Flashcards have become the unofficial religion of medical study.
🧠 Anki isn’t evil - but it’s also not enough
And sometimes, it might be the very thing slowing you down.
🤯 Welcome to the cult of anki
“Have you made your Anki deck for the renal lecture?”
“I only got through 400 cards last night.”
“If it’s not in Anki, do you even know it?”
But there's a growing problem. For a lot of students, Anki has become a security blanket.
And like any blanket, it might keep you warm… but it can also stop you from moving.
🧩 What anki CAN do well
This is not an anti-Anki rant (well, mostly not). Flashcards can be useful when used for the right task, such as memorising discrete facts: diagnostic criteria, anatomical names, eponymous syndromes. The concept of spaced repetition algorithm is scientifically sound—repeated retrieval over time helps long-term retention. They may suit busy students who need study broken into small chunks.
🚧 Where it starts to break
The problem isn’t the tool - it’s what gets lost when flaschards become the primary study tool (or the only tool). Focusing on flashcard approaches can limit your ability to develop:
- Deep understanding
- Synthesis and contextualisation
- Adaptability in clinical scenarios
- True, effortful recall
It’s entirely possible to “do your Anki” and still have no idea about complex negative feedback loops, how the kidneys influence blood pressure, why liver disease affects drug dosing, or how to reason through a vague abdominal pain case.
Too many cards? You stop engaging.
Too simple? You stop thinking.
Too rigid? You stop adapting.
🔁 Wait - is it even active recall?
You’ve probably been told Anki = active recall. But let’s pause and challenge that.
Clicking “show answer” isn’t ACTIVE recall.True active recall is facing a blank page and reconstructing the concept, step by step, from memory. Making links and working out how one concept relates to another from your mind.
- What was this about?
- How does it link to other systems?
- What confused me?
- Can I draw this pathway?
- Could I explain it to someone else?
Ask yourself (or grab a coffee and do it with friends):
Try it with any topic. Get a blank whiteboard/sheet of paper and write a topic up the top: asthma, hypertension, glomerulonephritis. Can you draw the pathophysiology? Explain the clinical findings? Link the risk factors?
This is slow. It’s uncomfortable. It can be confronting when you have nothing to write. But it’s also how you train your brain to think like a clinician, not just a quiz machine.
🗺️ Use concept maps to think, not just tools to memorise
Medicine isn’t a game of trivia—it’s about systems. And systems require connections.
While flashcards help with isolated facts, concept mapping helps you connect the dots.
Concept maps let you:
- Visualise cause-and-effect relationships
- Build clinical frameworks (e.g. types of shock → perfusion → organ dysfunction)
- Identify gaps in understanding
- Understand the why, not just the what
That’s the foundation for sticky, transferable, adaptable learning that stays with you for a career, not just until the next exam.
⚖️ Choosing the right tool for the task
Memorising diagnostic criteria? You need exact wording and fast recall. Flashcards may be useful for this (but you can equally easily learn this with traditional study techniques also).
Learning names of drug classes or anatomical terms? Again this is high-volume, rule-based, repetition-heavy, and a flashcard might be helpful (but not required) for that too.
Understanding blood pressure control? This needs to link renal, autonomic and endocrine systems, and will work well with a concept map - perhaps using a whiteboard or coloured pens in a big art journal, especially good when working with friends.
Exploring causes of jaundice? Integrates anatomy, physiology, and pathology and is a perfect topic again for a concept map, whiteboard, flow chart, and explaining the process out loud to your study buddy (or your dog!)
Preparing for OSCEs / CSEs or exams focusing on disease processes? Blank paper recall is perfect for this as it mimics clinical reasoning and explanation.
Those of us teaching you have supported thousands of medical students through their learning. We know there isn’t one perfect method—and just because a study tool is currently popular doesn’t mean it’s the best option for you.
(No one's out there marketing whiteboard pens or blank sheets of paper as medical school study tools - but they’ve helped more students than any digital algorithm ever will.)
🎯 Stop and ask yourself : what are you actually studying for?
One of the reasons Anki has developed such a devoted following is because of its effectiveness in standardised, fact-heavy exams - like the USMLE Step 1. Much of the quoted evidence, the social media hype, and the popularity, comes from its use in these exams. These assessments reward rapid-fire recall of detailed facts: enzyme deficiencies, receptor types, eponymous syndromes, drug interactions.
But here’s the catch: that’s not how most Australian medical schools teach or assess.
At our program, and many like it, your success depends far more on your ability to:
- Understand systems, not just name parts
- Integrate knowledge across disciplines
- Explain your thinking in clinical scenarios
- Justify decisions under uncertainty
- Communicate clearly in OSCEs, vivas, and team-based settings
Anki decks can be very useful at reinforcing the what, but they often fall short on helping you understand the why or how.
So before you spend hours colour-coding cards, ask:
“Am I training my brain to solve problems—or just to recite them?”
Because we’re not teaching you to win trivia night.
We’re teaching you to care for people.
💬 My advice for medical students
You can use flashcards—but don’t let them use you.
If Anki is your main study method now, ask:
- Can I explain this to someone else?
- Could I draw or write it out from scratch?
- Do I understand why this concept matters clinically?
If not - it’s time to get uncomfortable.
Try:
- Writing single-sentence summaries of complex ideas - or expanding simple points to a paragraph of explanation
- Drawing processes (e.g. RAAS, coagulation, inflammation)
- Teaching a friend (without notes) using only your brain and a blank page / whiteboard
- Working with others on a topic you both find difficult to see how you can fill each others gaps
These build the deep understanding that clinical reasoning demands.
🔄 Rethink. Rebalance. Reflect.
You don’t need to delete Anki if you find it helpful. But you might need to rebalance your study methods.
- Use flashcards for retrieval if you really want to.
- Use concept maps for integration
- Use blank paper for true recall and reflection
- Use your voice - explain, teach, verbalise your knowledge with others
Knowledge and understanding isn’t a deck of cards.
It’s a network. A system. A living framework.
So learn like you’ll use it. Not just like you’ll be tested on it.
And remember, every professor who is teaching you, every expert who is supervising you, every leader in health before you didn’t use Anki.
So please don’t feel like you have to.
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