Flashcards are a popular study tool that can benefit everyone from first graders to grad students. Flashcards allow you to interact with information in a way that makes it easier to retain. As your brain reads one side of the card it has to actively recall the answer on the other side (metacognition!). Research shows that this helps engrain the right answer in your memory and all of this repetition improves memory performance, which will help you in a big way come test day.
Are flashcards effective for studying?
One psychology study out of the University of California, Los Angeles, stressed the importance of spaced repetition in using note cards to prepare for a test. You may get all the answers right one hour but your brain can drop information that it was really just recalling from seeing the note cards previously. Spaced repetition is key to successfully retaining the information on your flashcards.
Why flashcards help you learn
1. Flashcards engage your brain’s active recall
Flashcards train your brain to remember a concept from scratch, because when you look at the front side of a flashcard your brain is actively working to figure out the answer on the back. Active recall has been shown to boost stronger neuron connections which helps improve memory. Because flashcards are so great for repetition, you can trigger your brain’s active recall easily.
2. Flashcards are good for metacognitive faculties
Excuse me what??? Studying with flashcards forces you to engage in self-reflection. How well did you actually know the answer on the back? How complete was your answer? This type of self-reflection is known as metacognition, and research shows it is a key part of ingraining memories and deepening knowledge.
But if the thought of making 206 flashcards for all the bones in the body that you have to know for your anatomy exam is daunting, then online flashcards are for you.
Flashcards+ is a mobile app (so you can continue studying on your way to the exam) that allows you to make your own set of custom flashcards. Once you’ve mastered a card you can even remove it from your deck so you can focus on the cards you need to learn. You can even add images to your cards for subjects like art history or that human anatomy exam we talked about. You can even search from 1,000+ already made sets of flashcards so you can spend less time making a stack and more time studying it. Download the Flashcards+ app!
Flashcards are great for reviewing terms and definitions or even studying translations for a foreign language. But when it comes to more complicated concepts, asking questions, reading the textbook and a more in depth review session may be necessary.