Using Index Cards

For Memorization and Review

If you have done your notes in Cornell format, you are all set to construct an especialy effective set of review tools using AMAZING 3 x 5 MEMORY EXTENDERS -- index cards.  If you are not using Cornell, here's yet another reason why you should.

Here’s what you do:

Setting up your cards:

 Take those terms, dates, formulae, or names that you have listed in your key-word column and put them each on a separate index card. THIS IS IMPORTANT: you should have only one term, etc. per card. Why? Your mind will remember a term or fact better if you’ve separated it and isolated it from a clutter of other terms. Putting one term on each card puts information into bite-size bits that your brain can digest easily. Have you ever noticed how people can remember their social security numbers (9 digits), several sets of phone numbers (7 digits each), but don’t know their six-digit license plate number? Those hyphens help to chunk information into bite-sized bits.

On the back of that same card where you have recorded one term, etc., write a definition of the term in one sentence, in your own words.

Add to the definition at least one example of this term at work. You can take the example from your textbook or lecture notes and it is especially helpful if you think up your own. (See ASC’s Multiple Choice Test Tip Sheet for specific details on setting up your cards for multiple choice tests).

You now have a set of flashcards with which you can test yourself.  Note that you can test yourself two ways -- by looking at the term, then supplying the definition and example, or the other way around.  This practice prepares you for both multiple choice and essay tests.  What you have done with your index cards up to this point will in itself help you to remember terms.  But the real magic of index cards is in how you use them.

Using your cards:

The nicest thing about index cards is that they are amazingly portable. They fit nicely into pockets and purses and can go anywhere. After you have put your terms on them, you should carry them with you everywhere -- yes, everywhere. All those little bits of time you have in a day --between classes, waiting for the bus, waiting for a friend to show up -- are perfect for an index card review. Look for all the opportunities you can to do an index card review, keeping in mind that each one of these little sessions takes time off the study you will have to put in later. Several 15 minute sessions with your cards spread over a week or two is much better than one long cramming session on the eve of the test. If you spread your review out over time, your brain will more effectively connect this new information with what you already know.

You can color the corners of your index cards by subject, or buy different colored cards for each of your subjects, to keep them from getting mixed up with each other. A card file box is also ideal for keeping them ready to review again when finals come around. Again, to keep from overstuffing your brain, it’s best not to study all of your index cards from all of your subjects on the same day. Instead, give each subject its own index card day.

After several review sessions, you will find that you know most of the terms. Sort out the ones that you still haven’t mastered for special treatment. Try inputting these terms the last thing before you go to sleep. Right before you turn out your light, review your toughest terms, rehearsing them several times out loud, and then repeating them silently to yourself as you fall asleep. See if you don’t find that your first thoughts when you wake up the next morning are the terms you input the night before. As you sleep, your brain will have sorted out this new information and filed it securely in your memory. It really does work: any number of creative people have found this trick productive. A word of warning, however: don’t wait until the night before the test to try this trick. It needs a relaxed, uncrammed brain in order to work.

Finally, after you have mastered all of these new words and ideas, you can reconstruct the big picture with them. You can sort similar concepts into categories, or you can put dates in chronological order, or you can put groups of writers or thinkers together into movements and schools. You can spread all of your cards out on the floor to help yourself see all these interrelationships. You may want to draw up one reformatted big picture to help you hook all of these details on. This sort of exercise is especially helpful with essay questions.