Why are flashcards the best for memorization?

Throughout centuries, the popularity of flashcards has seen nothing but growth...

The roots of flashcards can be traced back to ancient China, where scholars used small, portable tablets to memorize and recite important texts. In ancient Greece and Rome, students employed small wooden or paper tablets known as "tabulae" to aid in memorization of key facts and figures. Fast forward to 1805, the Quakers used them to teach students how to write English. And in the 20th century, the dawn of computers and technology has led to yet another boom and transformation in flashcard usage.  We truly believe that flashcards are one of the most efficient ways to study, and put information into our long term memory.

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Here are some reasons as to why flashcards are so good for studying! 📖

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1. Active recall 📚 : This is a powerful learning technique where instead of passively reviewing study material, you actively push your brain to remember information. Students often spend a lot of their time studying a piece of information again and again, yet not memorizing it because they spend all their time blankly staring at their notes. When you see a flashcard question, you have to actively try to remember the answer to the question. This process alone helps your brain memorize a piece of information in a much more efficient way by strengthening memory retenion! 
2. Spaced repetition 📝 : Flashcards, especially ones on applications, are often used in conjunction with spaced repetition, which optimizes the timing of reviewing material based on how well you know each flashcard. Spaced repetition algorithms schedule flashcards for review based on your knowldge, making sure that you revisit information at optimal times to reinforce memory. This way, you don't waste time on material you already know well!
3. Efficiency 🎉 : Do you ever look at a huge pdf of all the information you have to learn for the final and feel overwhelmed? If only you could study it all in bite-sized chunks! This is where flashcards come in -- you can make your own flashcards in a way that they contain the exact amount of information that you want to learn at a time. Key concepts, vocabulary, formulas, or any other information you need to learn? You can make flashcards centered around these, allowing you to maximize your productivity sessions.
4. Immediate feedback on your knowledge 🎊 : Flashcards provide immediate feedback on your responses, allowing you to assess your understanding and identify areas that require further review. This instant feedback loop helps you gauge your progress, track your learning goals, and adapt your study strategies accordingly to focus on areas of weakness

On Voovo, you can make many different types of flashcards:

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• Text cards — basic question and answer cards
• Diagram flashcards — labelled diagrams, with the labels as keywords that are to be memorized
• Picture flashcards — pictures can be memory triggers or things that need to be memorized
• Voice cards — make flashcards out of what you say
• Fill in the blank flashcards — this is ideal for memorizing definitions and terms

Voovo comes with many forms of flashcards, this is backed by the Dual Coding Theory

This theory states that information is more effectively encoded and retrieved when it is represented in both verbal and visual formats. By including images, diagrams, or other visual cues on flashcards along with text-based information, learners can enhance their understanding and memory of the material.

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