How to use flashcards when you hate flashcards

I hate flashcards, but they're growing on me. Here's how I've gone about it.

Friday, November 20, 2020

Heads up: I use Mochi, because it’s simple yet versatile. My approach might have some steps that are unavailable in other spaced-repetition software.

What do I mean by ‘hate,’ exactly?

1. I can’t have a prompt on one side and the answer on the other side. It sets a predictable cadence when reviewing, and I lose interest quickly.
2. I can look like I’m actively reviewing, but inside, I zone out. Here’s an example. With some cards, I have words covered up in a sentence for me to guess. This feature is called a ‘clozure.’ I can end up memorizing the answers based on the size of the clozures, and where they are in relation to other clozures and paragraphs, like an astronomer recognizing constellations. There is no actual interaction with the concept on the card.
3. If there isn’t an obvious link between individual cards and a big-picture goal or concept, those cards feel arbitrary and useless.

So what do I do?

1. How not to lose interest

Mochi has the option to make multi-sided cards. Think of this as a brochure. I use the front of the brochure, when it’s all folded up, to tell me a general concept to think about. I try to list everything I know about it in my head. Every ‘next side’ of the card elaborates on that concept: definition, common uses, variations, common mistakes/misunderstandings. I leave some words unhidden to tell me what’s being discussed on each of these sides, and the rest of it is clozed. I uncover the clozures as I’m ready.

I still have some two-sided question-answer cards. Some ideas are best tested with literally checking if I know the meaning of a word. That’s all there is to that. A few multi-sided flashcards in the mix keeps the review from feeling monotonous. It builds the habit of thinking about ideas more broadly and complexly, as opposed to thinking, What’s on the other side of this card so I can move on already?

2. How not to zone out

I have a deck for this bootcamp in general. I have nested decks in it for each source of information, whether it’s class, or assigned reading, or somewhere else. This means I sometimes have multiple cards that cover the same idea, but it will be in different words. When I review from the main deck containing all the cards, it makes me think, Haven’t I seen this before? How is this explanation different from that other source’s explanation? When would that difference matter?’ I’m focused idea-constellations instead of clozure-constellations.

If I’m genuinely distracted by something in my environment or my life, it’s worth my time to address and manage that separately. Any amount of tinkering with study tools is a bandaid solution at best.

3. Creating meaningful links

For a lot of my cards, I make these links by adding references to other cards. If Card A and Card B talk about two similar or even contrasting ideas, I might write at the end of Card B to also see Card A. This automatically creates a reverse-reference from Card A to Card B. These are called ‘bi-directional links.’ This way, I’m making sure those cards are reviewed together, and train myself to think of those ideas together.

But what do I actually write?

Making flashcards from scratch is ideal, but when I was starting out, I had some deer-in-the-headlights moments.

To get the ball rolling, I mostly copy-pasted bits of the readings, and hid or clozed any important terms. I reworded a sentence if it was too long. Most of my cards didn’t have questions at first. I created multi-sided cards to break up larger paragraphs.

Most review questions from class turn into two-sided cards. If an answer has multiple points, I write that number on the question-side so I know what to aim for.

Over time, I knew enough to be curious about certain aspects of a concept. I now use my own questions to write my flashcards, but this was not a Day-One event.

If I see an exercise that challenges me, or I have a bit of code that isn’t working, I document my process of working through it using multi-sided cards. Side 1: Why wouldn’t this work? Side 2: what are some ways to fix it? Side 3: What ended up being the solution? These cards go in the main bootcamp deck.

Sometimes I follow my guidelines and still see a card during review that I don’t like. It reads funny, it’s too vague, it’s too nit-picky—something about it annoys me. So I edit my cards a lot. I’ll add missing info, or put hints behind clozures, among other things. If I don’t like a card, and don’t know how to fix it, I literally write “I don’t like this card” to let me know it’s okay to move on quickly. My future and hopefully more learned self can revise them.

How do I use my cards?

I try to cap review sessions at around 20-30 minutes. This is the amount of time that works for me for now.

For some clozures, I might come up with two guesses before uncovering. If it’s not a technical/designated word, I count any synonym of the answer as a correct response. If my answer is a lucky guess, I may mark it down as an incorrect response.

With some cards, there’s really only one way to move on: say what’s on the other side of the card. For other cards, especially where there’s code, I go through them like I’m an enthusiastic museum visitor—a little slower, and with a keen eye.

The app picks out certain cards to review for the day. That’s where I start, but I might veer off to other cards because of the bi-directional links, or because of other concepts I remember. That burst of natural interest is a random but significant boost to my learning process, and I try not to let it go to waste.

If this kind of review seems inefficient or unfocused, I elaborate on the idea of sandbox-style learning vs archery-style learning over here.