![](https://thebrownstudybuddy.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Why-you-need-to-use-flashcards-1-1.png)
Are you a struggling student in need of some serious help? Don’t worry; we’ve got the perfect advice to save your grades and your sanity. Flashcards will be your best friend.
With the growing amount of study tips and techniques out there, it can be difficult to know which ones are the best to use. But fear not; everything will be explained.
What Is Active Recall?
I’m going to be honest, in case anyone else hasn’t said this to you before: reading over and highlighting your notes is not an effective way of retaining information. This is called passive learning. Passive learning is great for understanding and learning new topics, but it will do little to help with actually retaining the information and getting those top grades. This is where active recall steps in. What exactly is active recall? By simple definition, it means to use the information that you learned and actively retrieve it from your memory.
How Can You Use Active Recall?
There are many ways that you can use active recall, and they all work so well together, but today let’s cover one: Flashcards.
Flashcards are a great way to retain information. They get you to retrieve the information you have already learned and answer the questions on them. The best part is that most online flashcard apps and systems can recognise when you get things wrong and will show you the questions you got wrong more frequently. This way, you can focus on correcting and retaining the information you got wrong and spend less time on the information you got right. Trust me, using flashcards will boost your grades.
Flashcard Apps
You’re probably wondering what flashcard sites and apps you should use. Personally, I have two flashcard apps that I use: Quizlet and Anki.
- Quizlet: Quizlet is great for beginners who are just starting out using flashcards and want an easy interface to work with. Sadly, most of Quizlet’s tools are now premium features, which they didn’t used to be. The only free tool on Quizlet is the flashcard feature, which is great for beginners. However, if you use Quizlet and start to fall in love with it (like I did), consider getting the premium version. Quizlet turns your flashcards into a test that you can use to assess your accuracy and correctness of your answers. This is a game-changer for getting those top grades.
- Anki: Anki, on the other hand, is for more experienced users, but even if you’re a beginner, it might be worth learning how to use it. Anki uses spaced repetition, which can help you retain information for a longer period of time. So I recommend this more if you have more time until your exams. If not, Quizlet is your best friend. Anki provides a robust flashcard tool with many card types, such as image occlusion, cloze flashcard creation, and even creating reversed cards with a click of a button.
Flashcards are honestly the best for remembering content efficiently. Even if it is tedious to set up flashcards will save you from a lot of crying sessions.