There are tons of flashcard software out there, and I’ve tried a lot of them but often get too bored to continue. Pauker is super simple to use and adding new cards is quite effortless. It’s not a very fancy program though with repeat cycles and whatnot, but I’ve never used any program long enough to get to that point anyway ^^
I thought I’d explain how I use Pauker and how it works!
In this program, you can either choose to learn words by remembering (like when you hold a real flashcard in your hand) or by typing. When you add new words they automatically go into remembering mode, but when clicking the staple of «Summary» (all the words in the lesson) you can ctrl + A mark all, and change this setting for all cards, depending in which way you want to practice for the moment. In the Main Menu you can also flip the sides of the cards easily. I always use the typing method, so that’s what this is based on here.
In the main settings of Pauker, there’s a ultra short term memory period of time and a short time memory period of time. First, you look at cards for approximately 18 seconds (you can change the time if you want). You can look at one card and repeat it to yourself during all this time or flip through several. When the time is up, you are asked to type all the words you have been looking at. Then you continue in this manner with all cards. After this is done, you go through a new stage with typing all words separately. The ones you do not succeed with you can either skip or send back in the line and they will be repeated in the same way as you first begun when you have finished the whole of the first batch. The program all the while shows you with columns how many cards you have in your short time memory and how many you have failed and you continue until you have them all in the short time memory pile.
I first do this with English-Russian cards, and then I flip the card sides and do it Russian-English. After this, I kind of feel like I know the words!
However, I don’t know what the long term memory strategy is. A lot of people argue that flashcard are mainly just for short time memory, but even if it is so, I believe that every word that you have come in contact with and learned at some time WILL be somewhere in there. Even if you forget it again, it will easily be brought back and put into your long time memory. And I’m thinking I will use the remembering mode when revising, as it is quicker, and try to do this with shorter time settings. We’ll see.
You can look closer at the program here: http://pauker.sourceforge.net/pauker.php?target=index&lang=en
