I love Flash Cards

FLASH CARDS.

They help me compartmentalize my life.

I'm currently taking a Japanese class and have a vocabulary quiz 3 times a week.

Some groan at the thought of this, but it helps for the lesson that day and for the test at the end of each lesson. It's actually quite the life saver when you realize that you already somewhat know the 150 new words and phrases for the test coming up in a few weeks.

Nobody else has gadgets or flash cards in my class. I on the other hand I NEED something to trick myself into remembering words. Something where I sit back, relax and let the flashcards be my teacher.

My Device of choice is the Palm Tungsten E2 that i got off ebay.

On the screen is Studycard Studio Lite.
MAC: free trial, $29 upgrade
PRO's
Study Card Studio Lite has served its purpose for me.

I now have a mac and this seems to be the only mac friendly software for flash cards on my palm.

CON's
The only problem I have is that the font doesn't register if I have a tab delineated document in Japanese. To make flash cards in Japanse I have to do this:

1. copy and paste the words from a google docs spread sheet (where I organize my words) into TextEdit
2. copy and paste that into Word
3. save as an .rtf file
4. import that in Study Card Studio Lite.
5. wtf.




On screen is Gunther's Freeware, but the Japanese font won't work.
PC: FREE!
PRO's
I found a great freeware software called Gunther's Freeware.

It is better than Study Card Studio Lite because it uses the Leitner Card file system. This system spreads out when you see a certain card so that you don't waste your time on ones you have already memorized.

CON's
I thought of buying a PC because I love this software (i know, crazy), but I had a hard time using Japanese fonts with the software. Todd Rudick of Rikai.com has no problem as seen in his helpful blog about it. I couldn't get it to work so I gave UP!

CUT from consideration:

1. Anki for palm
Free.
I put this on my palm, but you can't keep track of your progress. It just goes through your cards in this archaic looking screen. You can check off ones as you go, but that didn't really help me.

2. Anki for your computer
Free.
I haven't used it, just read about it.
It looks cool if you only study on your laptop.
I saw something about how you can use it on you iphone, but that is at its beginning stages and that's only if you're connected to the internet wherever you go.

3. Flash Card Exchange
Free until you want to print.
I paid $19.95 like an idiot so that I could print my flash cards. Printing wastes paper, which is not very green and therefore not hip. This website doesn't export your files for the palm.