Dearest forum friends,
I've been experimenting with anki, and how I can utilize it in my University lessons. However I often stumble on too complex clumps of information and have difficulty in stripping it down into smaller chunks.
e.g. this specific card I made for Chinese History:

Quote:Spence
Chapter 7: The First Clash with the West (Mid-Qing)
How did Lin Zexu (chosen by emperor Daoguang)handle his opium campaign in 1839?
Campaign towards's Foreigners: (3)

-----------

Foreign Campaign

1. Interview Cohong merchants and ordered them to pass on command to foreigners to hand everything over.

2. Tried to reason with foreigners. Sent a letter to Queen Victoria.

3. Later stopped foreign trade completely and forced foreigners to hand 20,000 chests of opium in. (which led to the first Opium War)

It's all about keeping your question and answers short.
Can any advice me in how to make this card smaller and how to make multiple cards from this one large clump of information? Because I never get cards like this perfectly correct, and have difficulty with choosing my answer button.

Thanks a lot!

-Mesqueeb

You might want to take a look at this SuperMemo article for some practical ideas.
http://www.supermemo.com/articles/20rules.htm

I might break it down something like this:

Quote:Q: What three steps did Lin Zexu take during his opium suppression campaign?
A: Ordeded opium forfeiture, reasoned with foreigners, halted foreign trade.

Q:Why did Lin Zexu interview Cohong merchants?
A:To have them order the foreigners to turn in their opium.

Q:Name one example of Lin Zexu's attempt to reason with foreigners during his opium campaign.
A:He wrote a letter to Queen Victoria.

Q:What happened after Lin Zexu halted foreign trade during his opium campaign?
A:The First Opium War

If you want to remember additional facts like the year this all occurred, or how many chests of opium were taken, you can add separate cards for those.

Thanks for the hints!

Sad to realize that even small facts need a card of their own to be remembered. (Like the amount of chests.)

I am now following ancient history of China, and I am thinking about how to handle the studying.
Anki helped me a lot with modern history of China but now I start suspending them all because I can't recall any of it now that I am not "into" the subject and the book anymore. I have my long questions to blame for this...

I think, to summarize, I might make "big" questions in Word, and after make smaller questions in Anki.