Make Anki Cards Fast: 7 Proven Tricks To Build Better Decks In Minutes – Stop Wasting Time Formatting And Start Actually Learning Today

So, you’re trying to figure out how to make Anki cards fast without spending your whole evening clicking buttons and formatting text, right? Making flashcards quickly just means cutting out all the boring manual steps—like copy‑pasting, typing the same thing over and over, and fiddling with card layouts—so you can spend more time actually studying. When you streamline that process, you can turn lecture notes, PDFs, or videos into cards in minutes instead of hours. And honestly, this is exactly where apps like Flashrecall shine, because they’re built to generate flashcards for you from text, images, PDFs, and even YouTube links:

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

Why Making Cards Fast Actually Matters

Here’s the thing: flashcards only help if you actually use them consistently.

If it takes you an hour to make 20 cards, you’ll burn out on day three. Fast card creation means:

• You can keep up with daily lectures or chapters
• You actually finish decks before exams
• You spend more time reviewing (the part that makes you remember) instead of formatting

Anki is powerful, but it’s also a bit clunky and old‑school. That’s why a lot of people start with Anki and then move to something smoother like Flashrecall, which keeps the spaced repetition magic but makes card creation way faster and less painful.

1. Use Apps That Auto-Generate Cards (Way Faster Than Manual Anki)

If your goal is to make Anki cards fast, the biggest unlock is to stop doing everything manually.

With Anki, you usually:

• Copy text
• Paste into a field
• Decide what goes on front/back
• Add formatting
• Repeat… again and again

With Flashrecall, you can literally skip most of that. It can auto‑create cards from:

• Text – paste in a paragraph, get suggested Q&A cards
• Images – snap a photo of a textbook page or slides
• PDFs – upload a file and turn key points into cards
• YouTube links – drop a link and generate cards from the content
• Typed prompts – write “make flashcards about photosynthesis” and let it build them

You can still edit everything, but the heavy lifting is done for you. That’s how you go from “one hour for 20 cards” to “five minutes for 50+ cards.”

If you’re on iPhone or iPad, you can grab Flashrecall here:

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

2. Batch Your Content Instead of Making Cards One by One

One of the slowest ways to work (in Anki or anywhere) is: read one fact → make one card → repeat.

A faster flow looks like this:

1. Collect first, create later

• Take notes during class or while reading
• Highlight key points in a PDF
• Dump everything into one doc or note

2. Turn that chunk into cards in one go

• In Anki, you can paste lines into the “Basic (and reverse)” or use add‑ons
• In Flashrecall, paste a whole section of text and let it propose multiple cards automatically

Example:

You’ve got a 2‑page summary of heart physiology.

• Old way: read a sentence → make a card → repeat 100 times
• Faster way: paste all 2 pages into Flashrecall → tweak the suggested cards → done

Batching like this is usually the difference between “I’ll never finish this” and “oh, that was actually manageable.”

3. Use Simple Card Types (Don’t Over-Engineer)

A lot of people waste time trying to make super fancy, ultra‑custom Anki cards. That’s cool if you love tinkering, but not great if you just need to pass your exam.

To make cards fast, stick to simple formats:

• Basic Q&A
• Front: “What is the function of the mitochondria?”
• Back: “Powerhouse of the cell; produces ATP through cellular respiration.”
• Cloze deletions (fill in the blank)
• Text: “The mitochondria is the {{c1::powerhouse}} of the cell.”

Cloze cards are especially fast because you can take notes or a paragraph and just blank out key parts.

In Flashrecall, you can:

• Paste your notes
• Quickly select key phrases
• Turn them into cloze‑style cards in seconds

Less time fiddling with card types = more cards created = more stuff remembered.

4. Turn Slides, Photos, and PDFs Into Cards Instantly

If you’re using Anki the old-school way, you’re probably staring at your slides or textbook and manually typing everything in. That’s… slow.

Faster approach:

With images or slides

• Take a photo of the slide or textbook page
• Use an app that can read the text and build cards from it

In Flashrecall, you can:

• Snap a photo of your notes, textbook, or whiteboard
• Let the app pull text and suggest flashcards
• Edit anything that looks off

With PDFs

Instead of:

• Opening PDF
• Copying line by line
• Pasting into Anki

You can:

• Upload the PDF to Flashrecall
• Have it extract key info and generate cards automatically

This is insanely useful for:

• Lecture PDFs
• Research articles
• Study guides

You go from “ugh I’ll never make cards for this 60-page PDF” to “I’ve got a deck ready in 10 minutes.”

