if you know how to use them 😳
We all know how to make a flashcard.
Question on one side, answer on the other. File card in box. Place box on desk. Open only under duress during revision sessions.
For most students a box of flashcards is like a study comfort blanket. We feel productive making them and they’re great for an instant quiz but we wouldn’t rate them as the ultimate study tool.
That’s because we don’t really know how to use them.
1. the question needs to be hard
Questions with one word answers are not allowed. We need questions that demand the answer to be explained, ideally with examples.
Remember that the harder our brains have to work to retrieve the information, the stronger those neural pathways become and the result is deeply entrenched learning.
2. you need FOUR boxes
In the first box you put flashcards with questions that require frequent practice because either the material is new or you often make mistakes answering them. You need to test yourself on these cards once or twice a week at random.
Into the second box go the cards you are pretty good at. You should be diving into this box less frequently, maybe once a fortnight.
The third box is for cards that need practicing less often than the cards in the second box, maybe monthly.
And the fourth box is for the cards that are now as well remembered as the alphabet. You can quiz yourself on these every couple of months.
If you make mistakes answering a question, move the card back to the first or second box.
3. you need to be disciplined
We all know that anything that isn’t homework gets immediately shoved to the bottom of the to-do pile which means that quizzing yourself from each of the boxes has got to become part of your weekly study schedule.
You have to say to yourself, “OK, I’m going to answer these questions properly as if I’m in an exam.” If you make mistakes, ask yourself , “What did I miss? How did I not know that?”
And then do something about it!
Make a note that you need to find 15 minutes to revise the three ways to make an ester or how to interpret a H-1 NMR spectrum or maybe how to calculate the length of the flight tube in a TOF mass spectrometer.
So whether you need notes, seriously good explanations, the odd video or lots of exam style Q&A, Crunch Chemistry is there for you 😊.
If this has been useful then please forward it on and thank you very much for reading,
