Anki and Spaced Repetition

Part of The MCAT. Anki is a flashcard program built around active recall and spaced repetition. It can be one of the most useful free tools in your preparation, but only if you use it to support the rest of your studying. It is a memory tool, not the whole plan.

What Anki is good at

The MCAT asks you to remember a large amount of information: amino acids, enzymes, hormones, equations, psychology and sociology terms, pathways, and definitions. That is the kind of work flashcards can help with.

Anki shows you a card and makes you retrieve the answer before revealing it. When you remember it, the review interval gets longer. When you miss it, the card comes back sooner. This is spaced repetition.

The useful part is having to pull the answer out of your own memory. Rereading a page can make the material feel familiar without proving that you can recall it. A flashcard gives you a more honest test.

Anki does not teach you how to reason through a research passage. It does not replace CARS practice. It does not replace question banks. It helps you hold onto the content that those questions ask you to use.

Anki is free unless you insist on the iPhone app

Anki is free on desktop and through AnkiWeb. AnkiDroid is free on Android. The official iPhone and iPad app is a paid, one-time purchase, currently around $25.¹ Decks shared by the MCAT community are generally free, although some third-party deck-management services may charge for optional features. ⟳ Verify current prices and access.

You do not need to buy the iPhone app to use Anki. You can study on a computer or use the free web version. That matters if money is tight.

Is Anki worth learning?

I am a big advocate for spaced repetition because it solves a problem that ordinary studying handles poorly: forgetting.

You can understand a topic on Monday and lose half of it by the following week. That is normal. The problem is that most people respond by rereading everything from the beginning, which takes a lot of time and still does not guarantee recall. Spaced repetition brings older material back at planned intervals, so you keep meeting it before it disappears completely.

There is an initial cost in learning the program. The interface is not as obvious as a stack of paper flashcards, and the settings can look intimidating. I think that investment is worth it for many students. Once the basics make sense, the daily work is simple: answer the card, rate how well you knew it, and come back tomorrow to do the reviews.

You do not need to become an Anki expert. You need to learn enough to add cards, download a deck, review cards, search for a card, and lower the workload when it becomes unreasonable.

A friendly way to start

Do not begin by downloading five decks and changing every setting. Start with one small session:

Download Anki from the official site and make an AnkiWeb account so your collection can sync.
Create one broad MCAT deck. Use tags such as biology, chemistry, or missed-question instead of creating a separate deck for every chapter.
Add or download 10–20 cards.
Review them once and pay attention to what the buttons mean.
Return the next day and complete the scheduled reviews before adding more.

The Anki Manual's Getting Started guide and its short introduction videos are good places to learn the mechanics. The AnKing community also has beginner tutorials, and there are many student-made Anki 101 videos online. You do not have to understand every advanced option before you begin.

For the first week, keep the default settings unless you have a specific reason to change them. Learn the habit before you optimize the machine. Anki now also offers FSRS, a newer scheduling option, but you do not need to study scheduling algorithms to benefit from spaced repetition. ⟳ Verify current settings and documentation as the program changes.

Three ways to use it

There is no rule that says you must use a particular deck. You have three reasonable options.

1. Use a premade deck

A premade deck saves time. Someone else has already turned common MCAT topics into cards, and you can spend your time reviewing them.

Common names you will see include:

AnKing MCAT: a large, actively maintained deck that incorporates cards from several community decks and is commonly accessed through AnkiHub.
MileDown: a popular, more manageable all-subject deck with a reputation for clear formatting and useful visuals.
JackSparrow: a denser, more detailed deck that some students use for biology/biochemistry and chemistry/physics when they have more time.
Mr. Pankow: a psychology/sociology-focused deck that is often used on its own or as part of a larger deck.

These reputations come from recurring student discussions, not from a controlled comparison. Deck versions change, and a deck that works well for one student may be too large or too detailed for another. ⟳ Check the current deck source, version, and update history before downloading.

