Flashcard Maker
Updated · By the Revizly team
Revizly is a flashcard maker that writes the cards for you. Upload your lecture slides, a PDF, photos of your notes or a YouTube lecture, and in about 30 seconds you get a deck of question-and-answer flashcards built from your own class material, scheduled with spaced repetition.
Real example
Introduction to the Cell
What went in: A PDF lecture from a first-year college cell biology class, uploaded by a student.
Learning objectives. By the end of this lesson you should be able to: define the cell; explain the main principles of cell theory; distinguish prokaryotic from eukaryotic cells; distinguish unicellular from multicellular organisms; describe the main groups of eukaryotic organisms…
These are the first ten cards Revizly made from that PDF, exactly as it wrote them. Tap a card to see the answer.
The flashcards
How the flashcard maker works
You upload your class material, Revizly reads it, and you get a deck of flashcards organized by topic in about 30 seconds. Then you study them right away, on your laptop or in the iPhone and Android apps.
You don’t pick a template or type a prompt. Revizly works out the topics in your material, in the order your class covers them, and writes cards for the ideas you’re most likely to be tested on: definitions, key facts, who did what, cause and effect, and the steps of a process.
Every deck comes with a study guide and a practice quiz built from the same material, so the cards, the notes and the questions all line up with your class instead of with whatever a stranger put in a public set.
- Sign in with Google or your email. The free plan covers 2 classes a month.
- Upload what your professor gave you: a PDF, PowerPoint slides, a Word doc, photos of your notes, a YouTube link or pasted text.
- Study the deck. Flip each card, say whether you got it, and Revizly decides when you should see it again.
What a good flashcard looks like
A good flashcard asks one clear question and has a short answer you can say out loud. That is the rule Revizly follows, and it’s the rule worth following when you add or edit cards yourself.
One idea per card
If the back of a card is a paragraph, you can’t tell whether you really knew it. Look at the demo above: cell theory is split into three cards (what life is made of, where cells come from, how functions are explained) instead of one long card with all three. Each one is either right or wrong, and that’s what makes the practice honest.
A question, not a fill-in-the-blank
Cards are written as real questions, like “Who showed that animals are made of cells?”, instead of copying a sentence from the slides and blanking out a word. A question makes you pull the answer out of memory. A blank in a familiar sentence often just makes you recognize it.
Both directions for the facts that matter
Dates, names and terms often get two cards: one that asks for the person and one that asks for the year. On an exam the question can come from either side, so the deck covers both.
Short answers
Most answers are a few words or one sentence. Short answers are faster to check, which means you get through more cards in the same ten minutes.
What you can turn into flashcards
Almost anything from a class: PDFs (scanned ones too), PowerPoint slides, Word documents, photos of handwritten or printed notes, YouTube lectures and plain text. Each upload becomes one deck, split by topic.
For a cumulative final, upload one unit at a time. You get a deck per unit, and you can study them together or one by one.
| Format | Typical use | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| Textbook chapters, lecture handouts, readings | Scanned PDFs are read with OCR | |
| PowerPoint (.pptx) | Lecture slides | Revizly reads every slide, including speaker notes |
| Word (.docx) | Your own typed notes, study packets | Headings help it find the topics |
| Photos | Handwritten notes, whiteboards, printed pages | One clear photo per page works best |
| YouTube link | Recorded lectures, explainer videos | Built from the video’s captions |
| Pasted text | Anything you can copy | Fastest for short material |
Flashcard maker vs. typing cards yourself, Quizlet and Anki
Typing your own cards is free but slow. Quizlet is great when someone already made the set you need. Anki is powerful once you’ve built a deck. Revizly writes the deck from your own material and schedules it for you.
Writing cards by hand still teaches you something: deciding what to ask is a way of studying. If you love that part, keep doing it, and use Revizly to fill the gaps. If you’ve got four classes and a week, start from a generated deck and spend your time answering cards instead of typing them. Answering is where most of the memory work happens anyway.
Already use Anki? On Premium you can export a Revizly deck as an Anki file and keep using the app you know.
| Typing them yourself | Quizlet | Anki | Revizly | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Where the cards come from | You write every one | You type them, import a list, or use a public set | You write them or download a shared deck | Written from your PDF, slides, photos or video |
| Time for one lecture | 1 to 2 hours | Minutes if a good set exists, hours if not | 1 to 2 hours | About 30 seconds |
| Matches your professor’s material | Yes | Only if you made the set | Only if you made the deck | Yes |
| Spaced repetition | No | Learn mode adapts to your answers | Yes, and very customizable | Yes, built in |
| Study guide and quiz from the same material | No | Not the core of the app | No | Yes |
Spaced repetition is built in
Revizly schedules every card with spaced repetition. Cards you get right come back after longer and longer gaps, cards you miss come back soon, so a few minutes a day covers the whole deck.
