How to use flashcards properly to help your child learn

Flashcards have become almost synonymous with revision. Walk into a child's bedroom during exam season and there is a good chance you'll find a pile of them somewhere on the desk. They seem like the perfect revision tool: small, portable and easy to use. But there is a problem.

Simply having a set of flashcards doesn't mean your child is learning effectively.

In fact, it is surprisingly easy to use flashcards in a way that feels like revision without actually doing much to strengthen memory. The important thing isn't the cards themselves. It is what your child has to do with the information on them.

The answer needs to be hidden

Let's imagine your child has a science flashcard with this question on the front: “What are the three states of matter?” On the back, it says: “Solid, liquid and gas”. Your child looks at the front, turns the card over and reads the answer. They might think, "Yes, I knew that." But did they? The only way to find out is to make them answer before they see the answer. They need to look at the question, stop, think and try to retrieve the information from memory. Only then should they turn the card over and check.

This sounds like a tiny difference, but it changes the activity completely. Your child is no longer simply looking at information they recognise. They are having to produce the answer. That is where the learning happens.

Don't let the flashcard become the answer

This is one of the easiest mistakes to make. Your child reads the question and immediately thinks, "I know that." They turn the card over, see the answer and move on. After a few rounds, the cards start to feel reassuringly familiar. But familiarity can be misleading. If you really want to know whether your child knows something, hide the answer and ask them to say it before they look. If they can't remember, that's useful. If they get it partly right, that's useful too. They now know that this is something they need to practise again.

Make the cards difficult enough to be useful

There is another issue with flashcards: the questions need to be good. A card that asks, "What is photosynthesis?" might be useful, but it could also produce a very vague answer. A better question might ask, "What are the three things a plant needs for photosynthesis?" or "What is the word equation for photosynthesis?" The best questions are ones that require your child to retrieve something specific.

They also don't all have to involve simple facts. You can create cards that ask your child to explain an idea, identify a mistake, compare two concepts or apply something they have learned. For example: Why does increasing the surface area of a solid increase the rate at which it dissolves? That's a very different question from simply asking your child to remember a definition. It requires them to think about what they know and use it to construct an explanation. The more your child has to think, the more useful the retrieval becomes.

Don't spend hours making beautiful flashcards

There can also be a slightly unproductive side effect of flashcards: they can become a revision project in themselves. Children can spend ages choosing colours, drawing diagrams, creating elaborate layouts and making every card look perfect. It can be enjoyable, and there is nothing wrong with making notes or resources look attractive. But if the process of making the cards takes much longer than actually using them, something has gone wrong. The purpose of a flashcard isn't to create a beautiful piece of stationery. It's to make your brain retrieve something.

Digital flashcards can work just as well as physical ones if they are used properly. The format isn't what matters. The thinking is.

Don't just keep going through the whole pile

Another common mistake is treating flashcards like a memory test or a game show where the goal is simply to get through the entire pack. Your child might have 50 cards and work through all 50 every evening. But if they already know 45 of them and repeatedly get the same five wrong, they could be spending a lot of time practising things they already know. Instead, encourage them to pay attention to the cards they find difficult. They might separate cards into three groups: things they know well, things they're unsure about and things they couldn't remember. The difficult cards then get more attention, while the easier ones can be revisited less often.

This is one reason flashcards can work particularly well when they are used over time rather than simply crammed into the night before an exam. A card your child couldn't remember today might be something they specifically try to retrieve tomorrow, then again a few days later and again the following week. Each successful retrieval makes the knowledge more secure.

Parents can help without becoming the teacher

Think about what happens when you play a quiz card game as a family. Someone picks up a card, reads the question aloud and everyone has a go at answering it. Nobody needs to be an expert in the subject. In fact, you might not have a clue what the answer is. You simply have a go, turn the card over and find out whether you were right. That's essentially what a flashcard is.

You don't need to know the answers yourself to help your child use them. Your child can read you the question, tell you what they think the answer is and then turn the card over to check. If they can't remember it, that's fine. The important thing is that they had to try to retrieve the answer before seeing it.

You can even make it a family activity. Take a few of your child's flashcards and have a go at answering them together. You might be surprised by how much fun it can be, and your child gets some valuable retrieval practice without it feeling like another revision session.

The flashcard isn't the magic

There is nothing magical about a small piece of card with a question on one side and an answer on the other. The power comes from what happens in your child's brain when they see the question and have to search their memory for the answer. That is why a simple homemade flashcard can be more useful than an expensive revision resource if it makes your child think hard about what they know.

So the next time you see your child flicking through a pile of flashcards, don't ask how many cards they've been through. Ask them to pick one. Hide the answer and see what they can remember.

Because the best flashcard isn't the one your child recognises. It's the one that makes them think.