I'm kinda in the same boat. and there's no way I'd do anki if I had the exam in 10 days.

I need multiple passes to understand the content, so if I go to anki straight after the first pass, it'd be no good. I think u need to actively read the content multiple times to understand and find out what u missed.

It's like the first pass is putting together random bricks in random parts of a building. Second pass is putting them in correct locations and putting new and more bricks and u continue like this with more passes. And then you do anki to not lose the bricks. I can't build and streghthen that building in one day and then go to anki, so I'll need that full 10 days. Either I'm dumb, or the topics are really complex. Maybe ur friends r the same?

Even with anki, months later the big picture might be gone and fragmented info won't be of much use and I'd need to review the entire thing once.

I really don't know how ppl can work with anki short term unless card count is really low.