Active recall: how to write flashcards that actually work
Rereading feels productive but isn't. Here's how active recall works, and eight rules for writing flashcards that test you instead of fooling you.
Spaced repetition
Review each card right before you'd forget it
Spaced repetition shows you a card again just as you're about to forget it. Easy cards come back rarely, hard ones often, and you spend your time on what you don't know yet.
Spaced repetition
What you get
Anki-style SM-2
The same proven scheduling idea Anki uses: each card's gap grows every time you remember it.
Four honest buttons
Grade each card Again, Hard, Good or Easy. Every button shows when you'd see the card next.
Quizzes grade themselves
Quiz questions schedule on their own: a right answer counts as Good, a wrong one as Again.
A sane daily load
Up to 20 new cards a day per set, so a big deck doesn't bury you on day one.
Know what's due
Your dashboard and every set show what's due today and how well you know it.
Progress survives edits
Fix a typo or add cards without losing the history of the cards you already know.
How it works
Three steps to get going
Open Review
StudyPix lines up today's due cards plus a few new ones.
Answer, then grade
Try to recall the answer, flip, and grade how it went.
Come back tomorrow
Each card returns on the day it's due. A few minutes a day is enough.
From the blog
Learn the technique
Spaced repetition explained: how to remember what you study
Why you forget, how spaced repetition fights the forgetting curve, how the SM-2 algorithm schedules reviews, and how to build a daily habit that lasts.
Do study games actually help you learn?
What research says about learning games and gamification, why retrieval is the part that matters, and how to play study games so they count as studying.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
What is spaced repetition?
A study method where you review material at growing intervals: a day, then a few days, then a week or more, timed to just before you'd forget it.
How are the intervals chosen?
New cards go through short steps (1 and 10 minutes), then 1 day. After that the gap grows by the card's ease: with Good each time that's about 1, 3, 8 and 20 days.
What if I miss a day?
Nothing breaks. Overdue cards wait in your queue, oldest first.
Works well with
More of StudyPix
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