How to Make Anki Cards from Lecture Notes (Without Wasting Hours)

You just sat through a 90-minute lecture. Your notes are a mess of bullet points, diagrams, and half-sentences. Now you need to turn this into Anki cards.

Most people do this wrong. They either copy-paste entire paragraphs (useless) or spend 3 hours making perfect cards (unsustainable).

Here's a better workflow.

Step 1: Don't make cards during lecture

This is tempting but counterproductive. During lecture, your job is to understand, not to format for Anki.

Take notes however works for you—handwritten, typed, whatever. Focus on capturing concepts, not creating cards.

Make cards after class, when you can think about what's actually important.

Step 2: Review notes within 24 hours

The forgetting curve is steep. If you wait a week to make cards, you'll have forgotten half of what the lecture meant.

Same day or next day is ideal. The material is fresh, and making cards doubles as your first review.

Step 3: Identify card-worthy content

Not everything in your notes deserves a card. Look for:

• Definitions → "What is X?"
• Processes → "What are the steps of X?"
• Comparisons → "How does X differ from Y?"
• Causes/Effects → "What causes X?" or "What happens when X?"
• Examples → "Give an example of X"
• Formulas → "What is the formula for X?"

Skip:

• Context that helps understanding but doesn't need memorization
• Tangents and "interesting facts" the professor mentioned
• Anything you already know well

Step 4: Write atomic cards

Each card = one fact. This is the most important rule.

Bad (from lecture notes):

Q: What is mitosis?

A: Cell division that results in two daughter cells with the same number of chromosomes as the parent cell. It has four phases: prophase, metaphase, anaphase, and telophase. During prophase, chromatin condenses into chromosomes...

Good (atomic):

Q: What type of cell division produces two identical daughter cells?

A: Mitosis

Q: How many phases does mitosis have?

A: Four (PMAT)

Q: What happens during prophase of mitosis?

A: Chromatin condenses into visible chromosomes

Step 5: Use cloze deletions for lists and sequences

Anki's cloze deletion feature is perfect for:

• Steps in a process
• Lists you need to memorize
• Fill-in-the-blank style recall

Example:

The four phases of mitosis are {{c1::prophase}}, {{c2::metaphase}}, {{c3::anaphase}}, and {{c4::telophase}}.

This creates 4 cards, each testing one phase while showing the others as context.

Step 6: Add images for visual content

If your notes include diagrams, anatomical structures, or anything visual:

1. Screenshot or photograph it
2. Add to the card (drag and drop in Anki)
3. Consider using Image Occlusion add-on to hide parts of diagrams

Visual cards are often more effective than text for spatial information.

The time problem

Here's the uncomfortable truth: doing this properly takes a long time.

A 1-hour lecture might generate 30-50 cards. If you spend 2-3 minutes per card (writing, formatting, adding images), that's another 1-2 hours of work.

For students taking 4-5 classes? That's 5-10 hours per week just making cards. Most people burn out or cut corners.

A faster workflow with Oboeru

This is exactly the problem Oboeru solves.

Instead of manually creating each card:

1. Paste your lecture notes into Oboeru (or drop the PDF if you have slides)
2. AI generates cards following best practices—atomic facts, proper formatting, cloze deletions where appropriate
3. Review and edit the cards (takes minutes, not hours)
4. Sync to Anki with one click

You still review within 24 hours. You still engage with the material. But the tedious formatting work is done for you.

What used to take 2 hours now takes 10 minutes.

Your lecture notes are valuable. Don't let them sit unused because making cards is too painful.