A guide to effectively using flashcards
Flashcards were an important part of my preparation for my IGCSE examinations. I found them extremely useful for retaining a wide range of concepts (especially for subjects like biology and psychology) in a simple yet effective way!
I hope y’all find these tips useful!! :)
Do not rely solely on them
It’s important to note that flashcards are not a one-way ticket to that A*. It is a combination of several things that essentially leads you to a successful result (eg: past papers, homework, readings, research, etc).
Furthermore, it also depends on what type of material you’re studying and how far you are into the learning process.
Recognise which subject requires them
Flashcards are generally used for knowledge-intensive subjects that require a lot of factual memorisation over a long period of time. These can include the sciences, history, literature, etc.
Subjects like these contain a multitude of relationships, terms, processes and facts that need to be individually internalised in order to achieve a meaningful level of mastery of the overall subject matter.
I didn’t bother using flashcards for subjects like mathematics or business studies.
Avoid information overload
it can feel tempting to make flashcards for every little fact and shred of information so that you don’t miss it on the exam. However, this usually results in an overwhelming number of decks.
During the initial exposure to the information, make sure that you have thoroughly read through it to isolate the pertinent facts and turn these into question-and-answer flashcards. To do this, I referred to end of unit tests and homework to get a good idea on which aspects of the topic/chapter are typically assessed.
It’s really important to condense the information since flashcards are typically used for REVIEW and to help consolidate your knowledge. Trying to add in an entire chapter of 12 pages really defeats the purpose of using them.
I was constantly worried that I might cut out information that may end up being vital. I was able to remove this fear of mine by ensuring that I only put down one concept/question per flashcard and then list down the components that made up that particular concept.
For example, these were my notes on medicinal drugs, with a focus on antibiotics. One of the key requirements listed in my specification was:
“To describe the functions of antibiotics for the treatment of bacterial infection”
I used this to understand what pieces of information to isolate.
As you can see above, I only listed down the functions of antibiotics and nothing else. I didn’t mention the fact that they were ineffective against viruses because there is a reason to that and the concept can be better explored in another card. I instead, chose to focus on how antibiotics combat bacterial infections.
This saves a lot of time during the revision process and also ensures that the amount of information you have to know isn’t too overwhelming.
Create Mental Connections
This can be easily achieved by mixing pictures and words or using mnemonic devices. These help increase your brain’s ability to recall what you’re studying. Just be careful to only use these when absolutely necessary.
Organisation of Your Flashcards
It’s highly likely that you may never use your flashcards when they are stacked one over the other until they form a skyscraper. This is where organisation comes into play.
For biology in particular, I organised my decks by chapter and then divided it into decks for the sub-topics within the chapter:
As you can see, I basically divided the chapter of “Biological Molecules” into those sub-topics which made the whole revision process less overwhelming and it also helped me plan what I wanted to study because I would have already had a basic overview of what I’m familiar with and what I needed to review further.
The Process of Retrieving the Answer
When going through your decks, it’s important to note down the answer or say it out loud instead of adopting the “oh I know this already, so it’s fine” attitude. You should be able to hold yourself accountable and avoid falling for the false illusion of confidence. Even if you are already familiar with that particular piece of information, there’s no harm in reinforcing it again. Better to be safe than sorry.
This is an incredibly effective way of challenging yourself with spacing and interleaving, instead of going through your flashcard deck in the same order again and again. You won’t be able to properly retain those concepts by trying to retrieve information based on the deck and card number!
Spaced Repetition is an evidence-based learning technique boosts learning by spreading revision out over time so learning is not crammed all at once.
You can find a detailed explanation about the effectiveness of this technique here
This app allows you to create online flashcards which you can use to test yourself in practice sessions. It uses an algorithm built around active recall and spaced repetition and hence learns as you progress through your studies and revision.
Anki is available for free on desktop and on all mobile devices except iOS, but I highly recommend it as it’s in-built algorithm and other features (more information about the app including the download link can be found here) were incredibly useful for me!
This is another online learning tool that allows users to create study tools such as interactive flashcards, tests, and study games.
The app makes it simple to start creating cards on the topic of your choice. In addition to text, you can also add images from your computer or Quizlet’s library. It also provides you with a variety of options when studying your cards. For more information on the features that Quizlet employs, visit this link
Quizlet is free but provides the option of a paid premium plan which includes additional features.
This app also implements spaced repetition, which has been shown to increase rate of learning.
Brainscape allows you to rate your confidence in each flashcard, on a scale of 1-5, which subsequently determines how frequently to repeat the flashcard. Lower-confidence items are repeated more frequently until you upgrade your confidence rating.
Like Quizlet, it is a free app but provides a paid pro plan with additional features.
Once again I want to emphasize that to truly succeed with flashcards, you need to learn how to create them correctly. The best app isn’t very useful if you’re not writing effective questions and answers.
That’s all I have for now, I really hope this post was helpful and if you have any additional tips or apps you’d like to suggest, feel free to reblog and add them!!
sending love and wishing you all a wonderful day!
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