Synaptic Recall

    Textbook to Anki

    Textbook to Anki: upload a chapter of your textbook as a PDF and get an Anki deck built from it.

    Every card shows the page it came from, so you know exactly where the information is.

    Upload now
    1. The biology textbook chapter “BIOL 2401 Ch 10 Muscle Tissue.pdf” is dragged from Chrome’s downloads onto Synaptic Recall’s upload page, with only Anki selected.
    2. The textbook chapter uploads and Dr. Synapse starts building the deck, counting cards as they are written.
    3. The deck is ready: 31 cards from the textbook chapter, with a Download Anki button.
    4. A card from the deck opens in Anki: “A few hours after death, a body's skeletal muscles are rigid.”
    5. Show Answer reveals: “ATP has run out.”
    6. The key term “rigor mortis” opens its definition: Stiffening of the muscles after death, when no ATP is left to release myosin from actin.
    7. Dr. Synapse explains: “A myosin head needs a fresh ATP to release actin. After death, Ca²⁺ leaks from the SR and cross-bridges form, but no new ATP is made, so…”
    8. Anki scrolls down to the textbook chapter page the card came from: “”.
    9. The view moves onto the page and a gold box marks the line the answer came from: “Without ATP, the myosin heads cannot detach from actin, so the cross-bridges stay locked and the muscles stiffen: this is rigor mortis.”.
    10. End card: “Textbook chapter to Anki deck”, an Upload now button, and “3 free credits · no card needed”.
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    One chapter at a time

    A PDF longer than 100 pages opens a splitter, so you can cut it into chapters and upload them one at a time.

    This deck is built from your own textbook chapter, so you start with exactly what your course covers.

    Dr. Synapse reporting a 31-card deck ready from one lecture, with a Download Anki button

    What every card includes

    We build your deck directly from your source material, so you can spend that time actually practicing active recall.

    • The right number of cards for the material, not one per bullet point
    • The right question for each fact, worded so you can’t answer it by recognition
    • The slide it came from on the card, so you know exactly where the information is
    • A dropdown with a further explanation
    • Key terms highlighted, with what each one means and where the word comes from
    A card from the 31-card deck open in Anki: the answer, Dr. Synapse’s explanation and the lecture slide it came from

    Ready for Anki

    Active recall means trying to answer a question from memory before checking the answer, and Anki gives you that practice one question at a time.

    The deck downloads as an .apkg file that Anki imports.

    Anki’s Import File window: 31 new notes imported from the deck

    How it works

    Upload one lecture as a PDF or PowerPoint.

    The system is three simple steps you do for every one of your lectures:

    • Understand the why behind the information: the Story
    • Memorize with active recall: the Anki deck
    • Apply it to real exam questions: the practice exam
    The upload page tailored for Biology, with a lecture PDF dropped in and the Anki deck selected

    Free to try

    New accounts start with three free credits, and no card is needed.

    Three credits cover one lecture with all three study modes.

    Try it on your next lecture.

    Upload now