If you're a premed student, you've probably heard upperclassmen or med students swear by Anki. And they're not exaggerating. Anki is the single most powerful study tool for anyone on the path to medical school — from crushing your biology courses to scoring in the 99th percentile on the MCAT.
The challenge most premeds have with Anki is that it can be intimidating to use. In this guide, we will teach you all of the things you need to know to make the most of Anki as a premed.
This guide breaks down exactly how to use Anki as a pre-med, which decks to download, what settings to use, and how to build a daily review habit that actually sticks.
What Is Anki and Why Do Pre-Med Students Use It?
Anki is a free, open-source flashcard app that uses spaced repetition — a scientifically proven method that schedules your reviews at increasing intervals based on how well you know each card. Instead of cramming the night before an exam, Anki spreads your studying out over days and weeks so information moves into long-term memory.
Research published in Medical Science Educator found that heavy Anki users spent roughly three-quarters of their total study time using Anki as their primary tool, and these students consistently outperformed their peers on anatomy and physiology assessments. The takeaway is clear: spaced repetition works, and Anki is the best tool to do it.
For pre-med students specifically, Anki helps with:
- Biology, biochemistry, and organic chemistry — memorize pathways, reactions, amino acids, and enzyme names
- MCAT content review — systematically cover all four sections
- Psychology and sociology — nail the P/S section with terminology cards
- Building a foundation for med school — students who start Anki as pre-meds have a massive head start on Day 1
Getting Started: Download and Set Up Anki
First things first — download Anki from the official Anki website. It's free on desktop (Windows, Mac, Linux) and Android. The iOS app costs $24.99, but it's a one-time purchase and worth every penny since you'll use it for years.
Once installed:
- Create an AnkiWeb account at ankiweb.net so your cards sync across devices
- Install essential add-ons — go to Tools → Add-ons → Get Add-ons. The must-haves are Image Occlusion Enhanced, Review Heatmap, and Edit Field During Review
- Download a pre-made deck (more on this below) — don't waste time making cards from scratch when incredible decks already exist
Pro tip: If you're doing long Anki sessions — and you will be — a Bluetooth Anki remote makes a huge difference. Instead of being hunched over your keyboard pressing spacebar and number keys hundreds of times, you can hold a small remote in your hand, lean back, and fly through reviews. Your wrists and back will thank you during those 500-card sessions.
The Best Anki Decks for Pre-Med Students
One of the biggest advantages of Anki is the community. Thousands of students have created and shared high-quality decks. Here are the best ones depending on where you are in your pre-med journey.
For MCAT Prep
MilesDown Deck — The most popular MCAT Anki deck, and for good reason. It's based on the MilesDown review sheets and covers all major content areas: biology, chemistry, biochemistry, physics, psychology, and sociology. The cards are concise and well-organized. This is the best starting point for most students.
Jacksparrow2048 Deck — If you're aiming for a 520+ and want a deck that covers every possible nuance, Jacksparrow is your deck. It's significantly larger and more detailed than MilesDown, so only choose this if you have 4+ months of dedicated MCAT prep time.
AnKing MCAT Deck — From the same team behind the legendary Step 1 deck. Well-tagged and regularly updated.
For Undergraduate Pre-Med Courses
Anki for your own courses — For classes like biology, organic chemistry, and biochemistry, you'll get the most value from making your own cards based on lecture material. Use the cloze deletion card type (fill-in-the-blank) for most content — it's faster to create and more effective than basic front-and-back cards.
Image Occlusion for anatomy — If you're taking anatomy, the Image Occlusion add-on is essential. Screenshot a diagram, block out labels, and Anki generates cards that quiz you on each label individually.
For Early Med School Prep
AnKing Step 1 Deck — The gold standard. Over 30,000 cards tagged to First Aid, Boards & Beyond, Pathoma, Sketchy, and UWorld. If you're a second-semester junior or senior who's already been accepted, starting the AnKing deck early gives you a serious advantage over your classmates.
Optimal Anki Settings for Pre-Med Students
Anki's default settings are fine for casual language learning, but they're not optimized for the volume of material pre-med students need to cover. Here's what to change:
New Cards Per Day: Start with 20-30 new cards/day if you're using Anki alongside classes. During dedicated MCAT prep, bump this to 40-60 new cards/day.
Maximum Reviews Per Day: Set this to 9999 (effectively unlimited). You never want Anki to cap your reviews — the whole point is seeing every card when it's due.
Learning Steps: Change from the default 1m 10m to 15m 1d. This means you'll see a new card after 15 minutes, and if you get it right, again the next day before it graduates to the review queue.
FSRS (Free Spaced Repetition Scheduler): If you're using Anki 23.10 or later, enable FSRS in your deck settings. It uses a more advanced algorithm than the default SM-2 scheduler and adapts to your personal memory patterns. Many med students report better retention with fewer daily reviews after switching.
Maximum Interval: Leave at 36500 days (the default) for long-term learning. If you're cramming for a specific exam, temporarily set it to 30-90 days so cards keep cycling back.
