If you're like me, than you have a little trouble memorizing facts or quotes or things of the like. For my entire school career I had trouble learning facts like my times tables or my spanish alphabet. I could never get the information in my head long enough to stay put. I could read a sheet of paper with important facts over and over and not be able to repeat the information an hour later. I somehow managed to make it through high school and into college. It was my first college roommate that saved me the rest of my career with her tried and true learning method: the use of flashcards.
I wish my roommate had entered my life in kindergarden rather than at university. She told me all about the magic of flashcards after I questioned her about the huge stack of notecards on her desk during the first week of classes. I was convinced that she was a little strange and that my questioning would prove me right. Her explanation of the ways that flashcards had made learning easier made me somewhat skeptical but even more jealous. If what she was sharing was true, than I had missed out on a great and easy way to learn facts and figures.
Within a week of our discussion I had bought my first ever package of notecards. As the semester progressed I made small piles of notecards turned flashcards for just about every test or project my classes assigned. I was hooked. By simply breaking down the information into small pieces and recording the small pieces on flashcards I could carry around the small flashcards anywhere I went and learn the information. I think that repetition is more key to learning than I had realized before. I would look through my flashcards several times each day and I was surprised by how quickly this style of learning got the information into my head.
My college career and my graduate studies were saved by using flashcards. It has been even more fun for me to teach this great learning tool to my children as they have just begun their school careers. I am hoping to instill great learning habits into them early so that they will not deal with the stresses of barely passing classes.
Purchase some inexpensive notecards and turn them into flashcards to learn almost any set of information you need. You don't even have to be in school to benefit from the use of flashcards. I guarentee they will change they way you learn and hence the rest of your life.