How to supercharge your GCSE revision with flashcards

Many students choose to revise for their GCSEs using flashcards: they can be fun to make, you can revise with them on the move, and they are a great way of studying with friends and family. On top of this, there is plenty of evidence to support the benefits of effective flashcard revision. In this article I aim to describe these benefits, give advice on producing your own flashcards and inspire you to incorporate flashcards into your revision in different ways. 

Note that I am a biology teacher, so the examples that I use in this article relate to biology, but you can apply these ideas to many other GCSE subjects!

What are the benefits of using flashcards for revision?

Revising with flashcards makes use of a process known as retrieval practice (also known as active recall). When used effectively, this technique has been shown to aid long-term memory and reduce student anxiety during exam preparation. Other benefits of revising with flashcards include:

• flashcards break down content into manageable pieces for revision

• cards can be organised into sets, allowing you to fit them in with revision plans at any stage

• flashcards can be used in a variety of ways, all of which are backed by evidence-based research

• sorting flashcards into topics about which you feel ‘confident’, ‘slightly confident’ and ‘less confident’ can be a great way to track revision progress

• there are many great flashcard providers and apps that can help you with revision

Creating flashcards

While there are many sources of ready-made flashcards, including our very own Save My Exams flashcards, many students prefer to make their own, and there is some evidence to suggest that there are benefits to revising with flashcards that use your own words and examples.

Organise your content

Making your own flashcards will only be beneficial if you ensure that the content covered by your cards is right for your exam, so you should always begin the process by accessing the correct specification and finding a trusted source of information—such as your textbook or the exam-board specific notes that we produce here at Save My Exams. 

Once you know the content that you need to cover, the next step will be deciding how to organise your cards—for example by putting physical cards into sets held with elastic bands, or into separate boxes. The way in which you define your card sets may differ depending on the stage of your revision:

• When you are first starting out, you will probably organise your flashcards by topic, using the exam specification as a guide. You may also decide to divide each topic into smaller sets, e.g. for GCSE biology you might separate flashcards on cells into sets that cover cell structure, specialised cells, and microscopes.

• As you progress through your revision you may decide to put your cards into larger sets, for example you might put all of your flashcards on cells into a single pile to allow you to revise the whole of the cells topic at the same time.

• You may eventually decide to group your cards on the basis of how well you know the content; for example if you are confident in your knowledge of human nutrition, but less confident on plant nutrition then you might separate these subtopics into two sets and revise plant nutrition more frequently. You can switch cards between sets at this stage as your knowledge of the content develops. 

You may, of course, decide to use a combination of all of these methods of organisation, and there are some digital card systems and apps that will allow you to switch between the different options easily.

Keep things simple

Once you have made decisions about the bigger picture, the next thing to consider will be the details of the content to include on each card; this can make all the difference between effective and ineffective flashcard revision, so you need to take care here! During my years as a classroom teacher I would often see students copying out huge sections of the textbook onto the backs of their flashcards—remember that copying out is a passive form of learning, and will result in flashcards that are less useful than they could be. 

Your aim should be for each flashcard to contain a single idea. You will be able to expand on this as you revise when the time is right (see 'explain and elaborate'), but it is important to be able to pinpoint ideas that you understand well and those where you need help, and this is easier if each card contains one main idea.

The process of distilling content down into separate ideas could look like this example in biology. This revision note contains information about root hair cells and their role in plant transport:

A less useful flashcard here might contain the question:

What are root hair cells and how do they aid plant transport?

This card contains more than one question, and it is unclear how much detail is needed in the answer, especially for the second question.

It is better here to split the content up across several flashcards, for example:

Use different formats

You may want to consider the format that you use for your flashcards. Formatting decisions might include which card type to produce, and whether to use physical or digital cards:

• Card type: you may have noticed that the flashcards in the example above use more than one way of testing knowledge; this can be a good way to add some variety into your flashcard revision. Examples of different card types might include:

  • definitions

  • questions

  • true/false

  • identifying or labelling an image

• Physical vs digital cards: there are pros and cons to both formats here, and which you choose is really a matter of personal preference. The main thing here is that you choose a flashcard format that you will use!

  • Physical cards

    • Pros: many enjoy the chance to choose colourful cards and pens, and feel that the act of physically writing out an idea is helpful for committing it to memory (though given that you only do this once when making a flashcard, it could be argued that the benefit here is limited). Physical cards can also be easy to organise and reorganise in different ways. 

    • Cons: the downside here is that card sets can become very large very quickly, and can be difficult to carry around if you enjoy using flashcards on the go. It can also be more difficult to update or correct flashcards later on in your revision. 

