It will be slow going at first when using ChemSketch or ChemDraw to 1make reactions. Much longer than after becoming familiar with the program. In this way, the first dozen, few dozen, however many will be irrepresentative of how long it would take to make cards later.

After awhile it took me around a minute to make reactions and put them into Anki. Let’s say there are 4 reactions a page at 140 pages, that’s 560 minutes = 9 hours and 20 minutes. For me when I was in Ochem that was about 3 days of studying using traditional methods. Of course I recommend spacing this out over a period of a few days or a week or something.

The time spent making the cards can also be considered studying as well. In a way, it is doing what you would already do – just with the end result of super powered memory tools to memorize the information afterward.

Also, is all of the information on the 140 pages necessary? Simplifying things helps a great deal when putting cards into SRS. How much or how little will become a ‘feeling’ after working with it for awhile.

As for when exams are coming near – I recommend after every class as soon as possible making the Anki cards (I will be making the cards for my Anatomy class that finished an hour ago right after posting this.) It prevents having to input a backlog of information and keeps everything consistent. Spaced repetition, as mentioned in the other article about Emergency Studying on this website, is meant more for using over a few weeks. SRS will work when crammed into a short amount of time, but it really does feel like it takes part of the soul in the process.

The decision to do it is in your hands. Moving to SRS is a jump because it is quite a different method of studying and requires some initial effort, though the effort multiplies over itself many times and significantly cuts down on having to put effort/time in later. Best of luck with however you choose to walk the path.

Thank you again for all this good information!!!

I used ChemSketch. It is a free program available here: http://www.acdlabs.com/chemsketch

It is free and quite easy to use. There will be a post about how to use the software soon.