Writing Good Flashcards

Flashcards should only focus on one idea

Flashcards should be atomic, focussing only on one piece of important information rather than combining multiple into a single prompt. For example, this is an example of a bad flashcard:

Q: What are endorphines??
A: * The euphoria neurotransmitter(s)
   * A range of compounds
   * Leads to a feeling of well-being and euphoria.
   * Released during exercise and excitement.

The issue is that there are 4 seperate “atoms” of information. During a review, these cards can feel like a burden and difficult to process – they don’t feel “snappy”. Furthermore, it makes it more difficult to fix mistakes since forgetting a single piece of information affects the whole card, not the piece of information that you forgot.

A better way to write this information would be:

Q: In general, how could you describe endorphines??
A: The euphoria neurotransmitters.

Q: True or false, endorphines are a range of compounds??
A: True

Q: What do endorphines lead to feelings of??
A: Well-being and euphoria.

Q: When are endorphines released??
A: Exercise and exciting situations.

Flashcards should encode ideas from multiple angles

One common critique of flashcards is that they are just a form of rote learning and that they only provide knowledge but do little for understanding.

Isolated exercises are particularly brittle because they develop knowledge which can only be used in one context, disconnected from broader conceptual frameworkds and understandings.

Good flashcards reinforce and connect an idea by accessing it from multiple angles.

Comparison: How is this idea different from other ideas?
Causes: In what context is this idea useful?
Explanations: How does this idea work?
Significance: How is this idea significant?
Examples: What are some examples of this idea?

Flashcards should be concise

Related to but distinct from Flashcards should only focus on one idea. Both the prompt and the answer should be concise. Consider the difference between:

Q: What is the motor effect??
A: The motor effect is something that happens whenever you put a current-carying wire in a magnetic field. When a conductor is put between magnetic poles, the magnetic field around the wire interacts with the magnetic field it has been placed in. This causes the magnet and the conductor to exert a force on each other. This is causes the wire to move.

And…

Q: When does the motor effect occur??
A: When a current-carying conductor is in a magnetic field.

Q: What causes the motor effect??
A: The repulsion between the conductor's magnetic field and the magnetic field its in.

They both encode pretty much the same information. Also consider the difference between:

Q: Aldus invented desktop publishing in 1985 with PageMaker. Aldus had little competition for years, and so failed to improve. Then Denver-based … blew past. PageMaker, now owned by Adobe, remains No. 2
A: Quark

And…

Q: PageMaker lost ground to...
A: Quark

This prevents review sessions from feeling “heavy” and like a chore.

Flashcards should push reviewers to retrieve important details

Flashcards depend on the Testing Effect – the finding that long-term memory is improved when reviewers have to retrieve information rather than being presented it. For this reason, it’s important to make sure that prompts actually require you to retrieve information.

This means avoiding “leading questions”, questions which imply their own answers.

Flashcards should avoid pattern matching

Pattern matching in the context of flashcards is where the answers to questions are memorized shallowly and not integrated more deeply.

Pattern matching can be avoided by:

Encoding ideas from multiple angles
Avoiding prompts which aren’t related to any other prompts
Writing short prompts about one idea

References