This might seem like a weird request as it is the most basic and simple function of a flashcard program. Sure, if you have 9999 cards and you just want to “keep it up” over a long time to make sure that you dont forget anything then the anki way is great, but if you have 300 cards and a huge test on monday and your plan for the weekend is just to go through the entire deck as many times as possible then it sucks when anki suggests you to review 20 cards a day.
I am really surprised that there are multiple (and fairly difficult to understand) options in custom study like “increase todays new card limit”, “review ahead”, “review forgotten cards” etc, but lacking the simplest option of them all: “STUDY ALL CARDS IN THE DECK”.
I have figured out how to do it on the mobile version of Anki that has the “study a random selection of cards” option, but there is not any such option on the pc version…and my question is just WHY?
Some of you may say that “studying too many cards will overwhelm you” etc, but please people, everyone is different and for me it works great to study that many cards in one setting. No matter what anyone says, REPETITION is the best way of learning and that is repetition of ALL cards. The more times I repeat any single card, the higher my chance is of learning and remembering the information on that card.
I dont want to get into a discussion about the best way of studying and learning and how memory works etc because I am sure that there are people here that knows a lot more about it than me, I just would like the Anki team to please please please add the “study all cards” option.
All the friends I have introduced Anki to have all asked me how to do this and most of them stop using Anki because its so complicated to do very simple things. Its awesome that you have so many ways of customizing your study sessions but I can bet any amount of money that there are a lot more people that would find the option “study all cards” way more useful than “preview new cards” or any of the other customization options currently available.
Anki is not a basic flashcard app, but a spaced repetition app. Thus it is a design choice to actively discourage users from cramming. It is, however, no problem to set up cramming with a filtered deck. Create a new filtered deck, enter the search string “deck:DECKNAME” (or “deck:current”), select 9999 cards (to filter out all the cards), enable random selection, deselect “Reschedule cards” and build the deck. Rinse and repeat.
If you have a test due in a few days, it’s probably not the best time to be starting with Anki. While Anki does have tools to bypass the regular scheduling for things like upcoming tests, they take some time to learn how to use, and they are awkward to use on a daily basis. If you have an imminent test, you may want to consider studying as you have done previously, and then picking Anki back up when you’re not under as much pressure.
Thanks for the reply! I know that Anki isnt made for “cramming”, but for some people it is a method that works. It would be such a simple thing to add and it would make alot of people happy. Anki is an awesome tool with an awesome community with great customization options that far surpass any other flashcard tool Ive ever used. It just lacks this one feature.
I will try your method but I wish that we would not have to do a work around just to be able to study the cards we want to study.
It is not a workaround. It is the intended way and straightforward for an experienced user. Cramming can be a useful study method for material you just need to pass&forget, but is not what a spaced repetition application should be about.
The thing is tho that I am looking at it from the perspective of a completely new user. I mean the more people we can get using Anki the better for both the developers and the community, right?
Anki is an awesome program but its not very userfriendly for beginners. Getting more people to use it is key for the future of Anki and adding easy solutions like the one I suggested is a step in the right direction.
What I do if I want to study all cards/select a section of cards in a deck is to select them all and then choose “add tags”. Once it’s been tagged, select “custom study” > “study by card state/tag” > all review cards > and then select your specific tag
i made an account on here, just to tell you how GENIUS this is, what!!!
you are so clever, only thing is they don’t count as reviewed cards, nor do you get the option on how you found that question but i guess it’s just like a regular flashcard app then!