Anki custom study: study ahead, extra cards and cramming for a test

To create a custom study session in Anki, click a deck on the Decks screen, then click Custom Study at the bottom of the screen, pick an option and confirm. The “Congratulations! You have finished this deck for now” screen links to it as well. Custom Study is Anki's way to study outside your normal daily limits. The two "increase today's limit" options just add more cards to your normal session. The other options build a temporary deck called "Custom Study Session" with the cards you picked and open it for you.

The options

The Custom Study Session deck

Except for the two limit increases, each option moves cards into a filtered deck called Custom Study Session. Cards go back to their home deck after you study them, and deleting the filtered deck returns any you didn't get to. Nothing is deleted. Making a new custom session empties the old one first, so rename it in the deck list if you want to keep it.

By default your answers in a filtered deck count: cards go home with their scheduling changed, as if you'd reviewed them normally. If you turn off Reschedule cards based on my answers, the session is a preview, and cards go back exactly as they were.

Reviewing ahead

Review ahead is useful before a trip, for older cards with long intervals. Anki's manual warns that it does little for cards you learned recently. Those come back at short intervals anyway, so reviewing them early mostly means seeing the same new cards again tomorrow. If you're going away, it's usually better to do your normal reviews before you leave and expect a bigger session when you get back. What to do when reviews pile up covers the return.

Cramming before a test

To go through a whole deck before an exam, choose Study by card state or tag, pick all cards, and set the number higher than the number of cards in the deck. Anki's manual suggests exactly this.

Think about rescheduling first. Rating everything in one sitting will push intervals out based on a single cram session. If you only want a run-through, turn off Reschedule cards based on my answers on the filtered deck so your normal schedule carries on untouched after the test.

When Custom Study isn't the answer

If you keep needing to raise the new card limit, raise it in Deck Options instead, and watch what it does to your reviews a week or two later. How many new cards per day explains the trade. If you keep raising the review limit, see Anki maximum reviews per day.

Common questions

Can I have more than one custom study session at a time?

Not under the same name. A new custom study session empties the existing “Custom Study Session” deck first. To keep one, rename it in the deck list before you make the next.

How is this different from burying or suspending?

Custom study adds cards to a day. Bury and suspend take them away, and leeches are the cards Anki flags because you keep forgetting them.

In Decks

Decks doesn't have custom study or filtered decks. To study more or less, change new cards per day or reviews per day in Settings.