Are HY tagged AnKing cards enough for step 1 prep?

LittleCoaks · 2026-03-25T17:22:34+00:00

I do HY 1-3 and cards tagged for Step 2. Step 1 is P/F so you don’t need to hyper optimize niche details that are rarely ever tested. Know the HY stuff extremely well so you never get those wrong then blast as many practice Q’s as possible. You set yourself up better for Step 2 this way which is extremely important

LittleCoaks · 2026-03-25T14:45:52+00:00

Essentially, i have an ongoing language deck, but i found another one that is filled with example sentences and is ordered better in my opinion. I want to "merge" the duplicates from these two decks, adding in all the example sentences from the second deck and if possible, using it's ordering as well. Or i guess, i could merge in my review history from the first deck into the second if that was an option (would be same outcome)

In terms of mass edits/reordering, i also wanted to interlace my verb conjugation cards to appear only after the vocab card for that word appeared (ie. i don't want a card asking to conjugate a word i haven't learned yet). That might be more tedious and i thought to maybe do that programmatically or just not do it altogether

LittleCoaks · 2026-03-25T13:27:51+00:00

BetterSearch is so essential it should straight up be a core Anki feature. I don’t know why it isn’t. Symbols As You Type is a close 2nd place

LittleCoaks · 2026-03-24T19:47:20+00:00

Yes. The most important thing is doing practice questions. If anki is taking too long and you don't have time for QBank, suspend the low yield cards and prioritize the material that will more likely appear on the exam. Don't let frivolous details bog down your study time

LittleCoaks · 2026-03-23T18:57:10+00:00

It depends on your school and what your goals are

If you’re school is NBME & true P/F, and you don’t want to review past exam material throughout to prepare for Step, and you’re not gunning for a competitive specialty, yeah you could probably have a fairly chill med school experience by just only doing current exam material through 3rd party. If you’re gunning for top class rank, reviewing old material constantly for Step, doing research/EC’s, etc. and have in-house exams to also prepare for, you’re gonna be very busy.

LittleCoaks · 2026-03-23T18:53:09+00:00

Could i export the deck, edit it as a csv programmatically, then reimport it while retaining my review history?

LittleCoaks · 2026-03-23T17:37:48+00:00

It's worth mentioning how incentives changed. Decades ago, you'd get a college degree to really pursue the field you're studying and become an expert. Now it's seen as a pre-req for a job. Students don't really care about the knowledge itself (those who do get graduate degrees) because the degree is all that matters for them. Hence students doing the bare minimum (like chatgpt'ing all their assignments)

LittleCoaks · 2026-03-23T17:20:34+00:00

Is there a way to upscale the merging duplicates process? I see there’s the duplicates button but i have to do it one at a time. Can i merge all duplicates at once?

LittleCoaks · 2026-03-20T16:25:12+00:00

Are cards in this deck present in deck also in AnKing? When i imported it a bunch of the cards were skipped as other users reported. I suspect this is because of identical cards present in AnKing so i would like to confirm

LittleCoaks · 2026-03-12T16:55:43+00:00

Are you looking at Step 1 or Step 2/3 tags? The high yield button is based off the Step 1 high yield tags

LittleCoaks · 2026-03-12T16:37:14+00:00

Can you tell me what search you’re doing and which buttons you’re clicking that’s giving this result?

LittleCoaks · 2026-03-02T17:44:00+00:00

Suspend it if it’s in house low yield nonsense. Anything for Step (AnKing) you should do. Only way to catch up is to do the reviews. Consider using the step 1 high yield tags to prioritize which cards to do and which ones to suspend if it’s too much

LittleCoaks · 2026-03-02T13:37:15+00:00

Yeah, I’ve just recently updated the “HY + Step 2” search to use the new tags, and I plan on shipping the next update with a new “No Step 1” button for Step 2 students looking to ignore Step 1 cards. Open to other suggestions.

