Friday, February 5, 2010

More Flashcard Fun

Pauker is quite possibly the god of all flashcard-dom. I've already mentioned several other sites that enable you to make your own flashcards, download lists of cards others have made, use them on your phone, online, on your desktop, etc. But Pauker not only lets you do all this and more, it is also 100% free!



While presently the lists of pre-made cards is a little skimpy, it is also much more organized than Flash Card Generator and offers quick access to some lists I can't wait to sink my teeth into:


-1000 Essential English Words
-English Word Roots
-English Slang
-Irregular English Verbs
-The IPA Alphabet
-Computer Related Acronyms


Though, of course, you'll have to be careful about which lists you pick up, as you may quickly notice that many are designed from a German ELL perspective!

Now what's all this "and more" business? Well, Pauker also has a much easier method of making flashcards than most programs. You can copy/paste or just type in your entire list of words. So long as the definition comes on the line after the term it defines, Pauker will automatically put them on the front and back sides of the flashcard!

But best of all Pauker keeps track of the different types of memory at work in actually learning vocabulary and cues old words to repeat when it suspects you are about to forget them. This method has been shown to greatly increase the rate of memorization and has been implemented by other (costly) vocabulary programs.

You can also change the text and background colors, if you like to organize words that way, but if you're a visual learner, the $30 Flash My Brain (from my Save it and Save Yourself: Flashcards post) still seems to be the only option for visual aids, has the cleanest design I've seen, and also has one of the widest selection of shared cards. Of course, I haven't dished out the $30 for it, so if you've tried it, tell me how you liked it!