Intro

Flash cards are extremely use­ful in mem­o­riz­ing. It could be one of the most effec­tive and easy way to mem­o­rize things in short period of time. Although some peo­ple may not favor using flash cards, many teach­ers and schol­ars sug­gest flash cards for var­i­ous type of mem­o­riz­ing such as vocab­u­lar­ies, math for­mu­las, expla­na­tions, sequences, and more.

How­ever, some­times it’s aggre­vat­ing to make twenty, thirty, or more pieces of flash cards. Thus, cut­ting the paper is another work to do. To solve this prob­lem, many web­sites and pro­grams sup­port free, ready-to-use flash cards to stu­dents. In fact, those web­site pro­vide all tech­ni­cal sup­ports; all you need to do is give them what you need to memorize.

In addi­tion, some peo­ple favor their own designed flash cards because they have their own ways to mem­o­rize things. Thus, Microsoft Office Word pro­vides lots of func­tions includ­ing cre­at­ing tables. By using this tool, stu­dents can eas­ily cre­ate free, orig­i­nal, descrip­tive flash cards for their own use.

Free Flash Cards Websites

1. Online Flash Cards (no need to download)

• Var­i­ous — http://www.flashcardexchange.com/
• Math — http://www.factmonster.com/math/flashcards.html
• Flash maker — http://www.scholastic.com/kids/homework/flashcards.htm
• Var­i­ous — http://flashcarddb.com/
• Var­i­ous — http://quizlet.com/browse/
• Flash maker — http://www.kitzkikz.com/flashcards/
• ESL and kids — http://www.myfreeflashcards.com/

2. Free Down­load Flash Cards

• ESL and kids — http://www.eslflashcards.com/
• ESL and kids — http://www.mes-english.com/flashcards.php
• ESL and kids — http://www.kizclub.com/flashcards.htm
• ESL and kids — http://www.esljunction.com/esl-efl-flashcards/esl-tefl-efl-flashcards.html
• ESL and kids — http://www.teachchildrenesl.com/flashcards.htm
• Cre­ate Your Own — http://www.luminaresoft.com/

3. Flash Cards Cat­e­gory by Subjects

• Music — http://www.musicards.net/
• Span­ish — http://www.members.tripod.com/spanishflashcards/
• Math — http://www.multiplication.com/flashcards.htm
• ESL and kids - http://www.pdictionary.com/english/flashcards.php
• ESL and kids — http://www.1-language.com/eslflashcards/index.htm
• Biol­ogy — http://www.flashcardexchange.com/tag/biology
• Biol­ogy — http://www.flashcardmachine.com/biology.html

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Free Flash Card Soft­wares, Programs

1. Cue­Card — Easy and efficient. This soft­ware allows you to insert ques­tions and answers that can be stud­ied later by click­ing but­tons. More­over, the sim­plic­i­tyof the soft­ware design keeps you focused on the words. In addi­tion, you can import and export data from excel, add pic­tures to flash cards, save the works you have done, and more. How­ever, there are no pre-installed flash cards with the soft­ware. Click here to down­load.

2. Teach2000 — Lit­tle more advanced than Cue­Card. It con­tains more edit­ing tools such as font styles, sym­bols, and even sounds. How­ever, since it is more advanced and has more sec­tions to add and edit, it’s more com­pli­cat­ing to use at first. Yet, I pre­fer to use this soft­ware if you want to use them for long. Click here to down­load.

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Mak­ing Flash Cards with Microsoft Office Word

Extremely use­ful, eff­i­cent, and easy. Microsoft Office Word has the abil­ity to gen­er­ate all kinds of tables, cells, and more that can sep­a­rate the page into pieces. More­over, it can insert images, col­ors, links, and more which a per­sonal flash card should look like. Thus, here is a sim­ple exam­ple that shows step-by-step process of making flashcards.

1. Open Microsoft Office Word  

• Start > All Pro­grams > Microsoft Office > Microsoft Office Word 2007

2. Open Page Setup — Mar­gin Tab

• Page Lay­out > Mar­gins > Cus­tom Margins

3. Change margins

• Insert ‘1’ to ‘top’, ‘left’, ‘bot­tom’, and ‘right’ > click ‘OK’
• Now, you will see the mar­gins changed.

4. Open Insert Table Tab

• Insert > Table > Insert Table

5. Insert Table

•  Insert ‘2’ for ‘columns’ and ‘4’ for ‘rows’ > click ‘OK’

6. Open Table Prop­er­ties Tab

• Select table > Right click > Table Properties

7. Change Table Property — size

• Select ‘Row’ tab > On Size, check ‘Spec­ify Height’ > Insert 2.8″ > click ‘OK’
• Now, the table has filled the whole page

8. Copy and paste Table

• While the table is selected, press ‘Ctrl+c’ to copy the table > Paste it into the sec­ond page

9. Insert Contents

• Becare­ful not to reverse contents
• For exam­ple: 

•  Because you want to print front and back, you don’t want the dif­fer­ent answer on dif­fer­ent card.

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Print­ing Flash Cards

Since odd pages (1,3,5,7,…) have ques­tions and even pages (2,4,6,8,…) have answers, you want to print them sep­a­rately. Thus, here is an example.

1. After mak­ing flash cards with Microsoft Office Word, open Print tab.

• Office But­ton (top left cor­ner) > Print

2. Change the prop­erty — Print­ing Ques­tion pages

• Find the sec­tion Print — All pages in range > click it > odd pages > click ‘OK’

3.  After print­ing all ques­tion pages, put those papers back into the printer fac­ing upside down.

4. Now, do # 1~2, but instead of click­ing odd pages, click even pages.

5. Your spicy hot home made flash cards are ready to go.

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Con­clu­sion

When you want to cre­ate fancy, descrip­tive cards, why not use the easy method that does all the work for you? All you need to do is insert your infor­ma­tion and print them to use them. And, if you are inter­ested in mak­ing ones with your own design, Microsoft Office Word will do it. They will look good.

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