5. Reuse and Tweak Existing Cards Instead of Starting From Scratch

Another way to make Anki cards fast is to stop reinventing the wheel every time.

With Anki, you can:

• Duplicate a card
• Slightly change the question or example
• Keep the formatting and tags

With Flashrecall, since it’s super quick to edit and duplicate cards, you can:

• Create one “template” card (like a typical definition or formula card)
• Duplicate it for related concepts
• Just swap out the term or example

Example:

• Original: “Define osmosis.”
• Duplicates: “Define diffusion.” / “Define active transport.”

Same style, same tags, barely any extra effort.

6. Let Spaced Repetition And Reminders Run Automatically

Making cards fast is only half the story. If you forget to review them, it’s wasted effort.

Anki does have spaced repetition, but you need to remember to actually open it and do your reviews. No reviews = no memory.

• Automatic spaced repetition
• Study reminders so you don’t forget to review
• Smart scheduling so you see cards right before you’re about to forget them

So you:

• Make cards quickly (or auto‑generate them)
• Get pinged when it’s time to study
• Don’t have to think about scheduling at all

This is what makes fast card creation actually useful—you keep your decks alive without extra effort.

7. Use “Chat With Your Flashcards” When You’re Stuck

Sometimes you make a card and realize later: “Wait, I don’t fully get this concept.”

With traditional Anki, you’d:

• Google it
• Watch a video
• Maybe update the card

With Flashrecall, you can literally chat with the flashcard.

You can ask:

• “Explain this in simpler words”
• “Give me another example”
• “Compare this to X concept”

Then:

• Turn that explanation into new cards
• Or refine your existing ones

This means you can start with quick, rough cards and improve them over time without a huge time cost. It’s like having a built‑in tutor sitting inside your deck.

Flashrecall vs Anki For Making Cards Fast

If you like Anki but hate how long it takes to build decks, here’s a quick comparison focused just on speed:

If your main goal is “make Anki-style cards fast, on my phone, without fighting the UI”, Flashrecall is honestly way smoother.

You can try it free here:

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

Practical Workflow: From Raw Material To Cards In 10–20 Minutes

Here’s a simple step‑by‑step flow you can steal and adapt:

Example: 1 Hour Lecture → Flashcards

1. During class

• Take rough notes (handwritten or digital)
• Snap photos of key slides

2. After class (10–20 minutes)

• Open Flashrecall on your iPhone/iPad
• Import your photos or paste your notes
• Let it auto‑generate cards
• Quickly skim and edit anything important

3. Over the week

• Let spaced repetition and reminders tell you when to review
• If something feels confusing, chat with that card for a better explanation
• Turn those explanations into a few extra cards

That’s it. No spending two hours making a “perfect” deck—you just keep moving and keep learning.

Final Thoughts: Fast Cards = More Learning, Less Procrastination

To make Anki cards fast, you basically want to:

• Batch your content instead of doing everything one by one
• Use auto‑generation from text, PDFs, images, and videos
• Stick to simple card formats
• Let spaced repetition and reminders handle the scheduling
• Use tools that don’t fight you on the interface side

You can do some of this in Anki with plug‑ins and patience, but if you want something that’s fast, modern, easy to use, works offline, and lives on your iPhone/iPad, Flashrecall is honestly a much smoother option.

It’s free to start, great for languages, exams, school, uni, medicine, business—pretty much anything you need to remember.

Grab it here and try turning your next lecture or chapter into cards in minutes:

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

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.

What's the most effective study method?

Research consistently shows that active recall combined with spaced repetition is the most effective study method. Flashrecall automates both techniques, making it easy to study effectively without the manual work.

What should I know about Cards?

Make Anki Cards Fast: 7 Proven Tricks To Build Better Decks In Minutes – Stop Wasting Time Formatting And Start Actually Learning Today covers essential information about Cards. To master this topic, use Flashrecall to create flashcards from your notes and study them with spaced repetition.

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• Anki Flashcards Maker Alternatives: 7 Powerful Reasons To Switch To A Faster, Smarter App – Stop Wasting Time Tweaking Settings And Start Actually Learning More In Less Time