Chapter 1. The Flashcard System
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## Chapter 1. The Flashcard System

The flashcard system is an extremely efficient method for learning things by heart. Because of this, the method is popular among students of medicine, business administration, or law.

The system is extremely simple: Facts are separated into a “question” part and an “answer” part. The “question” part is written on the front side of the card, while the corresponding “answer” part is written on the reverse side of the card. Once several cards have been made, the learning process can begin.

To begin, several cards are taken from the batch and memorized quickly. This quick memorization should not last more than half a minute, and exercises your ultra short-term memory. After that, the cards are reviewed again by looking at the “question” part and “thinking” the correct answer. If you are correct, the card is placed in the next, or the short-term memory pile. However, if you have already forgotten the answer, the card returns to the “unlearned” pile. This step of the process should take no more than 15 minutes, or until you run out of cards.

Depending on the subject and your own learning capabilities, your short-term memory pile should now contain many cards. Repeating the above process again, you will try to move the cards from the “short-term” pile to the “long-term” pile. If you are correct, the card is promoted to the next pile. If you are incorrect, the card is again returned to the “unlearned” pile.

Even the best long-term memory fades with time. This is why cards in the long-term pile expire. Cards in the first long-term memory pile expire after just one day. At that time, they should be repeated to refresh yourself. If you are correct, the card is moved one pile further, into the second long-term memory pile. Like before, if you are incorrect, the card is returned to the “unlearned” pile. Cards in the second long-term memory pile have a much longer shelf life than the first long-term pile. This system can be continued with an arbitrary number of long-term piles.

Learning with the flashcard system is fun. Flashcards are only truly efficient if you write down a timestamp for every card moved to a higher batch. This part of the process kills the fun. Pauker takes care of this element for you, keeping the fun level high and enabling you to fully concentrate on “Pauking”!

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