Today in assessment team, we were provided with valuable study strategies and the research behind them. According to most of our readings Flashcards are a super valuable study trick, when done correctly. I have linked some resources which detail how to utilize this study skill.

Effective Flash Cards

Here is some information quoted from the article directly:

Flashcards
These can be a powerful retrieval tool in class or at home, but students need to be taught to use them correctly:

• Once a card has been mastered, keep it in the deck a while.
  Research has shown that students tend to “drop” cards out of their decks too soon after they have mastered them (Karpicke, 2009). Ideally, a fact should be successfully retrieved three times before a student moves on from it.
• Actually retrieve.
  Karpicke’s research also found that when students see a familiar prompt on a flashcard, they have a tendency to tell themselves they know it, then flip it over to see the answer, rather than taking a few extra seconds to actually recall the answer—and ideally, say it out loud—before flipping the card over. The difference in timing is subtle, but important: Students will not get the same benefits from flashcards unless they actually retrieve the answer before seeing it.
• Shuffle the deck.
  Keeping the cards in the same order makes them predictable. Once a deck has been gone through a few times, it should be shuffled to make it more challenging.

  Retrieval Practice: The Most Powerful Learning Strategy You’re Not Using | Cult of Pedagogy. (2017). Cult of Pedagogy. Retrieved 5 February 2020, from https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/retrieval-practice/