What Most Students (And Educators!) Get Wrong About Flashcards
Let’s face it. Flashcards are boring—or at least, that’s the story students tell.
Here are a few of my former clients—do you recognize any (or all?!) of them in the young people you support?!
👉One of my high school clients with anxiety spent hours creating flashcards with perfect handwriting, color-coded borders, and little doodles in the corners. Her cards were gorgeous—tiny art projects that helped her feel in control. But once the deck was finished, she barely touched it again. The preparation soothed her nerves, but the retrieval never happened.
👉Another student—a college sophomore with ADHD—built enormous Quizlet decks and then mindlessly clicked through them while half-watching Netflix. “See? I’m studying!” he’d insist. But his digital flashcards had turned into a dopamine scroll: fast, familiar, and completely passive.
👉And then there was my middle schooler with dyslexia, who proudly made paper flashcards for every unit test (complete with doodles!), only to toss the stacks in the recycling bin the minute the test ended. The act of making the cards helped her process words more carefully—but without spaced reuse, all that effort evaporated later in the school year.
Sound familiar?
These are not one-off stories. They’re the norm. Flashcards are one of the most common study tools across age groups, but also one of the most misused—especially by students who genuinely want to learn better but don’t know how to use retrieval practice effectively.
Flashcards are designed around retrieval practice—the act of pulling knowledge out of memory. That act itself strengthens the memory trace.
But if a student only flips for recognition, or retires cards prematurely, the brain never gets the workout it craves. It’s like giving a muscle the illusion of movement without resistance.
So how do we help students stop “playing school” with flashcards—and start training their brains instead?
Let’s explore this topic in preparation for our upcoming Beyond Flashcards masterclass.
TL;DR
If you don’t have time to read the longer blog post, check out these main ideas:
Flashcards are only as powerful as the retrieval they inspire. When students use them for recognition instead of recall, the brain goes on autopilot.
Spacing and feedback are the secret ingredients. A few short, effortful review rounds beat a single marathon cram every time.
Our role as educators and executive function coaches is to make flashcard use more playful and intentional—so students experience curiosity and challenge, not just motion.
This post will resonate most for:
Academic coaches and tutors who watch students “study” with flashcards but rarely see lasting results.
Classroom teachers who assign flashcards but want to ensure they’re actually helping students learn, not just keeping them busy.
Parents and learning specialists supporting students with ADHD, anxiety, or dyslexia who rely on flashcards but need strategies that stick.
In short, the research is clear: flashcards aren’t the problem—it’s how students use them. But of course, there’s a lot more to this story.
🧠 Flashcards: What We Get Wrong
I learned this lesson the hard way with one of my early coaching clients.
Back in the day, I worked with a bright high school junior who was determined to do everything “right.” He listened carefully as I explained the Study Cycle and how retrieval practice helps information stick. When I (erroneously) told him that once he could recall a flashcard correctly, he could take it out of the deck, he followed my advice to the letter.
He practiced like a champ—quizzing himself night after night, proudly setting aside every card he answered correctly. By test day, he felt confident and prepared.
Then the grade came back: a C.
When we sat down to analyze what went wrong, we discovered something surprising. Every question he’d missed came from the cards he’d retired early—the ones he thought he had “mastered.” It was a humbling realization for both of us: what seems known in one moment doesn’t always make it to long term memory.
After working with hundreds of students and training scores of educators, I’ve started to notice the same patterns repeating themselves—across classrooms, coaching sessions, and study apps.
So, let’s look at the most common flashcard mistakes I see in my work as an academic and executive function coach and teacher trainer—and take a closer look at what science says about each one.
1. The Cram-and-Coast Problem
The Behavior:
Students binge all their flashcards in one long sitting until everything feels “familiar.” It gives the illusion of mastery—but the brain is just swimming in short-term familiarity.
Why It’s a Problem:
Cramming builds fluency, not memory. The brain needs to forget a little before it can remember deeply.
Science:
Kornell (2009) found that spacing flashcard review across two sessions produced far better recall than massed cramming in one go.
Cepeda et al. (2006) conducted a meta-analysis of 254 studies and found that when review sessions were spaced out over time, students remembered up to twice as much information on later tests compared to massed (crammed) sessions. The effect was strongest when the spacing gap was long enough for some forgetting to occur, showing that “desirable forgetting” actually strengthens memory on relearning.
In short:
Students who space their flashcard practice—even by just a day or two—remember more, for longer, because the act of re-retrieving after a little forgetting is what strengthens the brain’s connections.
2. Peek-Flipping Instead of Retrieving
The Behavior:
Students glance at the card, nod, and flip. “Yep, I knew that.” Except they didn’t actually recall it—they simply recognized it.