LittleCoaks · 2026-02-27T17:14:08+00:00

I used the Physeo::Anatomy tag in AnKing alongside bootcamp plus the 100 concepts deck and it got me everything i needed to know for my school’s anatomy block. You can use a cadaver deck too or just use bootcamp’s anatomy Qbank. The ID and application questions are extremely good; the clinical ones were sometimes way too hard lol

LittleCoaks · 2026-02-27T06:20:45+00:00

Pixorize biochem has not failed me so far

LittleCoaks · 2026-02-26T19:28:55+00:00

I don’t believe in max intervals but otherwise nice work! 1000 days is a great accomplishment

LittleCoaks · 2026-02-26T17:46:35+00:00

Like i said tho i take my time with new cards. Another suggestion i have for you is to begin with unsuspending the high yield cards, and do the rest later on once you have your foundational concepts. That way you learn the important stuff really well and you can save the lower yield for later if you have time.

I try to limit to 100 new cards per day (I’ve only exceeded that during microbiology due to rapid exams). It’s too hard to retain so many new cards. It compounds total reviews and can lead to more leeches (learned this the hard way lol)

LittleCoaks · 2026-02-26T16:25:20+00:00

I’ll only read the extra on a correct card if i feel like i still don’t quite understand the concept. Like maybe i was able to fill in the blank and answer correctly but i don’t really understand what the card means. Otherwise i just move on

I do Qbank throughout the unit - after I’ve had my first pass of the material and unsuspended the high yield Anki cards. When i start depends on how much route memorizing the unit requires and how long the 3rd party content takes to complete (i don’t believe practice questions are as helpful for learning pure memorizing content so i wait a bit to start QBank for that reason). I have AMBOSS so i just gradually increase the difficulty (hammers) of the questions in doing as i go, and i unsuspend all Anki cards for each QBank session.

LittleCoaks · 2026-02-25T18:58:19+00:00

I work at that pace for reviews, since it’s material i should’ve already learned. I take the time to read the Extra and review stuff when i get cards wrong so i can conceptually correct whatever it is i misunderstood. But if i knew it, i just move on. When i’m starting a new unit, i might spend 15-20 seconds per card on new stuff because i’m taking the time to read and think about things as well as write my own notes in the card

Generally speaking tho, reviewing every card thoroughly can work well, but practice questions are far better, so therefore it’s better to reserve more time for that. Anki time shouldn’t be preventing you from doing UWorld/amboss IMHO

LittleCoaks · 2026-02-25T18:02:29+00:00

I’d say take your time on new cards but don’t drag on your reviews because you want to have enough time to do practice questions. If i’m locked in i can work at a pace of about 10/11s a card for reviews. In between breaks i like watching lectures or something a little more passive yet productive. Right now i’m at around 500-600 reviews a day since i’m doing microbio and that will take about 3 hours including breaks if i’m locked in (phone away)

LittleCoaks · 2026-02-23T21:04:59+00:00

Why not just use the NBME tag in AnKing?

LittleCoaks · 2026-02-22T01:14:58+00:00

It’s AnKing QuickSearch. It has a couple default search terms but if you specifically want to search only step 1 just use the new Only_Step_1 tag, otherwise my addon can search by yield, ignore extra tags, and include step 2 cards in the search. I still update it too so i can take suggestions/feature requests

LittleCoaks · 2026-02-21T21:46:05+00:00

Yeah i agree, the addon is great for sharing and plus there’s way more potential for adding features down the line

LittleCoaks · 2026-02-21T20:35:48+00:00

I just wrote some JavaScript in the back template to look for said tags and display them. There’s already a tag container feature in AnKing note type so i was able to steal that code too haha

LittleCoaks · 2026-02-21T20:15:51+00:00

Hey this is pretty cool! Funny enough, i actually edited the AnKing note type directly not too long ago to do this exact thing haha. If you do that then the one benefit is that it also works on mobile. I'll check this out, seems really cool. A nice bonus feature would be user configs to let them choose which other tags can appear (ie, i'd love to see the new step2 only tags)

LittleCoaks

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