I use Anki to learn material from textbooks, with great results. Creating the cards takes time, but so does summarizing the material (as Luke suggests); and the benefits associated to a SRS (specifically, the testing and spacing effects) make this approach clearly superior to any of the alternatives I tried.
Briefly, I write one note every paragraph, with a question on one side whose answer, written on the other side, is the main idea of that paragraph. Sometimes a note summarizes the content of more than one paragraph, if discussion of a single idea is spread over multiple paragraphs. Some textbooks include chapter or section summaries, and when they are sufficiently detailed, I’ll rely on these to create the cards instead. Here’s a sample card from Peter Gray’s Psychology:
Front: How are ultimate explanations of behavior different from, but complementary to, proximate explanations?
Back: Ultimate explanations are functional explanations at the evolutionary level. Proximate explanations are explanations that deal not with function but with mechanism; they are statements of the immediate conditions, both inside and outside the animal, that bring on the behavior.
(This textbook is a particularly good example of “knowledge ready for ankification” because each page comes with 1-3 marginal “focus questions” intended to guide the student in the process of learning the material. So in this particular instance one can simply write these questions on the front side of each card, as I did.)
I also create a separate card for each term or expression that is explicitly defined and whose definition I don’t already know. Many textbooks include a glossary, which simplifies the process of writing down these definitions. Here’s a sample card, from Ivo Welch’s Corporate Finance:
Front: What is annual percentage yield (APY)?
Back: APY is the simple rate of return, often simply called ‘interest rate’. Banks sometimes use the expressions ‘annual equivalent rate’ (AER) and ‘effective annual rate’.
It’s not public but I’d be happy to make it so. Unfortunately, I spent more than five minutes trying to find a way to share decks on Anki 2 (the version I currently use) without success. According to the Anki 2 user manual, “To share decks with other people, synchronize them with AnkiWeb, then click on “Share” from the menu next to the deck you wish to share.” But although my deck is synchronized with AnkiWeb, I can’t find the ‘share’ option or the corresponding menu. Do you (or anyone else reading this) have experience sharing decks with Anki 2?
It’s in a drop-down menu default to “Options” on the right side of all my decks in the “Decks” page. Note that you need to go to AnkiWeb via https (not http) to get the version 2 stuff. (It will have a notice on the bottom about using Anki 2 if you’re using the right one.)
I use Anki to learn material from textbooks, with great results. Creating the cards takes time, but so does summarizing the material (as Luke suggests); and the benefits associated to a SRS (specifically, the testing and spacing effects) make this approach clearly superior to any of the alternatives I tried.
Briefly, I write one note every paragraph, with a question on one side whose answer, written on the other side, is the main idea of that paragraph. Sometimes a note summarizes the content of more than one paragraph, if discussion of a single idea is spread over multiple paragraphs. Some textbooks include chapter or section summaries, and when they are sufficiently detailed, I’ll rely on these to create the cards instead. Here’s a sample card from Peter Gray’s Psychology:
(This textbook is a particularly good example of “knowledge ready for ankification” because each page comes with 1-3 marginal “focus questions” intended to guide the student in the process of learning the material. So in this particular instance one can simply write these questions on the front side of each card, as I did.)
I also create a separate card for each term or expression that is explicitly defined and whose definition I don’t already know. Many textbooks include a glossary, which simplifies the process of writing down these definitions. Here’s a sample card, from Ivo Welch’s Corporate Finance:
Is your Psychology deck public? I’d really like to have a look at it if so.
It’s not public but I’d be happy to make it so. Unfortunately, I spent more than five minutes trying to find a way to share decks on Anki 2 (the version I currently use) without success. According to the Anki 2 user manual, “To share decks with other people, synchronize them with AnkiWeb, then click on “Share” from the menu next to the deck you wish to share.” But although my deck is synchronized with AnkiWeb, I can’t find the ‘share’ option or the corresponding menu. Do you (or anyone else reading this) have experience sharing decks with Anki 2?
It’s in a drop-down menu default to “Options” on the right side of all my decks in the “Decks” page. Note that you need to go to AnkiWeb via https (not http) to get the version 2 stuff. (It will have a notice on the bottom about using Anki 2 if you’re using the right one.)
Thanks! The deck is now public.
Cool! Thank you.
There is now an entire post listing all my shared decks, as well as decks by other LW users.
Good idea. I’ll add my own small contributions.