Save My Exams vs Anki: Full Comparison

Every minute counts when you're preparing for GCSEs, IGCSEs, or A Levels, and choosing the wrong revision tool could waste precious study time.

This guide compares Save My Exams and Anki. We'll show you how each platform performs on: 

• Exam-board alignment

• Quality of revision resources

• Exam prep effectiveness 

Read on to find out more.

Key Takeaways

• Save My Exams is purpose-built for exam boards (AQA, Edexcel, OCR, WJEC).

• Anki is a general flashcard tool requiring students to create their own content.

• Both platforms can work together: use Save My Exams for structured learning and exam practice, then create Anki flashcards for memorising key facts.

What Is Save My Exams?

Save My Exams is a premium revision platform designed specifically for GCSE, IGCSE, A Level, AP, and IB students.

Every resource is written by experienced teachers and examiners. This means the content is aligned to exam board specifications and you only revise what you need to know. The platform includes several tools designed for exam preparation:

Revision Notes break down every topic in your syllabus. 

Topic Questions let you practise specific areas of weakness. 

SmartMark is an AI marking tool that provides instant feedback on your answers. It shows you exactly where you gained or lost marks.

Mock Exams simulate real exam conditions. You can practise: 

• Timing

• Exam stamina

• Applying your knowledge

• Using the language that examiners want to see

Flashcards for short burst revision.

Past papers and mark schemes let you know what you’ll be presented with when exam day comes around.

What Is Anki?

Anki is a free, open-source flashcard application that uses spaced repetition to help with memorisation. The name "Anki" actually comes from the Japanese word for "memorisation" (暗記).

Anki works by showing you flashcards at set intervals. When you review a card, you rate how well you remembered it. The app then schedules the next review based on your performance. Cards you struggle with appear more frequently, whilst cards you know well appear less often.

You can create flashcards for any subject or topic and they can include text, images, sounds, or videos.

A 2024 study (opens in a new tab) suggests the platform is popular with American medical students, with 86.2% of reporting some Anki use.

Students use Anki in different ways. Some create their own flashcards from revision notes or textbooks. Others download pre-made decks from AnkiWeb's shared deck database, which contains thousands of flashcard collections covering languages, sciences, humanities, and more.

Save My Exams vs Anki: Feature Comparison

Save My Exams and Anki take different approaches to revision. One provides complete, exam-board-specific content. The other provides a powerful memorisation tool that requires you to create or find your own materials.

Revision Notes and Content Quality

Exam Board and Specification Coverage

Exam board alignment is a must for effective revision. You need to study exactly what's on your exam rather than generic content.

Save My Exams covers all major UK and international exam boards comprehensively.

The platform supports:

• UK exam boards: AQA, Edexcel, OCR, WJEC Eduqas

• International boards: Cambridge IGCSE, Pearson Edexcel International

• IB programmes: IB Diploma Programme

• AP Courses

Every single topic question, revision note, and past paper is matched to a specific exam board and specification. When you select your exam board on the platform, you only see content relevant to your exact course.

This is updated regularly. When exam boards change their specifications, Save My Exams updates its content to match. You can trust that you're always studying the current syllabus.

Anki has no exam board coverage.

The app doesn't know what AQA GCSE Maths or Edexcel A Level Chemistry contains. It's a blank canvas. You must provide all the content yourself.

If you're lucky, you might find a shared Anki deck that claims to cover your exam board. But there's no guarantee it's complete, accurate, or up-to-date. Exam boards change specifications every few years. A deck created in 2020 might be missing topics added in 2023.

You'd need to cross-reference every flashcard against your current specification. This is time-consuming and prone to errors. Miss one new topic, and you'll walk into your exam unprepared.

Practice Questions and Exam Technique

Personalisation and Study Support

Effective revision requires knowing your strengths and weaknesses so you can focus your time wisely.

Save My Exams includes several features that adapt to your individual needs.

The platform tracks which topics you've studied and how you performed on practice questions. Target Tests create personalised assessments based on your choice of topics, and you get instant feedback, so you can work out what to revise next.

And, the Strengths and Weaknesses tool analyses your mock exams and topic questions answers to highlight your weakest knowledge areas.

Anki's strength is its sophisticated spaced repetition algorithm.

The app learns how well you know each flashcard based on your review history. Cards you consistently remember get pushed further into the future. Cards you struggle with appear more frequently.

This is highly personalised. Your Anki deck schedule is unique to you, based on your actual memory performance. Two students studying the same content will see completely different review schedules.

