Anki vs Study Smarter

Anki Add-ons
1

I am a GCSE student in the UK. I previously have used the app study smarter for my revision, however there have been reccomendations to use Anki. They both use spaced repetition so I was wondering which one is better and how is Anki set apart from Study Smarter.

If anyone has used study smarter before, could you tell which one is better and why so?

Thanks

2

I have seen Study Smarter a few times on the AppStore, but I haven’t used it. I’ll download it for you.
Ok, various things are tracked, including usage data. I don’t like that at all, but because it’s you, I’ll install it anyway. Anki doesn’t track, by the way. First screen. Mh, you can’t continue here without registering. You can use Anki without registering, even though a free AnkiWeb account is usually required for synchronisation between devices. All right, I’ll log in. There is a link to the privacy policy right here. The company really wants to know a lot about you, your study behaviour, your device! Good, now I’m logged in. I can choose my old university, select my old subject and choose when I started my studies. I haven’t seen much of the app yet, but it’s already back to recording “my activities”. Ok, but just for you, JM08. Wow, based on my entries, Study Smarter has 70 million flashcards, 15000 expert explanations and 1 million documents for me. What follows is a colourful tutorial. My study set, based on my details, is unfortunately empty. I try out the geography trivia set. The interface is somehow overloaded. I’ve given the wrong answer, a monkey covers its eyes and shakes its head. I see a stack of flashcards, when I should be concentrating on one. Speaking of concentrating: After a few cards, there is an advertisement for the Pro version of the app. Unfortunately, I don’t see anything when I click on “Shop now” because my ad blocker blocks the advertising network that runs the app’s shop. I find the prices later in the settings. Getting there is not so easy. In between, I’m supposed to discover jobs, browse company profiles and refer friends. But all I wanted to do was create flashcards (and check the price). Now I’ve arrived at the price: 70 EUR a year for offline operation and switched off advertising (but probably tracking anyway). I’m still trying out creating flashcards: Front, back, and a multiple-choice option. I don’t see any more possibilities for now.

I’ll stop here and tell you some of the advantages of Anki:

  • Anki is highly flexible. You want to create flashcards for foreign languages that show you a picture one time, give you an audio example another time and you have to know the word in the target language in each case? No problem. You only have to fill a note with three pieces of information, Anki generates the two different flashcards automatically. You insert sentence fragments in Spanish and want a voice output by a man’s voice? No problem, the corresponding add-on generates voice output for your cards in seconds.
  • Anki itself doesn’t distract you with a cluttered interface. You can concentrate on your flashcards. You can keep them simple, use the elaborate templates of others or design them yourself with CSS. As with many aspects of Anki, you can keep it simple or customise everything to your needs.
    It’s up to you.
  • You can use Anki’s default settings or customise the settings to suit your learning style. Everyone learns differently.
  • There are many high-quality Anki decks, especially for learning languages or for fixed curricula (such as for medical students), which are created and maintained by users.
  • Anki for Desktop is free of charge. It is financed by the iOS app, which costs as much as a one-time purchase as half a year of Study Smarter Pro.
  • Anki does not display ads.
  • Anki does not track you.
  • Anki is available for Mac, Windows and Linux, for iOS and - as a free third-party app - for Android.
  • Anki is open source. If you have a suggestion for improvement, you can post it here. Maybe it will be taken up. You can also get involved in the development yourself.
  • Anki will not cease to exist if the business plan changes. It doesn’t try to connect you with employers, it does not attempt to monetise your personal information elsewhere.
  • Anki is perfect for lifelong learning.
  • Anki has a friendly and helpful community.
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That last point is a really important one. Anki has a huge community of learning enthusiasts that you won’t find elsewhere.

Whenever I tried regular apps (you know, the kind that really wants you to buy that subscription), I always felt on my own, at the mercy of the corporation that runs the app. With Anki you got this forum, the subreddit, university groups and developers who actually care about your studying experience, not how much money they can make out of your pre-exam despair.

4 Likes
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Thanks, I now use Anki as your explanation has persuaded me to

When I try to import my quizlet flashcards to anki using the tool, it doesnt work as it says the deck is private. I have tried with numerous decks but it still doesnt work. Do you know how to solve this?

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I think there are a few different versions of quizlet import, I was able to use this one successfully to import a private deck with the instructions on the addon page.

https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1362209126

For private decks, you first have to set up with with cookies or qlts in the add-on config. You get the info from logging into Quizlet, going to the developer console of the browser. In Windows, this is (from Chrome and most browsers) F12 or Ctrl-Shift-I, then click on the Application tab > Cookies > https://quizlet.com and grab the whole value for qlts at the bottom. Here is a screenshot, except I have blurred the actual value.

2023-03-20_141157_WDADesktopService
2023-03-20_141157_WDADesktopService923Ă—842 65.9 KB

Copy this Cookie Value from the bottom and go to Tools > Add-ons > Quizlet to Anki 2.1 Importer with audio support > Config and paste it inside the double quotes for qlts.

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