Flashcard Deck

Convert source material into atomic, testable flashcards.

Principles

• One fact per card. If a card has "and" in the answer, split it. Atomicity is what makes recall reliable.
• Test recall, not recognition. The front must force the learner to produce the answer, not pick it. Avoid yes/no fronts.
• Front is unambiguous. Exactly one correct answer. Add just enough context that the prompt isn't guessable from phrasing alone.
• Prefer "why/how" over "what" for anything conceptual — understanding cards outlast definition cards.

Card types

• Q/A — Q: a question, A: the shortest correct answer.
• Cloze — a sentence with the key term blanked: The mitochondria is the {{site}} of the cell.
• Definition → term (reverse) — give the definition, ask for the term, so recall works both directions.

Workflow

1. Extract the 5–20 ideas worth remembering. Drop anything that's lookup-able and not worth memorizing.
2. Write one card per idea using the type that best forces recall.
3. For dense facts, add a one-line cloze sibling so the fact is hit from two angles.
4. Order easy → hard; group by sub-topic.

Output

Default to a clean numbered list of Q: / A: pairs. If the user mentions Anki, also provide a tab-separated block (front<TAB>back, one per line) they can paste into Anki's import. Offer to expand any card into an explanation on request.