Tell me about flash-card apps for learning stuff

In My Humble Opinion
1

I am self-studying for a technical certification exam which is going to involve a fair amount of memorising things. It’s a while since I’ve done organised study of any sort, but in the past I might have made myself a set of flashcards using index cards or similar. Given that it’s 2021 and I’m always within arm’s reach of any number of devices, it feels like there might be an app for that…

Does anyone have experience with flashcard-based learning apps? There are several in the App Store but I don’t know which are worth investigating. Ideally I’d like to be able to input the data on my Mac, using a proper keyboard, but then use my iPhone or iPad to actually do the flashcard practice - so some sort of syncing is in order. I’m picturing a virtual flashcard having a question on one side and then I’d tap to reveal the other side with the answer.

I’m sure I could lash something up with Evernote / Google Docs etc but I’d like to see if there are any decent proper flashcard apps that meet my needs.

2

Funny, flashcard apps were recently in the news:
https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2021/05/28/us-soldiers-expose-nuclear-weapons-secrets-via-flashcard-apps/

…and this same article links to an online list of flashcard apps:
https://www.educationalappstore.com/best-apps/6-best-flashcard-apps

Sorry I can’t tell you which may be useful; perhaps you can try some and let us know in this thread how your experience went.

As recently as 5 years ago, when I (and my research group) was studying for PhD quals, many of us made flashcards for memorizing many dozens of facts in support of one of our topics. Turned out to be a waste of time, in that the professor wrote one unsolvable problem instead of asking us dozens of little questions. :frowning: Anyway, doing them by hand is maybe the easiest way to get it done quickly, customized in your own way, and comes with the bonus of being in your own handwriting :wink:

3

I’ve used this one. It has fairly limited functionality, even the paid version, but it is free.

My own experience is that you learn as much by making the flashcards as by using them. Doing it in your own handwriting is more effective than typing which is more effective than using pre-made ones.