How to use Anki to study for the MCAT

This is How To Premed, the Brita filter for premeds - I get rid of all the guck so you only get the best stuff.

Today, we are diving into how to use Anki for MCAT prep - the REAL iconic duo (sorry Batman and Robin 🤷‍♂️)

Everyone knows the friend who had a Noble Prize but crap MCAT score and wasn’t able to get in.

When looking at strategies from students who aced the MCAT, you will notice that they all talk about Anki.

If you don’t know, Anki is a free flashcard app that uses an algorithm to hone in on the flashcards that you struggle the most with.

Outside of the fact that Anki looks like it came straight out of 1990s, the majority of med students live and die by it.

It’s simple. And, best of all, it works.

The only hack you need to kill it on the MCAT

Let’s hit the juicy stuff: how to get the MCAT score you have been dreaming about during your REM cycles

💡 The best way to get your dream MCAT Score is by not missing the same question twice.

Let me explain:

• Most students go through 2000+ Practice Questions before their test day

• But there are only 230 questions on the MCAT

• This means that there is a lot of topic overlap (AKA why there are “high yield” topics/questions).

• This means that the MAJORITY of your MCAT test will be things you have seen.

This is where Anki comes in. Think of Anki = straightforward practice questions.

While doing a practice question may take you 1.5 minutes (90s), an Anki card will only take you 10 seconds.

So, once you have seen or done a practice question, you need to have an Anki card for it. If you have an Anki card for the topic, you will never have to “redo” that question again because Anki will make sure you either 1) memorize or 2) understand the underlying concept.

With Anki, you can go through 500 mini practice questions daily. Imagine trying to do that many “incorrect” UWorld questions again. It would be impossible.

So, once you decide to use Anki, the next question becomes…

Should I create my own Anki decks or use Premade Anki decks?

No one can decide for you, but in all honesty, all you have to consider is how much time you have before test day.

• If you have less than 3 months to study, you should stick with premade decks - they cover both high and low yield concepts.

• If you have more than 3 months and you think you will learn better by creating your own cards, then by all means, do that.

For me, working with premade decks made the most sense, especially once I learned the best ways to search for particular Anki cards. Reminded me of group projects in high school.

How To Create Your Own Anki Decks for MCAT:

As I said before, creating your own decks takes a lot of time. But on the flip side, your personalized decks can cater to your preferences.

For MCAT purposes, we’re going to use 1 type of card: cloze deletion. Cloze deletion allows you delete certain sections of the card. This allows you to focus on one section of the card instead of remembering the entire block of text on the cards.

Let’s say you are using Khan Academy as your main MCAT Resource. What you should do is do a split screen with the Anki “Edit Deck” Screen and Khan Academy.

The Cloze Anki card type is split into 2 boxes: “Text” and “Back Extra.”

In Text Box

In this box is where you will put your Anki Card. Typically the best Anki cards have a couple features:

1. There is a clear and specific question that ends with a question mark.

2. The answer is no longer than 2-3 words.

For example, you can create an anki card like:

To actually create the card, you should:

1. Write your question.

2. Press Enter two times.

3. Write your answer.

4. Highlight your answer.

5. Add the Close deletion with either the button or the keyboard shortcut (CMD + SHIFT + C)

AVOID AT ALL COSTS:

1. Copy pasting blocks of text and then just Cloze deleting various words.

   1. It doesn’t work. You end up just skipping those cards. It’s better to have more direct cards that you actually learn from.

Back Extra Box

The extra box section is your playground to include other relevant information.

For example, if you are watching a Khan Academy video, you can

1. Include screenshots from the video

2. Include your notes and relevant exceptions/conditions.

3. Include links to helpful resources to return to if needed.

How to get started with a Premade Anki deck:

Compared to making your own decks, this will be a piece of cake.

First, go to this link and determine which deck is best for you. I recommend the Milesdown Anki Deck just like most students on reddit. The Milesdown Deck has all the MCAT curriculum covered and this deck has been tagged and organized by Khan Academy Sections.

Milesdown is not the hero we deserve, but the hero we need.

After downloading the Milesdown deck, you should see a screen that looks like this.

Now is a good time to just play around with the deck to see how things work. Go through some cards and get familiarized with the formatting.

After familiarizing yourself, the best way to Anki is to pair it with your main MCAT resource. For most people, that’s the Kaplan subject books or Khan Academy Videos.

And as you go through the content in the book or videos, you go through the cards that correspond with that concept. This will keep things organized for you and quickly test what you learned.

How to only see the relevant cards you want:

1. Go to browse…

2. Press CMD + A to highlight all cards

3. Press CMD + J to suspend all of the cards

4. Find the tags category on the side bar

5. Then only highlight (CMD + A) those cards

6. Unsuspend them (CMD + J)

So let’s say you just learned about Enzymes and want to go through all the Anki Cards related to Enzymes. All you have to do is go to Browse and suspend all cards first, and then unsuspend the Enzyme cards so that those are the only cards you see.

There are many more settings with Anki, but those will have to covered sometime in the near future.

For now, you have everything you need to reach Anki paradise and kill your MCAT Studying.