out the Germany name in MS-Paint (A note on MS-Paint. Press ctrl+A and then it is possible to copy and paste the image directly into Anki without having to save it.)
Front: (Picture of map of Europe with Germany name blocked out)
Back: (Unaltered picture of a map of Europe)
This information covers most areas of study. The models are fluid and free to experimentation – they are what I have found to be the most effective after 3 months of using Anki everyday. I read lots of information about SRS cards and also incorporated other facts about learning and memory. The models are a mixture and tweaking of Anki and Supermemo examples with my own refinements.
Making cards is a fun and creative process by finding the most effective way. Inputting the cards and finding a way to summarize the information also helps build the memory! Information for specific subjects can be found in the Table of Contents.
Table of Contents
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Great post.
It is interesting to see that you find learning lists to be easy. According to this site, sets / enumerations should be avoided whenever possible:
http://supermemo.com/articles/20rules.htm
Also if you are using Windows 7 the snipping tool might be helpful. It can be used to make screenshots of parts of your screen plus to mark out words
Lists are one of the more challenging things to learn. Supermemo admonishes them, though given the nature of some material I don’t see a way around it. If I just have a list of qualities to learn, without more information for those qualities, what should I do? If I need to make 300 cards in one day for a class, I am unlikely to go digging deeper for each item in the list.
Lists are especially useful for memorizing steps of information. I once used list cards to memorize a 20+ step process. It took a few days, I did get it though.
Lists are dangerous though. I use them as a last resort because if they’re too vague or you don’t understand it enough before putting it in an Anki card, it will probably not work. I went through a period earlier this year where I used list cards as a crutch and I struggled to learn the information. Lesson learned!