Why It’s a Problem:
Recognition tricks the brain into thinking learning has happened. Retrieval, on the other hand, forces the brain to rebuild a memory from scratch—exactly the effort that strengthens it.
Science Says:
Karpicke & Roediger (2008) found that students who practiced retrieval retained up to 150% more information than those who restudied the same material.
Karpicke (2009) showed that even when students believed rereading was more effective, only retrieval practice produced strong, lasting memory gains.
In short:
The uncomfortable pause before flipping the card isn’t wasted time—it’s where the learning happens.
3. 🪙 Dropping Cards Too Soon
The Behavior:
Students stop reviewing flashcards as soon as they’ve answered them correctly once or twice.
Why It’s a Problem:
Confidence ≠ retention. Our metacognition (sense of what we know) is unreliable, which means students often “drop” cards too early—long before the memory is stable.
Science Says:
Kornell & Bjork (2007) asked participants to study word pairs using virtual flashcards. Those who stopped reviewing “known” cards performed significantly worse than those who kept all cards in rotation until the end.
Kornell (2009) confirmed that continuing to practice even “mastered” cards—especially with spacing—boosts long-term retention.
In short:
A card isn’t truly learned until it’s been remembered multiple times across multiple days.
4. 🎯 Avoiding the Hard Ones
The Behavior:
Given a choice, students gravitate toward the “easy wins”—cards they already know—while skipping the ones that feel hard or confusing.
Why It’s a Problem:
The brain grows through desirable difficulty. Easy cards may feel good, but effortful recall is what strengthens learning networks and builds durable memory.
Science Says:
Bjork & Bjork (2011) coined the term desirable difficulties to describe how moderate challenge enhances long-term retention.
Karpicke (2009) found that repeated retrieval—even of difficult items—led to deeper learning than passive review of familiar material.
In short:
Avoiding the hard cards might protect confidence, but wrestling with them is what builds real brain strength.
5. 💻 Digital Flashcards: Blessing or Trap?
The Behavior:
Students love digital decks—Quizlet, Anki, Brainscape—but often swipe through them too quickly, multitask, or skip spaced notifications.
Why It’s a Problem:
Technology can automate learning, but it can’t think for the learner. Clicking too fast promotes recognition, not retrieval—and that’s where learning gets lost.
Science Says:
Xodabande et al. (2022) found that digital flashcards improved engagement and vocabulary retention only when learners retrieved answers before revealing them. This kinda feels like a “no duh!” study, but then again – we wouldn’t need to study it if students didn’t do it.
Teymouri (2024) reviewed mobile-assisted flashcard studies and found that gains depended on active retrieval and spaced scheduling—not on the platform itself.
In short:
Clicking is not thinking. Even the best app can’t replace that tiny moment of “Wait… what was it again?”
🧭 What to Do Instead
These are just the most common mistakes I see with flashcards. But trust me—there are plenty more!
Which is why we built our next masterclass: Beyond Flashcards: Teaching Retrieval That Sticks.
I’ve learned from training hundreds of smarty-pants educators that knowing the science isn’t the same as knowing how to teach it. You can understand retrieval practice inside and out, and still feel stuck figuring out how to help your students actually do it in a way that works for their brains.
Plus, flashcards are only one corner of the retrieval world. There are dozens of other ways to help students pull knowledge out of their heads—without relying on endless decks of cards.
In Beyond Flashcards, you’ll learn how to help students:
Grasp the brain-based science of retrieval practice so they understand why it works
Learn the Study Cycle mini-lecture that turns research into a 3-step routine they’ll remember
Build retrieval-rich study plans that fit different brains, subjects, and motivation levels
Make the most of flashcards — then go beyond them with dozens of creative retrieval alternatives
If you’re reading this prior to October 21, 2025, please come to the masterclass! Here’s the sign up link.
If you’re reading this after, please join the Lab! The masterclass recordings are posted there – and you’ll also get to learn all the study skills & executive function strategies in our full Anti-Boring Toolkit.
🧠 Let’s Reflect Together: Modeling the Mindset
Finally, we can’t teach strategies we don’t practice.
If we want students to be curious, reflective, and intentional, we have to model those same qualities in how we design assignments, routines, and feedback loops.
For Educators:
When have I asked students to “just make flashcards” without any guidance or structure?
Where can I intentionally insert a little “struggle time” into flashcard practice—just enough productive tension to spark deeper learning?
How will I help learners pause, reflect, and iterate on their study process, rather than rush through it?
For Students:
When using flashcards, did I say it first before I saw it?
How many times has this card passed real spaced retrieval?
What small tweak could make this flashcard more interesting—or more effective—next time?
Which of these flashcard habits or reflection prompts resonates most with your students—or with you? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments so we can keep learning together.