Before diving into the repetition process to learn your study material, it’s crucial to understand how to create flashcards. Crafting flashcards is a vital step in the learning journey. Let’s explore how to create flashcards in Pauk.

The key to effective learning is to break down your material into manageable pieces that are easy to remember. For each piece, create a flashcard featuring one question and an answer. The answer might contain a single fact, like a translated word, or multiple facts for more complex responses, such as term definitions. Based on experience, an ideal answer should include 1-3 facts but should not exceed 8 facts.

Learning 100 cards with complex questions in a single session isn’t feasible. Aim to keep the number of cards between 10 and 20, with a maximum of 40. Experience indicates that about 20 cards with complex questions can be effectively learned in one session before needing a 15-20 minute break. A learning session typically lasts between 20 and 40 minutes.

In your first learning session, aim to move at least 15 out of 20 cards from level 0 to level 1.

Let’s assume that you have written a set of 20 cards. At the beginning, you might struggle to remember the answers correctly when you are learning the card deck for the first time.

If you are struggling, the root cause might not always be your lack of capacity to memorize. It’s also possible your answers are illogical, falsely formulated, incomplete, missing some details etc. In this case it is recommended that you correct these issues immediately when you learn the deck for the very first time. Stop the learning process in Pauk while you are at this specific card and edit the card content. You may add another card with additional details, or change the sequence in which the cards are repeated (with the card sorter). This way you will create questions and answers which are logically consistent and work for your learning style. You will create a high-quality flashcard deck which is very easy to remember.

Also, go through the cards always in the same exact sequence. That’s how you will start to remember which question will follow next, even if you are still one card ahead. That way you connect the cards logically together and build a storyline for the entirety of the content.

In case you notice an important fact missing in-between two cards, you can always fill in the gap later. The card sorter allows you to put a card on any place in the deck.

After you have milled through your cards using this method and have properly corrected them in a way that makes sense to you, there is a good chance that you made it already to level 1 with all your cards. It should be straight-forward from here on. Continue to learn and watch your progress. You will soon experience that progress can be fun.

Repetition can be enjoyable because it feels like a competition with yourself to advance these cards to levels 4 and 5! Once you know your target and reach it, you can revel in your sense of accomplishment. You’ll no longer need to worry about forgetting the material.

You will find that it all progresses fairly quickly. While the beginning may require some effort (Levels 1 and 2), it soon becomes surprisingly easy.

Stop learning once you reach Level 5 to avoid boredom from excessive repetition. Overlearning to the point of boredom can actually be counterproductive.

To ensure confidence in your knowledge of the material, we recommend the following rules::

• Cards must be advanced to Level 5 on two separate days: one day to elevate them to Level 5 and the next day for confirmation. The second day will be quicker since you’ll only need to repeat most of the cards only card once. Avoid overlearning cards that are already at Level 5; Occasionally repeat them just once if you want to refresh your overview of the material. Any cards that you cannot recall will revert to Level 0, and you’ll need to level them up again. However, when revising, focus only on cards below Level 5 and do not repeat those that have already reached Level 5.
• Repeat this step in one week.

Repetition Before an Exam

Once your cards reach levels 4 and 5, you’ll only need to review them right before a test, which should be a quick process. Since you are already familiar with the material, consider combining all your smaller files into one large deck (there is an extra functionality for this). With the subject no longer new, managing a deck of 200 or 300 cards becomes feasible. If it’s been a while since you last reviewed your deck, you may go through all the cards just once. Remember not to overlearn: don’t repeatedly review all the cards. For well-memorized decks (cards at levels 4 and 5), it’s sufficient to repeat only the cards from levels 0 to 4.

This is how to use flash cards properly with this flashcard study app.