Create flashcards from a course PDF

Prepare a PDF you can check

Choose one coherent chapter rather than all of the semester’s courses. Keep the title, the definitions and the examples that explain the notions. If your file is a scan, check that it is legible: a blurry formula, a cut-off minus sign or a missing caption can change the meaning of an answer.

In Fichea, import your course into a subject, then prepare a study sheet to organize the notions to remember. Compare this summary with the PDF before moving on to flashcards. The formats, features and quotas available depend on your plan.

Turn each notion into a precise question

A good card lets you decide whether your answer is right. “Everything about percentages” is too broad. “By what coefficient do you multiply a price that goes up by 15%?” calls for a short answer that can be checked and reused in an exercise.

Split the rule, its conditions and its application into several questions. For a definition, keep the essential words. For a formula, specify the units or the assumptions. For a date, also ask what it helps place in the chapter.

Reread the cards with the document open

AI can produce an answer that sounds plausible but is incomplete. Before learning the deck, match the important answers with passages from the PDF. If a card mixes two chapters or leaves out a condition, go back to the course and rephrase the notion in your notes.

Do not validate a card just because you recognize the words. Hide the answer, form your own, then compare. A calculation error does not call for the same work as a forgotten vocabulary word.

• Does the question contain enough context to be understood on its own?
• Does the answer match the chapter and the level being studied?
• Is an exception, a unit or a condition missing?
• Can I find in my PDF what I need to check the answer?

Turn the cards into a review session

Start with a small set of notions and answer before turning each card over. After the correction, tell apart what you had forgotten from what you had not understood. A hard card may need an explanation of the course before another attempt.

Go back over the cards in another session and add an exercise without answer choices. For percentages, calculate a decrease or two successive changes with new values. Being able to recite the coefficient does not yet prove that you can choose the right operation.

You can try the public Fichea flashcards demo without importing a document. It uses a prepared example; creating cards from your own PDF is done in your account, according to the features and quotas of your plan.