Tips to Make Flash Cards for Exam Revision

Exam revision is important. Making notes that you can remember before exams will be imperative for your preparation. It will be beneficial if you can write notes on flashcards that jog your memory and help you remember and understand the topic you’ve revised. Exams can be a nerve racking period and many people get more anxious than needed. It is the time that your mental health must be your first priority because without being mentally stable and prepared, you will not do well in the exam. You need to calm yourself and learn the materials by reading them. Remember that it is okay to feel anxious at this period and that the feeling is temporary.

Revision Flash Cards

Here are some tips on how to make flash cards for quick revisions before exams:

1. Write the key words: The flash card will be a small piece of paper, so you will not have much to write on it. It is best if you can write the keywords that help you remember the main points on the flash cards. One sentence or a list of key words might do the trick. You will need to remember most things that you have learnt, but the flash cards are just in case you forget some major concepts in order to jog your memory. While you are reading, list out the main key words and write them down. This will help you come back to them before exams and take you back to the main points that are important for the exam.

2. Use a drawing or image: A Venn diagram can go a long way in helping you to remember the main points. Connecting the main points in a diagram can be a creative way to help yourself look at the main points before the exam. While you cannot write lengthy notes, this diagram will only be useful for you to get back to the main concepts in your reading that will be important for the exam. If you can draw an image that will help you understand the concept better, then go ahead and do that. Try to understand what method works best for you for the flash card. Everyone is different and so you need to understand your learning technique before you think about using a flash card. This method will help you revise better and images are known to stay longer in our working memory.

3. Write the most important sentences: It might help to write more than a few words on the flash card. You might want to write a few sentences that will help you remember the definitions or meanings of certain concepts that you are most likely to forget. Think about what you find the most difficult to remember for the exam and write these definitions or theories in one or two sentences. This will help you to remember closer to the exam time as you can read over the flash cards before exams. Use this method only if you know you are likely to forget a few concepts or need to brush up before exam. You will need to give a few weeks to a month to prepare for the exam, so depending on your preparation you will need to decide which material will be most useful to write on the flash cards. Try to understand your style of preparation.

4. Limit the number of cards to 15 to 20 cards: It is important to keep your deck of cards small so that you don’t overwhelm yourself with information. Try to break down your points so that fewer cards can be used. You need to be clear on what information is most important for you to remember in the exam. This depends on the type of questions that are likely to be in the exam and the subject that you are studying for. You will need to look at previous exam papers and make a list of the main points that go into your cards. Try to keep it concise and short.  Don’t try to cram information in the cards, keep it spacious with a few key words. This will improve your confidence in the subject and you will also know what you will need most help with.

5. Review your cards often: After you have written the main information on the cards, make sure you revise them often for around 3 to 4 days before the exam. Try to revise it around three times a day so that the information stays in your memory for the next few days. The trick is to remember as much as possible on the day, so the more you practice, the more likely you will remember the information for the exam. Your progress will improve the more revisions you make with your flash cards. Make sure you only work on your flash cards after you are confident about the learning materials for the exam.

5 tips to make short notes/flash card for quick revision

Exams are an important part of education and also the main source of stress and anxiety for many students. In order to avoid crippling anxiety during examination season and from these complex evaluations, it is necessary to start learning the syllabus with a clear mind and an effective understanding to deal with stressful situations of studies more broadly. In many instances, examination anxiety is all over the head, and one needs to understand that mental peace and discipline is important to tackle the examinations easily to succeed. Here are some important ways to make short notes or flashcards for a quick revision before the examinations.

Exams Revision Notes

  1. Use of Different Colours: To fight boredom during studies and concentrating more on your memory. Try writing notes with colourful pens to your flashcards. One can even use write-in highlighters, fine tipped pens, and markers. Underline the important dates, abbreviations, one-word definitions and other useful information with colour or assign different colours to particular card topics or themes to make them look easier and easy to sort them out.
  2. Laminate Your Cards: Go to a Xerox shop and get your cards laminated especially to protect them from water if you want to use them for a long period of time and carry them around. Or, get small plastic sleeves to cover up your note and flash cards, at a stationary supply store.
  3. Take Help of Flashcard Creation App: There are numerous study applications available on the internet which can assist you to create and use notes and flashcards for studying. There are many apps like Brainscape, Byjus, iStudious etc.
  4. Write With a Pencil: If you love to write with a pencil, its benefit is that you can modify your notes whenever you want and as long you continue to study. A pencil will also not fade away on the paper or note card. If you choose a pen make sure to use a light inked pen.
  5. Draw Picture Flashcards: There is no such rule that flash cards must contain only notes or text. For fast learners, drawing a quick diagram on the card might prove to be beneficial. Keep the diagram fairly visible and make it good looking. Labelling the important parts of the image and writing short notes of it at the back of the card will surely help you in studies.

Revision Flash Cards

Flashcards are for not summarising, people use flashcards improperly. They should be proved in a proper way to test your brain and amount of knowledge and not just to condense your syllabus. People write irrelevant bullet points on notes and they take them around to reread it. It is a passive way of learning and does not benefit, it is of no economical use and simply wastes your crucial time of revision. There are some important values in summarising your syllabus. Creating questions and their solutions in own simple words help you to process the data and help to build connections to your brain. Summarising these queries requires you to make out the important points and choose the keys to information.

Related: How to Write in Academic Style

Keep The Text Brief and Simple

Stick with short sentences instead of full phrases. Use abbreviations if possible for the important words wherever possible. In future, if you want to recap the flashcards quickly then make sure that the most significant notes are available on the card. The easy approaches of picking the notes will kick-start the faster learning process.

One flashcard with a single idea. Your goal should not be to fill up the notes and flashcards with irrelevant points to cover up the most of the space. The most significant notes include one difficult question followed by its short answer (or a single term and its definition). Don’t occupy all your brain to memorize a complex and difficult solution. It’s easy for your mind to execute simple data to split up the longer questions into small and the simple parts. If you will write all irreverent information then you will end up having numerous of notes cards, this will create a lot of confusion and will put a lot of stress, your learning capability will become less effective this way.

You can only memorize a part of a wordy solution so that could trick your brain that you understand all of it. Or you could end up wasting precious time revising long questions over and over again, therefore remember all the parts of answer perfectly. Splitting up the answer in parts will allow you to learn each thing separately at a much greater speed and will improve your memory retention.

Flashcards are surely a beneficial revision tool but one must not ignore their disadvantages too. They help you to allow and make you memorize the answers to simple questions but they won’t allow you to tackle information in real situations. One needs to understand it deeply or in a much wider context and they may prove beneficial in exam time.

Conclusion

Flashcards definitely should be a part of the revision but one needs to add other formulas too like:

  • Mind maps can make you understand all than E- key, details, and ideas of a difficult topic.
  • For testing the knowledge of broader and deeper ideas, Quizzes can help you a lot.
  • Practicing sample exam questions which help to apply knowledge in a real situation.

One needs to manage time wisely. The motive of clearing the exam in last time will surely lead to stress. One should remember that, in the hustle full future, doing poorly in an exam will not create an impact. People often estimate how things will go bad and how badly they will make us feel haunted. Note that in mind, if you find getting stressed or anxiety attacks you in the middle of the examination. It is definitely not the end of the world for you if you do badly. Life will still go on beautifully and will give you more chances to improve yourself so that you can work harder for the next time.

The above tips will be useful when you are studying for an exam, particularly at school or college. Flash cards will help you understand the material better and will help you remember before exam time. Preparation and revision, as with most things, will be very important during the exam period. The flash cards will help you with your preparation. Lastly, remember not to stress, calm down and all you can do is your best!

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