The practical choice is usually the smaller deck you will actually finish. If you have a short timeline, a manageable deck such as MileDown may be more realistic. If you have more time and want more detail, a larger deck may fit. That does not make the larger deck automatically better.

2. Make your own cards

Making your own cards is not an inferior version of Anki. It can be the most targeted approach because you make cards for the things you personally keep missing.

Good times to make your own card include:

you miss a question because you did not know a specific fact;
you confuse two similar concepts;
you understand a topic today but know it will fade;
you make the same mistake more than once; or
a practice question exposes a connection that you had not seen before.

For example, after missing a question about competitive inhibition, you might make a card asking what happens to Km and Vmax. You might make a second card asking why. The second card forces you to understand the relationship instead of memorizing two letters.

Making your own cards also helps you write the material in language you understand. You are less likely to create a card that asks about a detail you do not actually care about.

The danger is spending an hour making beautiful cards instead of reviewing the question that exposed the gap. Your cards do not need to be decorative. They need to make you retrieve something useful.

A simple card-making workflow

When you finish a practice set, keep a short list of cards you might make. Do not interrupt every question to build a card immediately. Finish the set, review it, and then make only the cards that will help later.

For each potential card, ask:

Did I miss this because I genuinely did not know it?
Am I likely to forget it again?
Can I ask it in one clear question?
Will reviewing it help me answer future questions, or am I just copying a paragraph into Anki?

If the answer to the last question is “I am copying a paragraph,” stop and rewrite it. You may need to understand the idea first. Anki is much better at retaining a clear concept than rescuing an idea you never learned.

Making 5–15 useful cards after a practice session is often more valuable than making 100 cards from a chapter. The exact number is not sacred. The point is to create fewer cards with a reason behind them.

3. Use a hybrid system

This is probably the most practical option for many students. Use a premade deck for broad coverage, then make your own cards from practice questions and topics that remain weak.

The premade deck handles the large background. Your cards handle your personal gaps. That gives you structure without pretending that everyone forgets the same things.

How to make a good card

Keep the prompt specific. One card should test one idea whenever possible.

Weak card:

Explain everything about the citric acid cycle.

Better cards:

Where does the citric acid cycle occur?

What molecule enters the citric acid cycle after pyruvate is processed?

What is the main purpose of the cycle in cellular respiration?

You do not need to split every sentence into ten cards. The goal is a question you can answer clearly and a back that explains the answer without becoming a textbook chapter.

Useful card types include:

Basic recall: ask a direct question and answer it.
Cloze deletion: hide an important word or phrase inside a sentence.
Image occlusion: hide a label on a diagram and retrieve it.
Compare and contrast: ask how two similar ideas differ.
Error cards: turn a repeated mistake into a prompt that prevents it.

Do not make cards for every line you read. Use the AAMC Blueprint and your practice results to decide what deserves repetition.

When to add cards

Add cards after you have encountered the material. You can make a few cards after reviewing a topic, but cards are especially useful after practice questions because the question shows you what did not survive contact with the exam.

A simple process is:

Do a set of practice questions.
Review every miss and every guess.
Decide whether the issue was content, reasoning, reading, calculation, or timing.
Make a card only when a card would help with that specific issue.
Review the card later, then return to practice.

If the problem was that you misunderstood a graph, an Anki card may not be the main solution. You may need more graph practice. If the problem was forgetting what a hormone does, a card may be exactly right.

It is not for everyone

Anki is popular for a reason, but popularity is not a requirement. Some people find the interface distracting, dislike the daily review commitment, or learn better by writing, drawing, explaining concepts aloud, or doing more practice questions. Those methods can work.

If Anki makes you avoid studying, stop using it or reduce it to a small set of high-value cards. You can still use active recall without Anki: close your book and explain a pathway, write what you remember on a blank page, or quiz yourself from the AAMC Blueprint. The point is retrieving information, not proving that you can maintain a particular app.

