Make Anki Cards: 7 Powerful Shortcuts To Study Faster (And A Smarter Alternative Most Students Miss) – If you’re tired of clunky card-making and want a faster, cleaner way to do spaced repetition, this is for you.

So, You Want To Make Anki Cards Without Losing Your Mind

Alright, let’s talk about how to make Anki cards in a way that actually helps you remember stuff and doesn’t take forever. Making Anki cards basically means creating digital flashcards that use spaced repetition to show you things right before you forget them. It’s amazing for long‑term memory, but the process can feel slow, messy, and kind of annoying if you’re doing everything manually. That’s why a lot of people start with Anki and then move to something smoother like Flashrecall, which does the same spaced repetition magic but with way less friction:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flashrecall-study-flashcards/id6746757085

Let’s walk through how to make good cards, common mistakes, and how to do all of this way faster.

What “Making Anki Cards” Actually Means (In Plain English)

When people say “make Anki cards,” they usually mean:

• Creating digital flashcards (front and back)
• Organizing them into decks (e.g. “Biology”, “Spanish Verbs”)
• Setting them up so spaced repetition kicks in
• Reviewing them daily so the app tells you what to study and when

The idea is great:

• You see hard cards more often
• Easy cards get spaced out
• You remember more in less time

The problem is that actually making those cards can be super manual:

• Copy-pasting text
• Typing questions and answers
• Formatting cloze deletions
• Importing images or screenshots

That’s where a modern app like Flashrecall really helps. It does the same spaced repetition thing but lets you make cards from:

• Text
• Images
• PDFs
• YouTube links
• Audio
• Or just stuff you type in

All on your iPhone or iPad, with a cleaner, faster interface.

Step 1: Decide What Should Actually Become A Card

Before you even make Anki cards, you need to decide what’s card-worthy. Not every sentence in your notes deserves to be a flashcard.

Good candidates:

• Definitions
• Formulas
• Dates / facts
• Vocabulary
• “If X, then Y” concepts
• Things you always forget

Bad candidates:

• Huge paragraphs
• Entire slides copied word-for-word
• Stuff you already know cold

A simple rule:

> If you can’t imagine a clear question → answer for it, don’t make it a card.

With Flashrecall, you can literally highlight key parts in a PDF or screenshot and turn just those into cards, instead of dumping everything in.

Step 2: Use Simple, Clean Card Formats

You don’t need fancy setups to make Anki cards that work. Stick to simple formats:

1. Basic Question → Answer

• Front: What is the capital of France?
• Back: Paris

Use this for:

• Simple facts
• Names, places, dates
• Short definitions

2. Cloze Deletions (Fill In The Blank)

These are perfect for concepts, formulas, or sentences.

• Original: “The mitochondrion is the powerhouse of the cell.”
• Card: “The {{c1::mitochondrion}} is the powerhouse of the cell.”

You hide one key piece and force your brain to recall it.

In Flashrecall, you can just type a sentence and select the part you want hidden. No weird syntax to remember.

Step 3: Make Your Cards Short And Laser-Focused

The biggest mistake when people make Anki cards: too much information on one card.

Bad:

• Front: “Explain glycolysis in detail.”
• Back: Huge paragraph of text

Good:

• Card 1: “Where does glycolysis occur?” → Cytoplasm
• Card 2: “How many ATP are net produced in glycolysis?” → 2 ATP
• Card 3: “What is the starting molecule of glycolysis?” → Glucose

Smaller cards = less overwhelm and better recall.

Flashrecall makes this easier because you can:

• Paste a chunk of text
• Quickly split it into multiple cards
• Or let AI help you turn notes into bite‑sized Q&A cards

Step 4: Add Images, Audio, And Real Context

If you only make Anki cards with plain text, you’re missing out.

Use:

• Images for anatomy, diagrams, maps, charts
• Audio for language learning (pronunciation, listening)
• Screenshots from slides or textbooks

In Anki, this usually means saving files, importing, attaching… it works, but it’s a bit clunky.

In Flashrecall, it’s way more direct:

• Snap a photo of a textbook page → auto-generate cards from it
• Paste a YouTube link → make cards from the video’s content
• Upload a PDF → highlight and turn sections into cards

This is gold for:

• Med students (diagrams, radiology images)
• Language learners (audio, dialogues)
• Anyone using lecture slides

Step 5: Keep The Wording Clear (So Future You Doesn’t Suffer)

When you make Anki cards at 1am the night before an exam, it’s easy to write cryptic stuff that makes zero sense later.

