Studying with flashcards takes time and effort: here’s why the right AI can save us some effort.
Studying is not the same for everyone: there are those who underline, those who take notes and those who need to resort to flashcards . They are really effective tools that help to fix the main concepts of the work sessions, also allowing you to involve other people in the learning process.
In other words, flash cards are perfect for helping anyone who needs to study a topic , not just the person who created them (who would have an advantage anyway). That said, this learning tool has a big flaw: it requires a lot of time to be effective and efficient.
A fun way to remember key concepts
- Choose a topic to learn . It could be a single lesson (fewer worksheets, fewer concepts, for a more progressive study), but also the entire program of a class test or exam.
- Identify basic concepts or potential questions that may come up during homework or tests. This procedure is particularly useful for learning to sift through concepts, building a set of truly useful information. Very often, a tired mind, or one prone to distraction, will tend to lose concentration or focus on information that is not crucial or relatively important. Thanks to flashcards, it will become easier, over time, to understand ” where to look ” when reading a page.
- They are perfect for individual and group study.
- They help to fix concepts in long-term memory .
When are flashcards best? They are especially popular in language learning, science, math, and other subjects that require memorization of key concepts. Their structure is streamlined and, above all, they work best with dry, factual answers.
How to build a flashcard?
Let’s take a post-it or a piece of cardboard.
- On the front we ask a question. This question can be read by us, by a person who helps us in studying or by a workmate. The question must be specific, or in any case it must focus on a precise notion. For example: “Who were the seven kings of Rome?”
- On the back , we write the answer. If the answer is clear, we can enter it in its entirety. If it is not, we must insert only the most important concepts in the flashcard, such as bullet shots, in order to skim the information.
The classic example of a dry answer is, for example: “Romulus, Numa Pompilius, Tullus Hostilius, Ancus Marcius, Servius Tullius, Tarquinius Priscus and Tarquinius Superbus”.
If the question were, more generally, “Tell me about the Thirty Years’ War,” on the back of the flashcard we should include fundamental concepts : start date, end date, casus belli, forces at play, main characteristics, winners and losers. Once these concepts are firmly in mind, we can proceed to enrich them with the details that made this war so bloody.