  • Digital cards

    • Pros: you can easily carry around large sets of flashcards on your phone, and it can be simple to search for specific cards and adjust old cards. You can also share cards with friends, and some digital apps will allow you to organise your cards in different ways, or may help you with prioritising topics.

    • Cons: by their nature, digital cards will increase your screen time, so may not be restful for your eyes over long periods. Some apps may not give you the control that you would like over which card sets you revise and when.

Effective techniques for revision

The process of making specification-focused, simple flashcards in a format of your choice has probably felt like a useful one in itself, but just having a set of flashcards is not enough for effective revision; you need to maximise the value of your flashcards by using them in your revision in different ways. Here are some examples of evidence-based revision strategies that can utilise flashcards:

Regular review

Spaced repetition is a common buzzword in revision, and it is likely to be the most important factor in your ability to recall ideas. It involves returning to the same topics repeatedly, with time in between each session, to allow content to enter your long term memory. With flashcards you can achieve spaced repetition as follows:

1. work through a set of flashcards on day 1

2. repeat the same set the next day

3. leave a few days and then repeat the same set again

4. leave a longer time interval and repeat again, and so on!

You can also focus repetition on cards that cover trickier ideas: see the section on the Leitner system below. Some flashcard apps will even organise your spaced repetition for you by bringing up particular sets of cards on certain days.

Test yourself

Another essential component to revision is active recall; this is the process of remembering ideas. Note that this isn’t just about checking whether or not you know something (though it will do this too!); the very act of recalling an idea helps to move it into your long term memory! Working through a set of flashcards is a fun and easy way to test yourself on the basics of the content covered by a specification.

One frequently-used system for achieving both repetition and recall together in flashcard revision is known as the Leitner system, which works as follows:

1. set up a series of boxes, e.g. 3 boxes, and place all of the cards to be revised into box 1

   • You could also divide the cards by difficulty here, placing the  least-known cards in box 1 and cards that you already know into box 3

2. test yourself on the cards; if a card is answered correctly then it can be placed into the next box, and if you don’t get the answer right it is placed back into box 1

3. during future revision sessions you should repeat the cards from boxes 1 and 2; cards may either progress into the next box or return to box 1 again

Over time cards will gradually make their way up to box 3 as knowledge grows, and cards in lower boxes can be worked through more frequently.

Leitner system example animation

Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Explain and elaborate

So far we have been talking about revising the basic essentials of content; each flash card will contain a single idea, and working through a set of flashcards provides the opportunity to recall all of the basic concepts within a topic. Evidence shows, however, that explaining a topic in detail is a highly effective revision technique, and my experience as a teacher certainly backs this up—explaining a complicated idea in full is a great way to consolidate my own understanding! Ways of using flashcards to enable you to explain and elaborate include:

• take a flashcard with a key word definition and state everything you know associated with that key word, including explanations of processes, and links with other subject areas

• take a flashcard with a question and answer the question in as much detail as you can; keep on asking ‘why’ and elaborating on your answer as many times as you can

These activities can be done on your own with pen and paper, or out loud with a friend, family member or tutor.

Mix things up

In revision-speak this is sometimes known as interleaving; it involves changing the order in which you revise related topics, e.g. rather than spending all of Monday on topic 1, then Tuesday on topic 2, then Wednesday on topic 3, you would break each day into three sessions, then on Monday you would study topics 1, 2 and 3, on Tuesday you might study topics 2, 3 and 1, and on Wednesday you would study topics 3, 1 and 2. 

You can easily incorporate this into flashcard revision by changing up the order in which you revise your card sets. You can also change the scale at which you do this, either mixing up subtopics within a topic, topics within a unit, or by shuffling everything together! Some flashcard apps will plan a schedule for you that allows you to include interleaving in your revision.

Boost your exam prep with Save My Exams’ digital flashcards

Flashcards can be a fun and sociable way to revise for GCSE exams, but I hope that you can now see that they also allow you to tap into many evidence-based revision strategies. So, check your specification, organise your card sets and aim to cover 1 concept per card, then you will have everything you need to supercharge your GCSE revision with flashcards.

Here at Save My Exams we currently have flashcards available for the following specifications:

• Edexcel IGCSE Biology

• CIE IGCSE Physics

• IB Diploma Psychology Higher Level

• AQA GCSE English Literature

• Edexcel A-Level Business

• OCR GCSE Computer Science

• Edexcel GCSE History

• Edexcel IGCSE Maths A

• Edexcel IGCSE Chemistry

• Edexcel GCSE Geography A

• CIE IGCSE Economics

Here at Save My Exams, we develop high-quality, affordable revision resources; consider signing up for a Save my Exams subscription to help you get the most out of your revision. We support over 1.5 million students each month in preparing for their exams and achieving successful results, we’d love to help you too.