# New to Anki -- Best way to do as many cards as possible in a little more than a month? **URL:** \ **Category:** Help\ **Created:** [July 10, 2021, 2:57am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/new-to-anki-best-way-to-do-as-many-cards-as-possible-in-a-little-more-than-a-month/11304 "2021-07-10T02:57:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![LKeif](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/db5fbb/32.png) [@LKeif](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/LKeif)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2021, 2:57am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/new-to-anki-best-way-to-do-as-many-cards-as-possible-in-a-little-more-than-a-month/11304/1 "2021-07-10T02:57:11Z")
Hello All! I’m new to Anki and as a result am struggling with the interface and the best way to achieve what I am desiring to get done. Here’s the situation: I’ve recently – within the last 3 or 4 weeks – downloaded the MileDown Kaplan deck as part of my MCAT studying regiment. Problem, though, is that I’m trying to get as many cards done as I can each day, as I am testing in a little over a month. If any of you have also used this deck, you’ll know it contains subsections – biochemistry, biology, gen chem, ochem, physics, and behavioral. In attempting to figure out how to hit as many chapters within each subsection as I can, I’ve been doing about 30 new cards per day of one section. I realize, however, that that amount of cards/day does not suffice. My goal in doing so is to see cards from different “chapters” (1-12) within the subsection I am working on that day, as I’m too late into my studying process to hit chapters 1-6 of each subsection like I could’ve if I found these at the start. Could anyone suggest an alternative method that would allow me to hit as many cards as possible before I test? Should I just alter the ‘new cards/day’ limit to a much higher number? Does any of this make sense? Am I crazy? Any thoughts? Thanks, everyone! ---
**Author:** ![kleinerpirat](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/forums.ankiweb.net/kleinerpirat/32/19863_2.png) [@kleinerpirat](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/kleinerpirat)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2021, 5:16am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/new-to-anki-best-way-to-do-as-many-cards-as-possible-in-a-little-more-than-a-month/11304/2 "2021-07-10T05:16:22Z")
Hi LKeif! Altough spaced repetition is really meant for long-term memory, Anki is also a great tool for cramming. I’d say your craziness-level depends on how many cards the deck contains 😉 Without that info, I can only give you some general advice. Take it with a grain of salt, what works for me might not be ideal for everyone. ## New cards from each subdeck With the current default scheduler (V2), if you study a parent deck (say one of your subsections), new cards will be gathered one subdeck (chapter) at a time until that one is done, then from the next one. If I understood correctly, you don’t want that behaviour, but mix new cards from all chapters of a subsection on each review session. With scheduler V2, you need to do this manually: Put each chapter in a subdeck - if they aren’t already - and study as many new cards from each as you want, then move to the next one - and so on. The new cards limit of the parent deck is applied to the subdecks as a whole. > **2021 (V3) scheduler** > > The new [2021 scheduler](https://faqs.ankiweb.net/the-2021-scheduler.html) (V3, introduced with [2.1.45](https://apps.ankiweb.net/downloads/beta/)) should make this a bit easier. You should in theory be able to automatically gather cards from each subdeck, when you study the parent deck. > > However, as that new scheduler is still in beta and hasn’t been tested by many people yet, I would not recommend switching to it just yet. ## How to get a rough estimate The add-on [Anki Simulator](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/817108664) is super helpful to set up your deck options ahead of an exam. You can play around with your deck options (steps, new cards a day, max. reviews, …) until you get a prediction that looks promising. It doesn’t work on Anki 2.1.45 (currently in beta) though. ![](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/anki2/original/2X/c/ce3fdd6d3ae9bfb9f9ae9e7172803d22746fa915.png) ## How to set up your deck options If you are new to deck options, I’d highly recommend the following video to get started: [![](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/anki2/original/2X/2/2a5847d17d07381f3a8200bb58cea24cdf8fca35.jpeg "Guide to Anki Intervals and Learning Steps") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XaJjbCSXT0) ## How many new cards? For medical knowledge, from my own and some friends’ experience, I’d say the upper limit for new cards lies between 200 and 250 new cards a day for regular mortals. Depending on your deck options, such an amount will most likely lead to a very steep slope of daily reviews, as you can see on the following screenshot of the Reviews graph. These “towers” are my last two exams. The first one is about a month and a half, the second one less than a month. ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/anki2/original/2X/6/63fe4eb7455be710957c18a04211d3928e8c932f.png) This is not how normal Anki studying should look like though. Normally, it should be spread out nicely without a steep increase in daily reviews. More like this: ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/anki2/original/2X/4/49ec6bce1ed7a417eb73f311cabd9138f3befb4b.png) Also, review counts above 1000 a day are straining. Personally, I can only do about a week of that until I need to step off the gas for one or two days. ## Suspend cards Don’t hesitate to suspend cards that are either too easy or don’t seem useful to you. This way you can thin out the deck to only study high-yield cards. Remember, you’re doing this for yourself, nobody is judging you if you didn’t complete the full deck. ## Summary While I don’t know how many cards are in your deck, there is certainly potential to increase the new cards limit. 30 a day probably won’t cut it. A bit more than a month should be enough to study ~2500-3000 new cards, if you really want it. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/anki2/original/1X/8f1279ababc5879d54e4838989f606cfe55af8c7.jpeg) [@system](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2023, 4:59am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/new-to-anki-best-way-to-do-as-many-cards-as-possible-in-a-little-more-than-a-month/11304/3 "2023-05-01T04:59:45Z")