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I Tried Every Free Flashcard App -- Here Are the Best
Gmail's New Summary Cards Highlight the Important Information in Your Flood of Emails Quick LinksQuizlet AnkiApp Flashcards Brainscape As much as social media romanticizes pulling all-nighters, cramming months' worth of content into one night, and chugging endless amounts of coffee, let's face it: that's a recipe for disaster. While it might work occasionally, it's far from ideal for memorization-heavy courses. For those, I rely on digital flashcards, and here are three of the best free flashcard apps out there. 1 Quizlet An app I've relied on since my first GCSEs is Quizlet, which I credit for helping me achieve straight A-stars. Its easy-to-use interface is the main reason I've stuck with it for years. With many other flashcard apps, you'll notice a learning curve -- you have to spend time figuring out how to create decks, format text, and navigate the app. Quizlet, on the other hand, is simple to use, with everything just a tap away. Given the number of courses a high school student typically takes, not everyone has time to manually extract information from their notes and turn it into flashcards. Quizlet offers two solutions for this: Study Guides and access to 700 million premade flashcard sets from the community. While premade decks are self-explanatory, Study Guides is an AI-powered feature that automatically creates a flashcard set for you once you upload your course materials. Unfortunately, Quizlet has locked quite a few features, including Study Guides, behind its Quizlet Plus subscription. As of now, Quizlet Plus costs $2.99 per month when billed annually or $7.99 monthly. However, since I've always relied on the standard flashcard mode in Quizlet, the free version has sufficed for me. When I can't find a premade deck for a course (which is rare), I take the time to create my own flashcards, and then use the Shuffle mode to study them in random order. Quizlet's Learn mode analyzes your current understanding of your course content and tests you accordingly with multiple choice and written questions. I find this mode particularly useful for mastering advanced theoretical concepts, and tend to use it only after I've gained some background knowledge using the standard flashcard mode. In my opinion, Quizlet's free version should suffice if you don't plan on taking advantage of its AI-powered features like Study Guides. If you want to, you can also use an AI flashcard generator like FlashKa to streamline your study process and use a Study Guide-like tool without paying for Quizlet Plus. Download: Quizlet for iPadOS | Android (Free, in-app purchases available) 2 AnkiApp Flashcards While Anki's desktop and Android apps are free, you need to pay a one-time fee of $24.99 for the iPhone and iPad app. I'm not usually against paying for an app that's beneficial in the long run -- after all, I paid $29.99 for a lifetime subscription to Goodnotes 6, one of the best note-taking apps for stylus users. However, most of my courses are more practice-based and conceptual, so the idea of paying $24.99 for an app with alternatives just doesn't sit well with me. AnkiApp, developed by AnkiApp Inc., isn't affiliated with Anki but does a great job replicating what its best known for -- spaced repetition. It offers three review modes: Advanced SRS, Random Shuffle, and In Created Order. My go-to is Advanced SRS, which brings up cards I haven't mastered more frequently, and once I've memorized them, they appear less often. This approach ensures the information is stored in my long-term memory, rather than just temporarily. AnkiApp uses a unique grading system, from F to A. You'll only receive an A once you've fully mastered the material. While some might find this strict, it's always motivated me to study harder! AnkiApp's formatting options are what truly impressed me. You can add images, change text color, and use different deck styles like Standard (Rich Text, Simple, Image), Language (for Japanese or Chinese), and Specialized (Audio, Equation, Code). As a computer science student, I find the Code block feature especially useful, with support for languages like C++, Java, Python, and more. AnkiApp also has an AI-powered Generate Cards option. You can attach your handwritten notes, lecture slides, or provide a prompt and the app will automatically generate cards for you. I prompted it to create flashcards about Python's syntax, and the app did a great job! Some people online have complained that the app locks features with more frequent use, requiring a premium subscription. I haven't encountered this, but if I did, I'd probably switch to another app or buy Anki's official iOS app despite its dated interface, rather than paying $69.99 for a lifetime AnkiApp subscription or $29.99 annually. Download: AnkiApp Flashcards for iPadOS | Android (Free, in-app purchases available) 3 Brainscape Anki's desktop and web app (not AnkiApp) has always been highly rated for its spaced-repetition algorithm. I'll give credit where it's due -- Anki's algorithm is excellent. However, I don't enjoy adjusting the settings every time I sit down to study. This is where Brainscape comes in. It offers a solid spaced-repetition algorithm without the need to tweak settings. When studying flashcards, you rate your confidence on a scale from 1 (Not at all) to 5 (Perfectly). The higher the rating, the less frequently you'll see the flashcard, while lower ratings mean you'll see it more often. It also has a Repeat Card system, meaning even high-confidence cards (ones you rated highly) will occasionally reappear. My favorite Brainscape feature is the Class Mastery percentage, which shows the weighted average of your self-assessed confidence for studied cards. If you rate all your cards a 5, your deck mastery percentage would be 100%. I've found this system to be surprisingly accurate in reflecting my actual exam scores. As someone who obsessively time-blocks every study session in advance, Brainscape's Estimated Time Remaining feature is a game-changer. It tracks your learning pace and predicts how long it will take you to reach 100% mastery of a deck, helping me plan my study time more efficiently. When it comes to creating flashcards, you have three options: manually type them, import pre-existing cards, or use the new "Tell AI What I Want" feature. With this, you simply specify the number of flashcards and the topic, and AI does the rest. For example, below I asked Brainscape to create 25 flashcards on Newton's Laws of Motion. It generated a mix of definitions, true/false questions, and formulas, all of which were incredibly useful. The best part? Creating your own flashcards on Brainscape, even with the AI feature, is completely free. With Brainscape Pro -- priced at $19.99 monthly, $59.99 annually, or a one-time fee of $199.99 -- you can add images and sounds to flashcards, bookmark specific cards, study the back before the front, restrict access to your cards, and more. While adding images to flashcards might be helpful for pre-med students, I wouldn't use it even if it were free -- so if you're like me, Brainscape's free version is more than enough, especially if you don't want to subscribe to Quizlet Plus or AnkiApp's premium version. Download: Brainscape for iPadOS | Android (Free, in-app purchases available) At the end of the day, it's all about finding the tool that fits your learning style and makes studying more effective and enjoyable for you. An app that works for everyone else might not work for you, and there's nothing wrong with that!
