Spaced repetition cards

Spaced repetition shows a card just before it would be forgotten, and each successful recall pushes the next showing further out. Software like Anki handles the schedule. What it cannot do is make good cards, and bad cards are the main reason people give up: a card that asks three things at once, or one that can be answered by recognizing its wording, gets failed or passed for the wrong reasons until the deck feels like a chore.

This skill makes cards that work, following the rules experienced users converge on, most clearly set out by Piotr Wozniak, the creator of SuperMemo, as the minimum information principle: each card asks for one small thing, and asks it in a way that makes the person actually retrieve it.

When to use it