Flash cards, Notes, What’s right for you?
Keywords: notes, revision, summarizing, information, answer, test, flash cards, flow charts, mind maps, method, productive, test preparation, revision strategy, practice test, understanding, memory retention.
A useful revision aid for any university student is a set of flashcards. To learn and review specifics, keywords, and vocabulary, utilize sets of concepts, double-sided cards called flashcards. They are helpful for understanding how two pieces of information relate to one another. The question or key word is written on the front, followed by the response or definition on the back.
But are you using it correctly?
Flashcards need to be utilized to assess your understanding rather than merely to further compress your notes. People who carry along flashcards to read again have been observed listing bullet points on the cards. Rereading your notes is a passive learning process, thus it is not a cost-effective way to spend your revision time.
There is some value in summarizing your notes. Creating notes in your own words requires you to process the information and create connections in your brain. Summarizing these further requires you to draw out the key points and choose between pieces of information. But the value does not continue as you reread your notes over and over.
Once you have notes written in your own words and summarized — move onto testing yourself quickly.
Your goal isn’t to fill your flashcards with points to make the most of the space. The most effective flashcards include one question followed by one answer (or one term followed by one definition).
Don’t force your brain to remember a complex and wordy answer. It’s easier for your brain to process simpler information so split up your longer questions into smaller, simpler ones.
You will end up with more flashcards this way but your learning will be a lot more effective.
You may only remember part of a wordy answer so you could trick yourself into thinking you understand it all. Or you could waste time repeating a long question over and over to try and remember all parts perfectly. Splitting the information allows you to learn each part separately at your own pace which should save time and improve your memory retention.
For instance, you can ask a friend to ask you these particular set of questions, that you just learnt right now, and can continue the practice. And if you are not able to find such people out there, you can surely join our discord server. Where people from different backgrounds come up and study together.
For you to gain the memory benefits of PSE, add pictures and diagrams to your flashcards.
You may not think you can come up with pictures for a lot of your revision material — but here’s some ideas.
· Authors and people — draw a simple portrait or stick figure
· Places — a quick map
· Figures and data — a chart or graph
· Dates and sequences of events — a timeline
· Process or system — a flowchart.
These pictures should not be works of art — quick and simple sketches are great.
Great revision strategies share the same principle: testing your learning multiple times.
However, 10 times testing yourself with each flashcard can be a waste of your valuable review time. Some ideas will be difficult for you to understand and retain, while others could come easily to you. Spaced repetition can assist you rewrite what you need to, when you need to, in this situation.
The method of assessing yourself again at intervals based on how well you understand a material is called spaced repetition. The topics that are hardest for you to acquire and put to memory are the ones you should retest on the most. There shouldn’t be much time between these retests. As a result, you should test yourself less regularly on the things you are sure you understand and recall.
Tips
Mindmaps may depict all the main points and specifics of a notion or subject.
Your understanding of larger and deeper concepts can be tested using quizzes.
You can apply your knowledge to a context or example in practice test questions, engage in critical analysis, and synthesise concepts to develop fresh insights.
and get ready for your test!
Recognize the benefits flashcards may provide to your test preparation and utilise them in conjunction with other active review approaches for really strong and productive revision.
And while revising your notes, if you get confused about how and why this concept works, and you can’t deal with your doubts, you can surely hit up to Doubtconnect. Doubtconnect is an online doubt solving platform, which offers you one to one live doubt solving. For more information, log on to our Website.
