What the Flashcard Maker does
This flashcard maker turns a list of terms and definitions into cards you can study straight away with the Leitner spaced-repetition system, print as a cut-out sheet, or export to CSV or Anki. Type one card per line - "osmosis - movement of water across a membrane" - or paste from a spreadsheet, and choose Make cards.
Cards and progress stay in your browser. They are saved between visits only if you tick the option to remember them, and nothing is uploaded.
How to use it
- Enter one card per line with the term first and the definition after a separator: " - ", a tab (as when pasting two spreadsheet columns), " = ", " :: " or ": ". Quoted CSV such as "Paris, France","capital" also works.
- Choose Make cards. Lines without a separator are listed so you can fix them.
- Study: read the front, try to recall the back, choose Show answer, then mark I knew it or Not yet. Tick reverse to be shown definitions and recall the term.
- Keep going for a few rounds. Cards you know move up the boxes and come round less often; cards you miss go back to box 1.
- Print the card sheet to cut out, or download CSV or Anki text to carry on in another app.
Reading the results
The five boxes are the Leitner system: box 1 cards appear every round, box 2 every second round, box 3 every fourth, box 4 every eighth and box 5 every sixteenth. A correct answer moves a card up one box, a miss sends it back to box 1.
A card in box 5 has been recalled correctly four times in a row, with growing gaps. That is a good sign of learning, but come back to the deck after a few days - long-term retention is what spacing is for.
The right and not-yet counts are for this sitting only; the boxes carry your progress.
Worked example: eight biology terms
The biology example makes eight cards, from mitosis to allele, all starting in box 1, so round 1 shows all eight.
Suppose you know six of them. Those six move to box 2 and the two you missed stay in box 1 and are asked again at the end of the round. A box-2 card is due when the round number divides by 2, so round 2 shows all eight again (the two box-1 cards and the six box-2 cards), while round 3 shows only the box-1 cards, because 3 does not divide by 2.
After four correct answers in a row a card reaches box 5, which is due only in rounds 16, 32 and so on - the card has, in effect, been set aside while you concentrate on the ones you still miss.
Writing cards that work
Keep each card to one fact: "enzyme - a biological catalyst" is easier to recall and check than a card listing five properties. Put longer ideas into several cards, and phrase the back so you can tell for certain whether your answer was right.
Making your own cards is part of the learning: choosing what goes on the front and how to phrase the back makes you process the material. Recalling the answer before looking - rather than rereading the card - is the retrieval practice that makes flashcards effective.
Limitations: what the result does not prove
- The Leitner schedule here counts rounds, not calendar days. For day-based scheduling over months, export to Anki or another spaced-repetition app.
- You mark your own answers, so the progress is only as honest as your marking.
- Progress is kept only in this browser and only if you tick the remember option; clearing browser data erases it.
- Cards are plain text. Images, formulas and audio are not supported.
Privacy: where your data goes
Everything you paste, type or drop is processed in this browser tab. It is not uploaded, logged, stored or sent to analytics. Session recording and tag-manager scripts are switched off on this page.
Standards and sources
- Anki manual - importing text files
- Roediger and Karpicke (2006) - Test-enhanced learning, Psychological Science
Frequently asked questions
What is the Leitner system?
It is a way of scheduling flashcards described by Sebastian Leitner in the 1970s. Cards move up a series of boxes when answered correctly and back to the first box when missed, and higher boxes are reviewed less often, so study time goes to the cards you do not yet know.
How do I import these cards into Anki?
Download for Anki, then in Anki choose File, Import and select the text file. The file declares a tab separator, so the term goes to the front field and the definition to the back field of a Basic note.
Can I paste cards from Excel or Google Sheets?
Yes. Copy two columns - terms and definitions - and paste them into the box. The cells arrive separated by tabs, which the tool recognises.
How do I print flashcards?
Choose Print cards. The printable sheet shows each card as a box with the term and definition, two to a row, with dashed borders to cut along. Fold each one so the term is on one side.
How many flashcards should I study at once?
Smaller decks of 20 to 50 cards per topic are easier to work through in a sitting. The tool accepts up to 2,000 cards, but splitting by topic keeps rounds short and progress visible.
Last reviewed by the A2Z.Tools team against the sources listed above.