Building a Daily Anki Habit That Sticks
The most common reason pre-med students fail with Anki isn't the settings or the deck — it's consistency. Anki only works if you show up every single day. Miss a few days and your review pile snowballs into something unmanageable.
Here's a daily workflow that works:
Morning (30-45 minutes): Clear all your reviews first thing. This is non-negotiable. Reviews come before new cards, always. Grab your coffee, sit somewhere comfortable, and get through your queue. Using a StudyRemote Anki Remote here is a game-changer — you can review cards on your phone or tablet while eating breakfast, lying in bed, or sitting on the couch without needing to tap the screen for every single card.
After each lecture (10-15 minutes): Add 10-20 new cards from today's lecture material, or unsuspend the corresponding tags in your pre-made deck.
Evening (15-20 minutes): Do a second pass on any remaining reviews and new cards from the day. Keep your queue at zero before bed.
The key numbers to track:
- Streak — how many consecutive days you've done your reviews (use the Review Heatmap add-on to visualize this)
- Retention rate — aim for 85-90%. If it's below 80%, you're adding too many new cards. If it's above 95%, your cards might be too easy
- Daily review count — expect 150-300 reviews/day during coursework, 400-800/day during MCAT prep
7 Anki Tips Every Pre-Med Should Know
1. One fact per card. The number one mistake is making complex cards with multiple sub-items. If a card asks about five different things, you'll keep failing it because of one detail. Break it down into five separate cards.
2. Don't just hit "Good" on everything. Be honest with yourself. If you had to think for more than 10 seconds, hit "Hard." If you completely blanked, hit "Again." Lying to the algorithm defeats the entire purpose of spaced repetition.
3. Use tags, not separate decks. Keep all your cards in one big deck and use tags to organize by subject, chapter, or exam. This prevents the "easy deck" problem where you unconsciously know what topic a card is about based on which deck it's in.
4. Suspend cards you don't need yet. If you download a massive deck like AnKing, suspend all cards first. Then unsuspend them topic by topic as you cover the material in class.
5. Review on the go. Some of your best Anki time will be "dead time" — waiting for class, riding the bus, standing in line. Sync your deck to your phone and knock out 30-50 cards during these gaps. A pocket-sized Anki remote pairs with your phone via Bluetooth so you can keep it in your pocket and review discreetly — no need to be visibly tapping your phone screen in public.
6. Edit cards as you learn more. Your understanding of a topic evolves. If a card's wording no longer makes sense, or you find a better way to phrase it, edit it on the spot. The "Edit Field During Review" add-on makes this seamless.
7. Don't skip weekends. Spaced repetition doesn't take days off, and neither should you. Even on your busiest day, doing your reviews should take priority. It's much easier to maintain a 200-card daily habit than to dig out of a 600-card backlog on Monday.
Anki for the MCAT: A Specific Game Plan
If you're in active MCAT prep, here's exactly how to integrate Anki into your study schedule:
Months 1-2 (Content Review Phase):
- Download the MilesDown deck and suspend all cards
- After watching each content review video or reading each chapter, unsuspend the corresponding cards
- Add 30-40 new cards per day
- Do all reviews daily (expect 100-200 reviews/day by the end of month 1)
Months 3-4 (Practice Phase):
- Continue daily reviews (now 400-600/day)
- Stop adding new cards from the deck — instead, create cards from practice exam mistakes
- Every wrong answer on a practice passage becomes a new Anki card
- Tag these cards as "weak-areas" so you can prioritize them
Final 2 Weeks:
- Set max interval to 14 days so everything cycles back
- Focus reviews on weak-area tags
- Do 600-800 reviews/day (this is where ergonomics really matters — your hands will cramp without a proper remote control for Anki)
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Starting too late. The biggest regret of almost every med student is "I wish I'd started Anki in undergrad." Start now, even if it's just for one class. The habit is more important than the deck.
Making cards too complicated. A card that takes 30 seconds to read is a bad card. Use cloze deletions, keep wording simple, and aim for 5-second average review times.
Relying only on Anki. Anki is a retention tool, not a learning tool. You need to understand the material first (through lectures, textbooks, or videos) before Anki can help you remember it. Use Anki to lock in what you've already learned.
Ignoring the "Again" button. Some students avoid hitting "Again" because it feels like failure. But that's literally how the algorithm learns where your weak spots are. Embrace it.
Giving up after a missed day. If you miss a day and come back to 500 pending reviews, don't panic. Use the "Custom Study" → "Increase today's review card limit" option and chip away at it. Better to do 200 today and 300 tomorrow than to abandon the whole system.
Start Today
Anki is a long game. The students who score highest on the MCAT and crush their first year of med school aren't smarter — they're more consistent. The best time to start was freshman year. The second best time is right now.
Download Anki, grab a pre-made deck, and commit to doing your reviews every single day. Your future self — the one sitting in a medical school lecture — will thank you.
Study smarter with the StudyRemote Anki Remote — the Bluetooth remote control built specifically for Anki. Review faster, reduce hand strain, and stay focused during long study sessions. Learn more →
