How to use flashcards the right way
Flashcards are one of the oldest study tools – a question on one side, the answer on the other. Used well, they're excellent, because every card makes you pull an answer out of memory. Used badly, they're just a slow way of re-reading. Here's how to get it right.
Make yourself answer
The whole point of a flashcard is to answer before you look. Say the answer out loud or write it down, then flip the card. If you flip straight away and think "yes, I knew that", you've skipped the part that does the work. Pulling information out of memory – retrieval practice – is what makes it stick.
Keep one big deck instead of many small ones
In an experiment on flashcards, Nate Kornell compared two ways of studying the same cards. Some cards were studied in small stacks, so each card came back again quickly. Others were studied in one big stack, so there was a longer gap before each card came back.
The big stack – more spacing between repetitions of each card – led to better learning for most participants. But here's the twist: most participants believed the small stacks worked better. Seeing a card again soon makes it feel easy, and that feeling of ease is misleading.
If studying feels a bit hard, you might be doing it right.
Don't drop cards too soon
It's tempting to remove a card the first time you get it right. Instead, keep it in the deck until you've got it right a few times, on different days. Getting it right once, a minute after seeing the answer, doesn't mean it's in your long-term memory yet.
Space your reviews out
Go through your deck a little every day rather than all at once. Cards you keep getting wrong should come back more often; cards you know well can wait longer. Many flashcard apps do this automatically.
Make good cards
- One idea per card. "Capital of Australia → Canberra" is better than a card with five facts.
- Ask questions in both directions where it helps: word → meaning, and meaning → word.
- Use your own words, and add a small picture or example if it helps.
- Mix subjects or topics in a session rather than doing one at a time. Why mixing works.
When flashcards aren't enough
Flashcards are great for facts, vocabulary, dates and formulas. For skills like solving problems, writing or explaining, you also need practice questions and full answers – and feedback on where you went wrong.
TONEC STUDY works a bit like a smart deck of cards: short questions every day, an explanation after every answer, and with Premium, the questions you got wrong come back until you get them right.
The study
- Kornell, N. (2009). Optimising learning using flashcards: Spacing is more effective than cramming. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 23(9).