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Pre-Med Vocabulary Anki Deck

40 high-yield medical terms every pre-med high schooler should recognise — from myocardial infarction to non-maleficence. Flip cards in your browser or download the full deck for Anki.

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What's inside
  • — 40 terms across 8 categories
  • — Plain-English definitions
  • — Mnemonics for tricky terms
  • — Anki-importable CSV (Front, Back, Category, Mnemonic)
  • — Works in any browser — no signup
Interactive Deck

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All terms in this deck
Cardiology
Myocardial Infarction
Death of heart muscle tissue caused by prolonged loss of blood supply, usually due to a blocked coronary artery. Commonly called a heart attack.
Cardiology
Tachycardia
An abnormally fast resting heart rate, typically above 100 beats per minute in adults.
Cardiology
Bradycardia
An abnormally slow resting heart rate, typically below 60 beats per minute in adults.
Cardiology
Atherosclerosis
Hardening and narrowing of arteries caused by plaque buildup of fats, cholesterol, and other substances on artery walls.
Cardiology
Hypertension
Persistently elevated arterial blood pressure, typically ≥140/90 mmHg, a major risk factor for stroke and heart disease.
Cardiology
Arrhythmia
Any irregularity in the rate, rhythm, or origin of the heartbeat.
Cardiology
Ischemia
Inadequate blood supply to an organ or part of the body, especially the heart muscle.
Neurology
Cerebrovascular Accident
A stroke — sudden loss of brain function due to disturbance in blood supply, either ischemic (clot) or hemorrhagic (bleed).
Neurology
Aphasia
Impaired ability to understand or produce speech, often caused by stroke or brain injury affecting language centers.
Neurology
Meninges
The three membranes (dura, arachnoid, pia mater) that envelop the brain and spinal cord.
Neurology
Epilepsy
A neurological disorder marked by sudden recurrent episodes of sensory disturbance or convulsions due to abnormal brain electrical activity.
Neurology
Neuroplasticity
The brain's ability to reorganise itself by forming new neural connections throughout life.
Respiratory
Dyspnea
Difficult or laboured breathing; a subjective sensation of shortness of breath.
Respiratory
Pneumothorax
Air trapped in the pleural space between the lung and chest wall, causing the lung to collapse.
Respiratory
Hypoxia
A deficiency of oxygen reaching the body tissues.
Respiratory
Asthma
A chronic inflammatory disease of the airways causing wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness, and coughing.
Anatomy
Anterior
Toward the front of the body or organ. Opposite of posterior.
Anatomy
Posterior
Toward the back of the body or organ. Opposite of anterior.
Anatomy
Proximal
Closer to the point of attachment or the trunk of the body.
Anatomy
Distal
Farther from the point of attachment or the trunk of the body.
Anatomy
Sagittal Plane
An anatomical plane that divides the body into left and right halves.
Pharmacology
Pharmacokinetics
The study of what the body does to a drug: absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (ADME).
Pharmacology
Pharmacodynamics
The study of what a drug does to the body — its biochemical and physiological effects and mechanism of action.
Pharmacology
Contraindication
A specific situation or condition in which a drug, procedure, or surgery should not be used because it may be harmful.
Pharmacology
Half-Life
The time required for the concentration of a drug in the body to be reduced by half.
Ethics
Autonomy
The ethical principle that patients have the right to make informed decisions about their own medical care.
Ethics
Beneficence
The ethical duty of healthcare professionals to act in the best interest of the patient.
Ethics
Non-maleficence
The ethical principle of 'first, do no harm' — avoiding actions that could injure patients.
Ethics
Justice
The ethical principle of fair distribution of healthcare resources and equal treatment of patients.
Ethics
Informed Consent
Permission granted by a patient with full knowledge of the risks, benefits, and alternatives of a proposed treatment.
Pathology
Benign
A condition or growth that is not cancerous and does not invade nearby tissue or spread.
Pathology
Malignant
A cancerous growth that can invade nearby tissues and metastasise to distant sites.
Pathology
Metastasis
The spread of cancer cells from the primary site to other parts of the body via blood, lymph, or direct extension.
Pathology
Etiology
The cause or set of causes of a disease or condition.
Pathology
Prognosis
The likely course and outcome of a disease, including chances of recovery.
General
Differential Diagnosis
The process of distinguishing a particular disease from others that share similar clinical features.
General
Idiopathic
Describes a disease or condition that arises spontaneously or from an unknown cause.
General
Iatrogenic
Relating to illness caused by medical examination or treatment itself.
General
Acute
A condition with rapid onset and short duration. Opposite of chronic.
General
Chronic
A condition persisting for a long time or constantly recurring. Opposite of acute.
How to use it

Import into Anki in under 60 seconds.

Anki is the spaced-repetition app medical students use to commit thousands of terms to long-term memory. The deck below is formatted to drop straight in.

  1. 01
    Download the CSV

    Use the button at the top of this page. The file is named future-doctors-pre-med-vocabulary-anki-deck.csv.

  2. 02
    Open Anki desktop

    Free at apps.ankiweb.net. Create a new deck called 'Pre-Med Vocabulary' from the main screen.

  3. 03
    File → Import

    Select the downloaded CSV. Set field separator to Comma and tick 'Allow HTML in fields' off.

  4. 04
    Map the fields

    Column 1 → Front, Column 2 → Back, Column 3 → Tags (Category), Column 4 → Extra (Mnemonic). Click Import.

  5. 05
    Review daily

    Anki schedules cards using spaced repetition. 10 minutes a day is plenty to lock in all 40 terms in two weeks.

FAQ

Questions students ask.

What is Anki and why do pre-med students use it?

Anki is a free, open-source spaced-repetition flashcard app used by medical students worldwide. Spaced repetition shows you cards at increasing intervals — right before you would forget them — making vocabulary retention dramatically more efficient than rereading notes.

Is this deck truly high-yield for high schoolers?

Yes. Every term on this page appears repeatedly in MMI scenarios, BMAT/UCAT comprehension, personal statements, and intro-to-medicine reading. We chose breadth over depth so a Year 10–13 student can recognise and use these terms confidently.

How do I import the deck into Anki?

Download the CSV, open Anki desktop, click File → Import, select the file, set the field separator to comma, and map column 1 to Front and column 2 to Back. Add the optional Mnemonic field if you want a third side.

Can I use these cards without Anki?

Absolutely. Use the interactive flashcard player on this page — flip, shuffle, and navigate through the full deck right in your browser. No download needed.

Will more decks be added?

Yes. We are building decks for MMI ethics frameworks, common BMAT science vocabulary, and clinical-reasoning terminology. Join the Future Doctor Fellowship to get them early.

Next step

Vocabulary is the entry ticket. The Fellowship is the rest of the journey.

Once you know the terms, the next step is reasoning with them — clinical cases, MMI ethics, and a Harvard-mentored cohort. Apply to the Future Doctor Fellowship.

Explore the FellowshipMore free resources