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need urgent advice on flashcard making

Okay so my primary way of creating revision resources is creating physical flashcards but there is a problem. I tend to take way too long making flashcards when I know I could be spending more time on other things like exam practice.

My main problem is overthinking every thing I put on the flashcard which result in me taking a long time on each flashcard. I have tried digital flashcards (specifically Quizlet) and it's much quicker but I prefer the security of having physical flashcards and being able to use them whenever and wherever.

Anyways, my main question is how can I spend less time making flashcards? Do you recommend I still go on making physical flashcards?
For anyone who made physical flashcards, how did you make the most use out of your time?
(edited 2 years ago)
A few tips for saving time with physical flashcards:

- only make physical flashcards for topics you particularly struggle with, and for the rest just stick to the online sort, as you don't need to revise them as much if you are more confident in them

- don't worry about the aesthetics or handwriting of the flashcards, so long as they are legible

Personally, my favourite method for creating flashcards is to get on with doing past paper / textbook questions. Whenever you can't answer a question without looking at your notes OR whenever you get a question wrong, make a flashcard for the info you didn't know. This way is ultra efficient in that you are only creating the flashcards you really need and not wasting time copying information that you already know.
I was someone who used flashcards as my main revision technique so here are a few tips I have.

1) Active Revision - the number one biggest mistake I made was writing out notes on flashcards. This wastes so much time I found I never used them when I came to revision. The best technique I found was writing short questions (based on the spec) on one side and then the answer on the other side. These never take too long and can be used again and again.

2) I’m not sure what qualifications your doing wether that be GCSEs, A levels or other alternative. But if you are doing essays you can also use flashcards effectively as essay plans using the same method. You can put a question on one side e.g how does Shakespeare present ABC as XYZ. Then bullet point your main points on the back. Again you can use these for active revision by trying to repeat what’s on the back of the card without looking.

3) In order to save time you can employ a few techniques. Firstly, you could use abbreviations. You also don’t need to use full sentences. No one is using them but you, so feel free to use bullet points. This will save you so much time. You can also write multiple questions on one card.

Hopefully that helps ! Flashcards were my main source of revision for nearly all my subjects and I managed to do really well in everything ! Please let me know if you want anymore tips x
Of course ! For science I would 100% recommend exam questions. These were the key ingredient for me, I went from getting 7/8s to 9s after using them. Exam questions are great as it helps improve you exam technique and after a while you’ll notice that most questions repeat themselves. The best place to get these questions is physicsmathstutor and by doing past papers. You can also purchase a CGP exam question booklets but personally, I prefer using the physics maths tutors ones as they are similar to the real exam questions. But exam questions and flashcards were my go to for science and helped me achieve nearly 100% in tests. Hope this helps !
No worries at all ! Happy to help :smile:

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