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Make your own cards. Use thick paper. Make your cards early. Keep your cards simple. Use pictures. Use electronic flashcards.
Writing down the information yourself--rather than borrowing a set-- is more effective. The process itself helps the learning and memorization process. Plus, this will help you summarize the information in a way that makes the most sense to you. It can be tempting to borrow someone else’s flashcards, but this won’t help you nearly as much as making your own. When you make your flashcards, make sure you write them on thick cards or paper. You need to make sure you can’t see through the paper to get the answer on the other side.   If you are making your own cards, be sure that they are all the same size. You don’t want different sizes of cards giving away the answers. Otherwise, you aren’t memorizing the connection between the terms and explanations, but just what each size card says. That won’t be very helpful when you’re taking the test. A package of index cards is usually a great starting point, as they will all be the same size and made of nice, thick paper. Plus, one side usually has lines, helping you write neat sentences to explain concepts. Of course, it is better to use regular paper if you must than no flashcards at all! Avoid waiting until the night before the exam to put together your flashcards. Instead, make a nice pile right after class or school. That is when the information will be freshest in your mind, and you won’t have to try and remember everything when you start making the cards. This is also a good way to come up with questions to ask your teacher. If while making your cards, you come across a term that you can’t write a good card for, ask your teacher about it in the next class. Write down the answer on the back of your card, and you’ve got a pre-made flash card ready to join the others. In general, limit your cards to one word or one sentence. The less you need the remember for each card, the easier it will be the memorize it.  Make sure you keep your information on each card limited to just a few words of information. For example, if you are studying for a history class, and are making a card for George Washington, you’ll want to limit your information. Using small bullet points like “Commander during the American Revolution,” “First President of the United States,” and “Father of the Country” is better than a paragraph listing every detail you can cram onto it. If you are using your flashcards to ask and answer questions, keep to one question per card. For a history card, don’t ask “Who was the first President, Vice President, Speaker of the House, and Chief Justice of the United States?” That is too much information at once. Not only will you have a hard time memorizing each piece of information, but also remembering which one is tied to which. In addition to the words on your cards, consider including a picture. Your brain is really good as remembering visual images, and adding them to your cards can help you associate them with words. These don’t need to be detailed drawings, just simple designs to help remind you of what you are looking at. This is particularly helpful for flashcards to study a foreign language. In addition to the vocabulary you are trying to use, sketching a small picture can help the word stick in your mind. While handmade flashcards are a common study tool, there are many new technologies out there for creating electronic cards. You can store these cards on a smartphone or laptop and have them accessible wherever you go. There are many different programs available for free that allow you to create a database of cards from your own notes as well as other people’s work. These programs can create games and other study methods to help you with memorization. Common software and websites for digital flashcards are Quizlet, Memrise and Anki. Sometimes they also couple with flashcards with spaced repetition.