Flashcard failures

Traps you can fall into with flashcards.

• Using off-the-shelf flashcard decks: You may think that pre-made flashcards save time, but many of the pre-made decks need editing to fit your purpose.
• Bad card design: Simply copy and paste stuff from classes can be fast but make memorising a mess.
• Memorisation instead of understanding. Memorisation should follow understanding, not replace it.
• Flashcards are a fake substitute for doing real learning. Doing lots of flashcards may leave the impression that you have learned a lot, but it is not true for complex subjects.