Try this:

• Write the front like you’re asking a friend a question
• Write the back like a clear, short answer you’d give out loud

Bad:

• Front: “Mechanism?”
• Back: “Something about sodium channels and depolarization”

Good:

• Front: “What ion primarily enters the neuron during depolarization in an action potential?”
• Back: “Sodium (Na⁺)”

Flashrecall helps here because if you forget why something matters, you can literally chat with the flashcard and ask for more explanation or examples. It’s like having a built-in tutor inside your deck.

Step 6: Let Spaced Repetition Do The Heavy Lifting

The whole reason people make Anki cards is to use spaced repetition. You rate each card after reviewing it, and the app decides when you should see it again.

Both Anki and Flashrecall use this idea. The difference is how smooth it feels.

With Flashrecall:

• Spaced repetition is built-in and automatic
• You get study reminders, so you don’t forget to review
• You don’t have to tweak tons of settings unless you want to
• It works offline on iPhone and iPad, so you can study anywhere

You just open the app, and it shows you:

> “Here’s what you need to review today.”

Tap, review, done.

Link again if you want to check it out:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flashrecall-study-flashcards/id6746757085

How Flashrecall Compares To Making Anki Cards The Traditional Way

Since you specifically looked up how to make Anki cards, here’s a quick honest comparison.

Card Creation

• Anki:
• Manual typing
• Formatting cloze deletions
• Importing images/audio yourself
• Great if you like tinkering
• Flashrecall:
• Make cards from images, PDFs, YouTube links, text, audio, or just typing
• AI can help turn notes into flashcards
• Super fast, modern interface
• Perfect if you want less setup, more studying

Learning Features

Both have:

• Active recall (question → answer)
• Spaced repetition scheduling

Flashrecall adds:

• Chat with your flashcards if you’re confused
• More guided, clean experience out of the box
• Great for languages, exams, school, medicine, business—pretty much anything you need to memorize

Platform

• Anki: Desktop + mobile, but mobile can feel dated
• Flashrecall:
• Designed specifically for iPhone and iPad
• Fast, touch-friendly, feels like a modern app
• Works offline

Price

• Flashrecall is free to start, so you can try it and see if it fits your style.

Practical Example: Turning A Study Session Into Cards (The Easy Way)

Let’s say you’re studying Spanish vocabulary.

Old-school Anki workflow:

1. Open notes or textbook

2. Manually type:

• Front: “To eat (Spanish)”
• Back: “comer”

3. Repeat like 100 times

4. Add audio manually if you want it

Flashrecall workflow:

1. Paste a vocab list or screenshot it

2. Use Flashrecall to auto-generate cards from that text or image

3. Review with spaced repetition

4. If you don’t understand a usage, chat with the card:

• “Give me 3 example sentences with ‘comer’”
• It answers right there

Same end result (you learn the word), but way less friction.

Tips To Make Better Cards (No Matter What App You Use)

Even if you stick with Anki, these tips will help:

1. One fact per card

• Don’t cram multiple ideas into one card.

2. Use your own words

• Rewrite definitions in a way that makes sense to you.

3. Use images when helpful

• Especially for anatomy, geography, and visual topics.

4. Avoid vague questions

• “Explain X” is too broad. Aim for specific questions.

5. Review daily, even if it’s just 10 minutes

• Spaced repetition only works if you actually show up.

Flashrecall just makes those good habits easier to stick to, because:

• It reminds you to study
• It gives you today’s cards automatically
• It lets you create cards super fast from real study materials

So, Should You Still “Make Anki Cards”?

If you like full control, custom add-ons, and tweaking every setting, Anki is still solid.

But if your goal is:

• “I just want to remember more in less time”
• “I want to make cards quickly from my notes, PDFs, and videos”
• “I want something that feels modern on my phone”

Then you might be happier using Flashrecall instead of (or alongside) Anki.

You still get:

• Active recall
• Spaced repetition
• Study reminders
• Offline access
• Fast, easy card creation

Plus that extra bonus: you can actually talk to your flashcards when you’re confused.

Try it out here and see how it feels compared to making traditional Anki cards:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flashrecall-study-flashcards/id6746757085

If you’re going to spend time making flashcards anyway, you might as well use something that makes the whole process way less painful.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Anki good for studying?

Anki is powerful but requires manual card creation and has a steep learning curve. Flashrecall offers AI-powered card generation from your notes, images, PDFs, and videos, making it faster and easier to create effective flashcards.

What's the fastest way to create flashcards?

Manually typing cards works but takes time. Many students now use AI generators that turn notes into flashcards instantly. Flashrecall does this automatically from text, images, or PDFs.

How do I start spaced repetition?

You can manually schedule your reviews, but most people use apps that automate this. Flashrecall uses built-in spaced repetition so you review cards at the perfect time.

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