How to make flashcards and a practice test from your class notes

Rereading notes feels productive, but it mostly builds familiarity, not memory. What works better is retrieval: closing the notes and pulling the answer out of your head. Research on learning has found this again and again, and it is the idea behind flashcards, quizzes and practice tests.

The good news is that your class notes already hold everything you need. Here is how to turn them into practice that fits the test you are actually taking.

Step 1: Know what the test covers

Before you make a single card, find out what the test is about. The teacher's announcement, the syllabus or a list of topics will do. Write it down in one or two sentences, for example "Chapters 4 to 6: the causes of the First World War and the July Crisis, essay question included".

Then pick only the notes that belong to it. Practice on the wrong material is the most common way to waste a week of revision.

Step 2: Make flashcards that work

A flashcard is a question on the front and a short answer on the back. A few rules make the difference between cards that teach and cards that annoy:

• One idea per card. "What were the four long-term causes of the war?" is hard to mark yourself on. Four cards, one per cause, are easy.
• Ask, don't label. "Why did Italy stay out of the war in 1914?" makes you think. "Italy 1914" doesn't.
• Keep the answer short. If the back needs a paragraph, the card is probably two cards.
• Use your own words. Copying sentences from the note tests your memory of the wording, not of the idea.
• Both directions for vocabulary. In a language class, make a card from the word to its meaning and one from the meaning to the word.

Go through the cards in two piles: the ones you knew and the ones you didn't. Come back to the second pile more often. Spacing your sessions over several days beats one long session.

Step 3: Add a quiz

Multiple choice questions are quick to answer and quick to check, which makes them good for a daily warm-up. The quality of a quiz depends on its wrong answers. They should be plausible, ideally the mistakes students really make. A question whose wrong answers are obviously silly teaches you nothing.

Read the explanation after each answer, especially when you got it right by guessing.

Step 4: Write a practice test

A practice test is the closest you can get to the real thing. Make it look like the test you will sit:

• The same kinds of questions. If the real test has short answers and an essay question, so should yours.
• Points for each question. They tell you where the marks are and how much to write.
• A time limit. Answer under time pressure at least once before the real test.
• A model answer for each question. Write it before you answer, or have one ready, so you can mark yourself honestly.

Then mark it as strictly as your teacher would. An answer that is "sort of right" usually loses points on the day. Note what you missed and go back to those parts of your notes.

Step 5: Plan the days before the test

A simple plan for one week:

1. Day 1: pick the notes, make or check the flashcards.
2. Days 2 to 4: flashcards and a quiz each day, ten to twenty minutes.
3. Day 5: the practice test, under time, then mark it.
4. Day 6: review only what you got wrong.
5. Day 7: a last round of the cards you still miss, then rest.

Doing it with ClamNotes Study

Making all of this by hand takes time. ClamNotes' Study tab, part of the Pro plan, does it from your notes. You pick the notes of a subject, say what is on the test, and add any files that go with it, such as the teacher's slides or a handout. ClamNotes makes one study set from them:

• One test-focused note that brings your notes together and keeps what the test needs.
• Visuals that go with the note, such as a graph with a slider, a timeline or a step-by-step solution.
• Flashcards with a question on the front and its answer on the back, which you turn over and sort into Again or Know it.
• A quiz that shows the right answer and an explanation after each question.
• A practice test with points and a suggested time. The app marks choice questions and short answers that match the model answer, and the AI checks your written answers and says what is missing.

The AI can make mistakes when it marks, so check the questions that matter. You can also mark your answers yourself.

Mistakes to avoid

• Making cards for everything in the notes instead of what the test covers.
• Only practicing what you already know, because it feels good.
• Leaving the practice test for the night before.
• Marking yourself generously. The real test won't.