Hi guys, just getting started using Anki after all these years but i need some help.
Should I name the deck after the Journey, palace or topic?
What do I write on the front and back of the cards? Do I put the answer as the loci or the worded answer?
What are you trying to memorize?
It sounds like you may be trying to use Anki to help you learn a memory palace loci sequence?
Usually Anki will pull cards randomly from a deck pool and quiz you then adapt its review schedule based on how easy you rate the card. Unless you’re looking to set up an actual numbered palace for random access to a list of items, this isn’t really ideal. You’ll most likely want to review your journey in order.
If you do go with Anki for this, you’ll probably want to set up the deck options to show you cards in the order that you’ve added or created them, and you’ll probably not want to have Anki reschedule cards for you. In this case doing a “custom study” option allows you to select “do not reschedule” so that you can just keep running the deck in order.
As far as card structure goes, I suppose you could set it up as:
Card 1:
Front: Palace Name
Back loci 1
Card 2:
Front: loci 2
Back: loci 3
Card 3:
Front: loci 4
Back: loci 5
Etc…
So that way you could start with the card displaying the name of the palace, you’d think of what the first loci is, click answer to see if you’re right, then think of the next loci, advance… Rinse, repeat…
But again, I’d recommend just doing this whole process mentally and not really even dealing with flashcards for palace learning. If you have the ability to sketch out a basic blueprint of the palace and write in labels for your loci that can engage your brain in a little bit different way to help lock in those loci. You could also set up an excel or google sheets doc with tabs for all your different memory palaces, listing the loci for each there. This way you can review and test yourself fairly easily.
If I misunderstood the question and you’re looking for general Anki tips, there’s a ton of videos on youtube walking through the card and note formatting options and there’s a pretty good subreddit that has a lot of tips and discussions about its capabilites. Anki is incredibly customizable, and a really powerful tool but it can be overwhelming at first.
I try to not waste time writing down stories and complex hints and such. The more you can force your brain to reconstruct by itself the better. If I don’t remember the story linking the memorized thing to the locus, then it wasn’t a good one, and I should invent another.
If there is any any step you can do by hand (or mouse) it will help remember better. Best memory palaces are the ones I did entirely by hands with sketches in a notebook, and then pics of them into anki.
Thanks guys, you gave me a better understanding of what Anki is and isn’t.
I’m putting things in place to study for my customs broker exam. The exam will entail some definition questions but mainly they ask about laws and procedures pertaining to import and export.
Im fine putting together the palaces for the information but i was hoping Anki could help me with the “studying” aspect of it all.
Do you think its worth using Anki for information like this? And if so what’s some ways i can go about it?
I wouldn’t try to go fancy. You risk getting lost in the details about using anki “the most effectively”.
While it’s really good that Anki is customisable nothing is going to replace you formulating good questions.
Maybe Al Khan from leananki.com can help.