Flashcards 101 – It’s In the way that you use them!

Flashcards are a tried and true strategy for studying, right? Yes, if you are using them optimally, going beyond the simple regurgitation of names, facts and dates. The act of using a flashcard deck doesn’t necessarily equate with long-term memory retention, nor will it guarantee you an A on that upcoming test. To get the most “bang for your buck” with flashcards, make sure your application of this strategy is aligned with what cognitive science tells us about how the brain learns – and retains- information.

Spacing, not Cramming

Rather than trying to cram everything in your brain the night before the test, spaced study is all about breaking up content into smaller pieces, and reviewing a little bit at a time. This strategy promotes longer-term retention of information, as the material is more likely to be encoded into long-term memory. 

Applied to flashcards, this technique might involve reviewing smaller piles of cards for 15 minutes a night all week long, rather than 2 hours the night before the exam. This would allow sleep to consolidate what you learned, and also lower any anxiety related to the upcoming assessment.

But does it matter how you break up the flashcard pile into smaller chunks? Yes, absolutely! That’s where the concept of prioritization comes into play.

Prioritize

If you have 50 vocabulary terms to learn, you might start with the labor intensive act of creating 1 flashcard for each word. Then you should run through your flashcard deck 3 times to check your mastery of the concepts at hand. Once you’ve done your due diligence, begin to sort the cards into 3 distinct piles: 

What I already know

What I sort of know

What I don’t know

Going through this sorting process will allow you to prioritize what content to study most, and add efficiency to your process.

Don’t flip too soon!

When engaging in flashcard review, keep in mind that retrieval practice is all about pulling information from memory. Rushing through a flashcard deck quickly won’t help you actually retrieve any information.  To do that, you’ll need to slow down and pause before you flip the card. If it helps you can say the term out loud to help you hear the question at hand. Push yourself to answer the question first; Then flip the card to check.

Be creative with your flashcard-ing

Think out of the box to get the most mileage out of your flashcard deck. Try quizzing yourself on your flashcards “in reverse,” by looking at the definitions and challenging yourself to name the term/concept at hand. Or try laying out your flashcards on top of a large whiteboard and drawing connection arrows to link different terms/ideas. Another option might be to use your flashcards to engage in higher levels of thinking. According to Bloom’s Taxonomy, going beyond basic recall involves deeper cognitive processes. You might ask yourself questions like:

• What is the significance of this term?
• How does this term connect to other terms?
• What are the pros and cons of this term? 

What’s on the card matters, too

It’s not just how you use the cards, it’s also what’s on the cards that matters. Make sure your flashcards don’t just represent teacher/textbook definitions. This will only result in pure regurgitation without deeper understanding and application of the terms/concepts at hand.

Instead, try making the definitions your own. This might mean adding a few bullet points in your own voice or including memory tricks that help you remember the concept. It could also look like representing a term with a quick sketch, image or diagram. The latter is backed by science, since research shows that interacting with information in both visual and verbal ways is most effective for helping things stick.

Here, there, everywhere

One final thought on flashcards: You can (and should!) do them anywhere. Whether you’ve made physical flashcards or a Quizlet deck, you can certainly take advantage of the portable nature of flashcards. You can squeeze a 10 minute flashcard review session into a car or bus ride. You can sprinkle your flashcards around the house so you are forced to encounter flashcards in the kitchen, near your bed, etc. Or you can quiz a friend/have a friend quiz you in study hall during the school day.

In sum, flashcards are an excellent study technique when used in efficient and effective ways. But remember, there is no silver bullet when it comes to studying, and flashcards should be used in concert with other evidence-based study strategies.