Create and study with digital flashcards
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Flashcards work because of retrieval practice: the act of pulling an answer out of memory strengthens it far more than reading the same material again. Recognising something on a page feels like knowing it, and usually is not.
Build a deck, then test yourself on it repeatedly over days rather than cramming it in one sitting. The spacing is what turns short-term recall into something that lasts.
Reviewing material at increasing intervals produces markedly better long-term retention than the same total time spent in one block. This is the spacing effect, one of the most reliably replicated findings in learning research, first documented by Hermann Ebbinghaus in the 1880s.
Cramming does work for a test tomorrow. It fails for a test in three weeks, and fails completely for anything you need to build on later, which is why spaced review is worth the discipline it requires.
Because retrieving an answer from memory strengthens it, while re-reading mostly produces familiarity. Recognising material feels like knowing it, which is why students who re-read consistently overestimate how well they have learned it.
Fewer than most people make. Twenty to thirty well-written cards reviewed repeatedly beat two hundred reviewed once, because the benefit comes from repeated retrieval rather than coverage.
Reviewing material at increasing intervals rather than all at once. Retention improves substantially compared with the same total time spent cramming, an effect documented since the 1880s.
Review them occasionally but not often. Time is better spent on cards you fail, and a card answered correctly many times in a row is largely learned.