How to flashcard/FAQ
Dürer’s Saint Jerome in His Study
Concepts
Guides
A short frequently-asked questions section meant to accompany How to flashcard. Actionable responses to common questions.
This page is under construction.
Forgive the mess.
How should I card <thing>?
Your mileage may vary but here are some reasonable approaches for various common things that one might want to card.
This topic is also discussed in the following section(s):
| Topic | Example | Additional notes |
|---|---|---|
| WIP | ||
I keep failing a card, how can I remember it better?
The platonic ideal of a flashcard contains a single fact on the front which you are able to perfectly associate with the corresponding answer on the back. If you are unable to successfully recall the back, it is time to move away from this template.
This topic is also discussed in the following section(s):
Some options - try one (or multiple of these):
| Summary | Details | Example(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Add additional information to the front | There may not be enough information on the front of the card for your mind to latch onto - alternatively, you may not have provided enough information for the fact to obviously point towards the answer (or at all). This is particularly common for basic cards like front-back "work-author".
Specific things you might want to add:
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This card is actually not unique, as the novella by Leskov was (quite significantly) adapted to an opera by Dmitri Shostakovich. This can be pretty straightforwardly resolved by saying that this card is referring to the novella.
|
| Add additional information to the back | Adding information to the back of a card will not help you the next time you see it, but it may improve your odds every subsequent time. This is, in some sense, an alternative to writing a second card on the same subject - it may make more sense to add information if you are either okay with repeating yourself or if you truly do not believe that you will be tested on that additional fact.
As a side note, cards created through cloze deletion only sort-of have a back - the closest they get is the contents of any individual cloze. |
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| Add a new card on the topic | ||
| Abandon the card entirely | Listen - sometimes you wrote a card and it's not good. I would personally advocate for trying to make it better, but sometimes it's better to replace it with something brand new or just ditch it wholesale. | You don't need an demo - just throw it away! |
