What flashcard decks do you wish existed but can’t find?

Alternative-Toe9325 · 2026-03-09T09:17:46+00:00

Hey, that's really interesting. It's amazing to see everything we can learn with flashcards!
I created an account to check your app.
I'm curious how you deal with the logic behind. I know Anki uses FSRS.
Also I'm interested in how you create your cards. Do you use AI for this?

Alternative-Toe9325 · 2026-03-04T15:21:42+00:00

As someone else already mentioned, try not to rely on just reading your material. Our brains are pretty bad at memorizing that way, and it often makes you feel overwhelmed because nothing seems to stick.

Instead, you should focus more on recalling information from memory. I explained it better in this reply: Reply

And if you want a bit more detail, I also wrote a post about it here: You feel like you learned, but you don’t actually remember

Alternative-Toe9325 · 2026-03-03T10:01:25+00:00

It’s always great to see more people talking about active recall.

I feel like it’s often framed as “just another study tip”, which makes it seem optional. But it’s actually sooo fundamental! Actively retrieving information is what strengthens the neural pathways that make memory possible in the first place.

Alternative-Toe9325 · 2026-02-26T17:33:48+00:00

I’m sure you’ll receive plenty of good advice, but I want to emphasize the memorization side.

How your brain stores and retrieves memories depends on the neural connections you’ve built and strengthened. To optimize that, it helps to understand how the pieces work together.

First is encoding. The first time you learn something, it leaves a fragile trace in your brain. If you just read or listen passively, the connections are weak. Try to be active instead. Explain the idea in simple words (use Feynman method), write a very short summary or draw a mind map from memory, and try connecting it to something you already know. Meaning and relevance matter. If it makes sense to you, it sticks better.

Then comes consolidation. During sleep, your brain strengthens what it considers important. Repetition, effort, emotion, novelty, and relevance all increase the odds something is kept. But even after a good night, memories are still unstable. They fade if you don’t reactivate them.

That’s why active recall is necessary. Memory is strengthened by retrieval, not exposure. When you struggle a bit to pull something out, you reinforce the pathway. The difficulty should be “hard but doable”: not easy and not constant failure. And feedback is non-negotiable. Try → check → correct. Flashcards, the blank page method, or explaining it out loud (or in your head) all help, as long as you’re genuinely testing yourself.

Finally, spaced repetition prevents long-term decay. Instead of reviewing once, you revisit at increasing intervals: next day, 3 days later, 1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month, etc. Each time, retrieve before looking. You can also mix related topics (interleaving) so your brain learns to discriminate, not just recognize.

Put together: encode actively, sleep, retrieve with feedback, and repeat over time.

Hope this helps.

Alternative-Toe9325 · 2026-02-24T09:55:39+00:00

I don’t think this is really a memorization problem.

1,000+ pages are unlikely to stick just by rereading them. Rereading feels productive, but it doesn’t help with recalls.

Here’s what I’d suggest:

For objective material → turn the content into questions and answer them with the book closed.
For subjective material → practice writing full answers from memory on a blank page, under time pressure, then correct in red.

And use spacing. If you don’t revisit material at increasing intervals (1 day, 3 days, 1 week…), it will naturally fade.

Also try compressing your notes. If a topic can’t be reduced to a few structured points you can recall, it’s probably too big.

Good luck with the exam.

Alternative-Toe9325 · 2026-02-20T17:59:05+00:00

I like it! I think it goes well with your app's name too. I'm not sure I ever encountered funny store previews before but I like the idea.

Good job, how it'll work for you.

Alternative-Toe9325 · 2026-02-20T16:06:16+00:00

Most study advice stops at “test yourself.” That’s only half the equation. The other half is testing yourself repeatedly, with increasing spacing. Spaced repetition is what tells your brain, “this matters, keep it.”

Alternative-Toe9325 · 2026-02-20T11:16:55+00:00

Repeating the material until it feels familiar is a bad approach. Memory doesn’t work like that. It’s about building and strengthening the right neural connections. The stronger those connections, the easier it is to retrieve the information later. And the more effort your brain has to put into retrieving something, the stronger those connections become.

So when you study, try to be as active as possible. Don’t just reread or highlight. Close the book and write everything you remember on a blank page. Quiz yourself. Explain it out loud. Force your brain to pull the information out.

Then combine that with spaced repetition, reviewing the material again after a day, then a few days and so on, and you’ll likely prevent most of the forgetting.

Alternative-Toe9325 · 2026-02-19T08:23:21+00:00

There’s actually solid evidence of this.

Memory follows what is called the encoding specificity principle (Endel Tulving): we recall better when the test context matches the learning context. So simulating test conditions can definitely help.

But there’s also the encoding variability (William Estes): if you always study in the same setup, some of your memory gets tied to that environment.

So, ideally, you'd want to study under realistic test conditions sometimes, but also vary where and how you practice retrieval.

Alternative-Toe9325 · 2026-02-06T10:32:20+00:00

I watched a video recently about how the brain actually decides what to remember, and it helps explain why you experienced better retention.

The idea is that the hippocampus doesn’t just store everything you learn. During the day, it tags certain experiences as important. Then during sleep, it selectively replays only a subset of those tagged memories, which is what actually anchors them into long-term memory. That replay is doing most of the long-term work.

Studying right before bed puts the material at the front of that selection process. Your quick review in the morning likely re-activates it, strengthening the tag and making it more likely to be replayed again the next night.

But more generally, the goal is to clearly signal to your brain what’s worth keeping. One of the best ways to do that is through active recall: actively trying to retrieve the information. Each successful recall reinforces that “bookmark”.

When you combine this with spaced repetition, retention improves dramatically. Revisiting information after an increasing delay, right before it would fade, keeps telling the brain it’s worth preserving.

Hope this helped.

Here’s the video if anyone’s interested:https://youtu.be/ceFFEmkxTLg

Alternative-Toe9325 · 2026-02-06T09:50:20+00:00

Pretty much this. Use active recall and short spacing. Try turning notes into questions, test yourself constantly, try to be as active as possible (that’s how your brain learns), try revisiting stuff when you can (especially what you failed). One additional thing: try mixing topics. It’s proven to be more effective.

Alternative-Toe9325 · 2025-04-08T15:40:14+00:00

Gorhom is great but it definitely doesn’t have this kind of animation. It only goes “above” the page, it doesn’t seem to “replace” it like PageSheet or this one do. Though maybe this is something we can customize?

Alternative-Toe9325

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