Category: Anki
Tags: Medical Terminology, Anki, Spaced Repetition, Word Parts, Nursing
Anki is a free flashcard app that shows each card again just before you are likely to forget it. That makes it a good fit for medical terminology, a subject where students often say the words were gone a week after the test. Nursing and Anki forums keep asking the same four questions, and each one has a practical answer. If you are new to the app itself, start with our guide to studying with Anki.
Problem 1: Finishing the course and remembering very little
Many students cram the terms for each quiz and lose them soon after.
“Medical Terminology is tough”
— r/StudentNurse post title, view the thread
The fix: spread your reviews out instead of cramming. Anki does the spacing for you: after each card you press Again, Hard, Good or Easy, and the app decides when you see it next. Cards you know come back less often, and cards you miss come back soon. Quizzing yourself (practice testing) and spreading reviews over days and weeks (spaced practice) are both rated high-utility study techniques in learning research (Dunlosky et al., 2013). A short daily session works better than a long one the night before the exam.
Problem 2: So many terms that sound alike
Hypo- or hyper-, -ectomy or -ostomy: similar spellings make it easy to mix terms up.
“Difficult times learning different medical terms”
— r/StudentNurse post title, view the thread
The fix: learn the word parts first, as their own cards, before the full terms. Once -ectomy (removal) and -ostomy (creating an opening) are separate cards you have answered many times, words like colectomy and colostomy stop looking the same. When you keep confusing two cards, look at them side by side in Anki’s Browse window and add a short note to each that points out the difference.
Problem 3: Not sure which deck to use
Building 800 cards by hand takes weeks, so many students look for a shared deck first.
“Looking for a shared deck for basic medical terms”
— r/Anki post title, view the thread
The fix: a ready-made deck saves time, but check it before you trust it. Three quick questions help:
- Does it start with word parts? Prefixes, suffixes and roots should come before body-system terms.
- Is it sorted? A category on each card lets you study one area at a time and see where your gaps are.
- Does it match your course? Compare a few cards with your textbook. If your program uses a different definition, edit the card. Anki lets you change any card in a deck you import.
Problem 4: Not knowing what to put on a card
Making your own cards raises a design question that comes up again and again.
“For medical terminology, are you including word breakdown with description?”
— r/Anki post title, view the thread
The fix: yes, include the breakdown. A card that shows how a word is built teaches you the parts as well as the word. Keep one idea per card so you can answer it in a few seconds. Here are two real cards from our deck:
gastr/o (Word Roots & Combining Forms)
Stomach. Origin: Greek ‘gaster’ meaning stomach. Example: Gastrectomy, where ‘gastr/o’ refers to the stomach and ‘-ectomy’ to removal, indicating surgical removal of a portion of the stomach.-ectomy (Suffixes)
Surgical removal. Origin: Greek ‘ektome’ meaning excision. Example words include ‘appendectomy’ (removal of the appendix) and ‘tonsillectomy’ (removal of the tonsils).
Each card names one word part and gives an example of it inside a real term. After a few reviews, gastrectomy reads as “stomach + removal” instead of a word to memorize.
Ready to try it?
- Try Anki first: download the free sample files, including a basic and a cloze Anki deck. The samples are 10-card decks on a different topic, so you can test the format before you buy. New to Anki? Read our guide to studying with Anki.
- Want a medical terminology deck made for you? Order custom flashcards on our Fiverr gig: printable PDFs, an offline HTML app and Anki decks built around your topic.
- Prefer paper cards? Read how flashcards help with medical terminology.
- Need something specific? Order a custom bundle built around your topic.
Quotes are public post titles from the r/StudentNurse and r/Anki communities on Reddit, shown with links to the original threads. They are not endorsements, and we are not affiliated with Reddit, the posters or Anki. Anki is free on computers and Android; the iPhone and iPad app is paid. Our flashcards are generated with AI and reviewed by a person before delivery. They are study aids, not medical advice, so check anything important against your course materials. Study-technique reference: Dunlosky, Rawson, Marsh, Nathan & Willingham (2013), “Improving Students’ Learning With Effective Learning Techniques,” Psychological Science in the Public Interest.