Overview
Anki schedules reviews at expanding intervals just before you’d forget — the spacing effect, one of the most replicated findings in cognitive psychology. Medical students swear by it; researchers underuse it for terminology, formulas, seminal papers’ key claims, and language learning.
Why researchers use it
- Evidence-based — spaced repetition and retrieval practice have decades of supporting literature
- Fully yours — open source, local decks, free sync across desktop and Android
- Beyond exams — retain field terminology, statistics formulas, talk points
Getting started
- Install desktop Anki (free) and AnkiWeb sync; iOS app is the project’s one paid item.
- Make your own cards — the act of writing them is half the learning.
- Keep cards atomic (one fact each) and do the daily review religiously; 10 minutes beats weekend cramming.
The honest review
Strengths. It simply works, for free, forever: the rare tool whose core claim is backed by a literature you can check. The card-creation discipline doubles as comprehension testing.
Limitations. The interface is utilitarian, the learning curve for advanced features (card types, add-ons) is real, and it only helps with memorisation — not understanding.
When NOT to use this
If your bottleneck is synthesis or writing rather than recall, flashcards are procrastination in disguise. Memorise what you’ll reuse weekly; look up the rest.