Anki: Great SRS, Lousy Decks

A spaced repetition system (SRS) flashcard tool is essential to learning a language.  But while many tools claim to have SRS, few deliver.  

Anki is the gold standard for SRS tools.  Amazingly, it's completely free.  Note how it allows you to have multiple "decks".  This is handy so that you can select which group of words to learn, when. 

Here are the "front" and "back" of a flashcard that I'm learning.  (These flashcards come from Mandarin Blueprint.  More on that soon.)  

* Notice the 3 options at the bottom of the "back" of the card.  With a true SRS flashcard tool, YOU (not the tool) judge how well you remembered the information.  And notice that Anki gives you three choices.  

* Also notice the photos on the front and back.  Anki allows you to embed an image with each flashcard.  Having a visual cue is extremely helpful for boosting memory.  

* When you tap "show answer" on the front of the card, it plays the audio recording associated with the card.  Anki allows you to have "real" audio recordings.  Some SRS apps only use text-to-speech software to produce a computer-generated pronunciation.  Most computer pronunciations are good, but I've found a few errors.  So having a "real" recording like Anki does is better.

  

Here are backs of two more flashcards.  Notice how these have 4 options at the bottom.  That's because I've already "learned" these cards.  The fish card above is one I'm just beginning to learn.  Inferior SRS tools only give you two options ("yes" I remembered it, or "no" I didn't).

  

Anki also provides sophisticated statistics about your learning progress.  

  

Now we come to Anki's Achilles heel: Anki is only as good as the flashcards you use.  Anki has a built-in directory of user-generated flashcard decks that can be easily downloaded and installed.  But, in my experience these decks are usually hodge-podge.  Some have poor quality audio.  Some have no pictures (or pornographic ones).  Some have vocabulary that's too advanced, or too targeted to a specific topic to be helpful.  Some decks are just "samples" to get you to buy the producer's full deck.  

I already told you that the flashcards pictured above are from Mandarin Blueprint.  Their decks are very high quality, but they aren't available in the Anki directory.  You have to get them directly from Mandarin Blueprint.  

You can also get Anki decks (at a cost) through YoYo Chinese, and I'm sure through other websites.  

In summary: if you can find good pre-made flashcard decks, Anki is fabulous.  But don't rely on the free decks available within Anki itself.