MakeUseOf
Thu, 3 Oct, 4:18 PM UTC
I Studied With an AI Flashcard Generator and I'll Never Make My Own Cards Again
Quick LinksDigital vs. Traditional Flashcards FlashKa: The AI Flashcard Generator and Study Partner Studying With FlashKa Simple but Powerful Flashcards Quizzes for Reinforcement The Credit System Key Takeaways FlashKa eliminates manual flashcard creation by using AI to generate flashcards from source material. The tool also offers interactive study features beyond flashcards, enhancing the learning process. FlashKa operates on a credit system with 50 free daily credits. Flashcards have long been a trusted study tool for memorizing facts and concepts. But creating them can be a tedious, time-consuming process. What if there was a way to streamline this task and make studying more efficient? Digital vs. Traditional Flashcards Studying is tough. There's a lot to learn, and much of it needs to be committed to memory. Flashcards can help, but they are far from perfect. I rarely used flashcards throughout university, mainly because I found them tedious to make and easy to lose. However, last semester, I faced a course loaded with non-conceptual material that I needed to memorize. A friend lent me her flashcards, and I realized they were quite effective. Being a techie, I looked for an AI flashcard generator among the many AI tools available for students. One tool, in particular, stood out: FlashKa. FlashKa: The AI Flashcard Generator and Study Partner FlashKa is an AI-driven tool that generates supplementary educational material, including flashcards. Digital flashcards have been around for a while, with many websites for creating your own flashcards. However, these are essentially traditional paper flashcards in a digital format; you still have to write the cards yourself. Unlike traditional flashcards, FlashKa offers an interactive digital platform that significantly enhances the study process. By uploading a source file, such as a textbook PDF, FlashKa can generate flashcards automatically. However, the real value of FlashKa lies in its ability to serve as a comprehensive study partner, not just a flashcard generator. If you tend to cram for exams, you may not find FlashKa very helpful. While it can automatically generate flashcards, the most effective ones are usually those you create yourself. FlashKa acts as a study partner, letting me read and study the material directly within the platform. This sets it apart from most AI flashcard tools, which only take in the material and output the flashcards. Studying With FlashKa FlashKa lets you upload study material directly onto its platform. Once the material is there, you can read and study it within the app. When I come across important information that warrants a flashcard, I simply highlight the text and tap Create Flashcard. This eliminates the need to type anything manually, as FlashKa generates both sides of the card automatically. For subjects requiring visual memorization, such as anatomy, FlashKa's image card feature is invaluable. Use the occlusion feature on a selected image and FlashKa will hide text annotations and generate flashcards that test you on various parts of the image. This function is particularly useful for visual learners. Beyond flashcard creation, FlashKa provides additional AI-driven study tools. I can highlight some text and ask FlashKa to explain it or pose any questions I might have about the material. The answers are prompt, concise, and relevant, making it easier to understand and retain information. FlashKa also marks parts of the text with a yellow circle if an explanation or question has been associated with it. This visual cue helps track areas of difficulty and provides quick access to previously sought explanations. Simple but Powerful Flashcards The flashcards that FlashKa generates are simple yet effective. You can edit them on the spot or click the link icon to go to the source material for additional context. After viewing a flashcard, you can mark it as either Hard or Good. FlashKa uses a spaced repetition system to ensure that difficult cards are reviewed more frequently, while easier cards are scheduled for review at later intervals, optimizing the learning process. When reviewing flashcards, FlashKa offers several features to help you understand and retain knowledge. The Explain feature provides a detailed explanation of the flashcard content, helping to clarify any confusion. The Example feature offers contextual examples to illustrate the information, making it easier to grasp. The Memo feature suggests mnemonics or stories to aid memorization, adding a creative twist to learning. Lastly, the Visualize feature generates images to support visual learners, making the information more memorable, if you think you'd benefit from visual aids. Quizzes for Reinforcement After completing a set of flashcards, FlashKa prompts you to take a quiz based on them. These quizzes are brief and effective, presenting the material in a different format to reinforce learning. If you answer a question incorrectly, you can ask for an explanation to solidify your understanding. Since the quizzes are based on the flashcards, there won't be any new material in them. However, I still take them just to see the three wrong choices, and have the question framed in another way. The Credit System FlashKa operates on a credit system, offering 50 free credits per day, which I've found generally sufficient for daily study sessions. For instance, asking for an explanation on a flashcard uses one credit. Coincidentally, the credit system encourages organized, long-term studying rather than last-minute cramming. If you cram topics, you'll be feeding the AI tons of information and making dozens of flashcards in a single night, and you'll likely run out of credits before you get everything through. The little upgrade button lets you purchase a Master subscription for more credits. FlashKa has completely changed my approach to studying. The convenience of digital flashcards and the intelligent features offered by FlashKa have made my study process more efficient and effective. The ability to automatically generate flashcards, along with interactive study aids, means I no longer spend hours creating them manually. This has not only saved me time but also enhanced my learning experience. While I've seen promising results so far, its real effectiveness will be tested next semester. Who knows, I might switch back to my old study methods but, for now, FlashKa has made a major change to my routine.
MakeUseOf
Wed, 31 Jul, 2:03 PM UTC
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