There is a reason so many medical students and premeds talk about Anki. It is good at a real problem. But “everyone online uses it” is not the same as “you must use it.”

A sustainable daily routine

Start small enough that you can keep up with reviews. A sustainable daily routine might include:

20–30 minutes of scheduled reviews;
a small number of new cards after content review;
one short practice set or passage; and
a note about what you need to revisit tomorrow.

The exact number depends on your timeline. Thirty minutes a day for months is usually more useful than a four-hour flashcard session followed by five days of avoidance.

There is a balance to find. Too few cards and you may keep relearning the same facts. Too many cards and the review queue becomes the thing that controls your day. The right daily load is the largest amount you can keep up with while still doing questions, reviewing mistakes, sleeping, and living your life.

A pancake analogy has always stuck with me from medical training. If someone tells you to eat one pancake every day, that is manageable. Two pancakes is probably manageable too. But if you keep skipping the pancakes, you eventually owe yourself ten, then twenty, then fifty. At some point, eating all of them in one sitting becomes miserable and maybe impossible.

Anki reviews work the same way. A few minutes every day is usually manageable. The problem is not that you missed one day. The problem is repeatedly pushing the work forward until the queue becomes frightening. If you fall behind, lower the number of new cards, work through the reviews in smaller sessions, and restart the habit. Do not add more cards to compensate for the ones you already have.

If you are starting from zero, consider beginning with 10–20 new cards a day and adjusting after a week or two. If your reviews are growing beyond what you can handle, reduce new cards first. Do not respond to an overloaded queue by adding even more cards because you feel behind.

If the queue is already too large, suspend low-value cards and reduce new cards until the workload is manageable. Catch up before you expand the deck.

Common mistakes

Treating Anki as the whole study plan

Flashcards test recall. The MCAT also tests application, passage reasoning, figures, experiments, and endurance. Keep questions and full-length review in the schedule.

Using multiple giant decks

You do not need AnKing, MileDown, JackSparrow, and Mr. Pankow all at once. That can create thousands of reviews without a clear reason. Pick a main approach, then add targeted cards when your practice shows a gap.

Making cards too long

If the answer is a paragraph, you probably need to split the card or rewrite the prompt. A card should test something you can retrieve.

Recognizing instead of recalling

Do not flip the card the moment it looks familiar. Say the answer first. The point is to find out whether you know it without the cue of the explanation.

Rating cards dishonestly

If you only remembered part of the answer, be honest about it. Anki's schedule depends on your feedback. Marking every card “easy” does not make the material easier.

Letting reviews become punishment

The pancake problem is not solved by self-punishment. If the queue is making you avoid studying, change the settings, reduce the new-card load, or take a brief reset and rebuild the habit. A tool that you stop using has no value, even if its algorithm is excellent.

How Anki fits into the larger MCAT plan

Use Anki to support the phases of the Study Plan:

During content review, use it to retain facts after you learn them.
During question practice, make targeted cards from recurring content gaps.
During full-length review, use it sparingly for mistakes that are genuinely memory-based.
Near test day, do not try to build an enormous new deck. Review what you know and spend your time on representative practice and rest.

The Resource Tier List has more detail on premade decks and their community reputations. The Exam Blueprint tells you what the cards should cover. The Practice Lab is where you work on the skills that flashcards cannot teach.

Anki settings, deck versions, app prices, and shared-deck availability change. Verify current details before downloading or paying for optional services. This page is educational information, not medical, financial, or admissions advice. — Last reviewed: 2026-08-06

References and source notes

The deck descriptions are a summary of recurring community discussion, not a controlled comparison or a guarantee of results.

The one price quoted on this page is the official AnkiMobile iOS app, a one-time purchase listed by the Anki project itself; the desktop program, AnkiWeb, and AnkiDroid are free. https://apps.ankiweb.net/ Prices change without notice, so check the App Store listing before budgeting against the figure here. ⟳ ↩