Anki also allows extensive customisation. You can: 

• Adjust intervals

• Create filtered decks for exam cramming

• Add tags to organise cards

• Change your flashcard layout

Ease of Use and Student Experience

Level Coverage

Save My Exams covers the following education levels:

• GCSE

• IGCSE

• A Level

• AS Level

• O Level

• National 5

• IB

• AP

Anki doesn't have predefined level coverage. It's a general flashcard app that works for any education level, from primary school to university and beyond.

Students can create flashcards for GCSE, A Level, or any other qualification. However, they must ensure the content difficulty matches their level. A pre-made "A Level Biology" deck might be too simple or too advanced, depending on who created it.

Subject Coverage

Here's what subjects each platform covers:

Save My Exams covers subjects including:

Sciences

• Biology

• Chemistry

• Physics

• Combined Science

Mathematics

• Mathematics (Foundation and Higher tiers)

• Further Mathematics

Humanities

• Geography

• History

• Business Studies

• Economics

Languages

• English Language

• English Literature

• Spanish

• French

• German

Other Subjects

• Computer Science

• Psychology

• Religious Studies

The exact subjects available depend on your exam board and level. Check out the Save My Exams subject search function to see if your subject is covered. 

All content is aligned to specific exam board specifications, so students know that they’re revising the topics that will appear on their exam papers. 

Anki Subject Coverage

Anki covers any subject.

The AnkiWeb shared deck database contains user-made decks for:

• All sciences (Biology, Chemistry, Physics)

• Mathematics (equations and formulae)

• Languages (extremely popular, with decks for vocabulary, grammar, and phrases)

• Humanities (History dates, Geography facts, etc.)

• Medicine (huge collection of medical school decks)

• And virtually any other topic

You must cross-reference information, and be certain that your flashcard decks are aligned to your exam board.

Pricing and Value for Money

* Always check current pricing on official pages, as offers can change. Information is correct at the time of writing. 

Pros and Cons of Save My Exams vs Anki

Let's break down the main advantages and disadvantages of each platform to help you make an informed choice.

Save My Exams

Anki

Frequently Asked Questions

What are alternatives to Anki?

Save My Exams is the top alternative if you're studying for UK or international exams (GCSE, IGCSE, A Level, IB). It provides exam-board-specific content that Anki can't match.

Other alternatives include:

• Quizlet: Popular flashcard platform with pre-made sets and study games. 

• Brainscape: Another flashcard app using spaced repetition. 

Is Anki legitimate?

Yes, Anki is completely legitimate and widely respected in educational communities. And, the spaced repetition technique Anki uses is based on decades of cognitive science research (opens in a new tab). 

Is Anki free?

Anki is free on most platforms:

Free versions:

• Desktop (Windows, Mac, Linux): Free

• Android (AnkiDroid): Free

• Web browser (AnkiWeb): Free

Paid version:

• iOS (AnkiMobile)

Can I use Save My Exams and Anki together?

Yes! Many successful students combine both platforms to get the best of both worlds.

Combining a flashcard app with quality exam-board-aligned revision resources means you can use the best revision techniques to cement your learning.

Can parents and teachers use Save My Exams and Anki?

Yes, both platforms support parents and teachers, though in different ways.

With Save My Exams, parents can support their child's revision by helping to plan study sessions, using revision notes to guide them. Teachers can use the platform to create custom assessments with the Test Builder tool and set exam questions for homework.

With Anki, parents can help younger students create flashcards or download appropriate decks.  And, teachers can create Anki decks for their classes and share them with students. This works well for vocabulary in languages or key terms in sciences.

Save My Exams vs Anki: Which is the Right Platform For You?

Choosing between Save My Exams and Anki can feel like an exam in itself. However, it doesn’t really need to be a choice, as you can use both together:

• Save My Exams provides the reliability of examiner-written revision notes, mock exams, and top questions that are aligned perfectly to your exam board.

• Anki is a great tool that allows you to create flashcards to boost your active recall of key facts, dates, and equations.

Remember, your exam success doesn't depend solely on which platform you choose. It depends on how effectively you use it, how consistently you revise, and how well you apply your knowledge in the exam hall.

References

PMC - ChatGPT and large language models (LLMs) awareness and use. A prospective cross-sectional survey of U.S. medical students (opens in a new tab)

PMC - Spacing Repetitions Over Long Timescales: A Review and a Reconsolidation Explanation (opens in a new tab)