Under the hood it uses FSRS, the same family of scheduling algorithm that recent versions of Anki use. You don’t have to set anything up. Each time you answer a card, the app updates when you should see it next, and the home screen shows how many cards are due today.
The point is simple: you study the cards you’re about to forget and skip the ones you already know. Ten focused minutes a day beats a three-hour session the night before, and it holds up better on the final.
Edit, add and keep your own cards
The deck is yours to change. Fix the wording of any card, delete the ones your professor said won’t be on the exam, and add your own cards for things you heard in lecture that aren’t in the slides.
Cards you write or edit are marked as yours. If you’re on Premium and generate a fresh deck from the same material, your own cards stay in it.
Is the flashcard maker free?
Yes, there’s a free plan. It covers 2 classes a month with a preview of each deck, and your very first class is made with every Premium feature so you can see the full result before deciding.
| Plan | Price | Flashcards |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 2 classes a month, a short preview deck for each (your first class is made in full) |
| Essential | $6.99 a month or $39.99 a year | 20 classes a month, full decks of up to 8 cards per topic |
| Premium | $9.99 a month or $59.99 a year | Unlimited classes, full decks, fresh decks on demand, Anki export |
Before and after: fixing a bad flashcard
Most bad flashcards try to hold a whole paragraph. A good card asks one question with one answer you can say out loud in a few seconds. Here’s what that looks like in practice.
Revizly writes cards the way the right-hand column does: one idea per card, a direct question, a short answer. When a topic is big, it becomes several cards instead of one card you can never get right.
| Before | After |
|---|---|
| Front: Mitosis. Back: a paragraph covering all four phases | Four cards, one per phase: “What happens to the chromosomes in metaphase?” Back: “They line up at the middle of the cell.” |
| Front: Beta blockers. Back: everything from the drug chapter | “What do beta blockers do to heart rate?” Back: “Slow it down.” Then a separate card for the main side effects. |
| Front: 1776. Back: Declaration of Independence | “In what year was the Declaration of Independence adopted?” Back: “1776.” Ask in the direction the test will. |
| Front: Opportunity cost (definition copied from the textbook) | “You skip a $50 shift to study. What’s the opportunity cost?” Back: “The $50 you didn’t earn.” |
What to put on flashcards, by subject
Flashcards work best for anything you need to recall on demand: terms, drugs, structures, dates, formulas and rules. They work less well for long explanations, which belong in a study guide.
- Biology and A&P: a structure on the front, its function or location on the back. One process step per card.
- Pharmacology: drug class, mechanism, main side effect and what to monitor, each on its own card.
- History: the event on one side, the date or cause on the other, and a separate card for each consequence.
- Chemistry and physics: the formula on the back, with a card asking what each variable stands for.
- Psychology: the theory or study on the front, who proposed it and what it showed on the back.
- Languages: the word in the language you’re learning on one side, its meaning on the other. Revizly keeps the target language as it is instead of translating it.
Paper notecards vs. a flashcard maker
Paper index cards work, and writing them helps you remember. The problem is time and scheduling: making 200 cards by hand takes an evening, and you have to decide yourself which cards to review each day.
If you love paper cards, a good middle ground is to let Revizly draft the deck, then copy the cards you keep missing onto index cards. Writing the hard ones by hand is where the handwriting benefit actually counts.
| Paper index cards | Revizly | |
|---|---|---|
| Making 100 cards | Two to three hours | Under a minute from your notes |
| Deciding what to review | Up to you (the Leitner box helps) | Spaced repetition picks the cards each day |
| Carrying them around | A rubber band and a backpack | On your phone and laptop |
| Printing | Already on paper | Not as printable cards; Anki export on Premium |
Common flashcard mistakes
Most flashcard decks fail for the same few reasons: too much on each card, too many cards made at once, and reviewing by flipping instead of really answering.
- Putting a whole paragraph on the back. If you can’t say the answer in a few seconds, split the card.
- Flipping too fast. Say the answer out loud or in your head before you flip, or you’re just rereading.
- Marking a card “easy” when you half-knew it. Be honest; the schedule is only as good as your answers.
- Making hundreds of cards the night before. Spaced repetition needs days to work, so start early.
- Using flashcards for everything. Concepts and processes are better learned from a study guide and practice questions.
How to get the most out of your flashcards
Answer before you flip, every time. Be honest about what you missed, keep sessions short, and do them daily. That habit matters more than how pretty the cards are.
- Say or write the answer before you flip the card. Thinking “I sort of know this” doesn’t count.
- Mark a card wrong if you hesitated. The schedule only works if your answers are honest.
- Do the due cards every day, even if it’s only five minutes on your phone between classes.
- When you miss the same card three times, go back to the study guide for that topic. The card isn’t the problem, the idea behind it is.
- A few days before the exam, take the practice quiz too. Flashcards check that you remember, quiz questions check that you can use it.
Who uses Revizly to make flashcards
Mostly college and high school students in classes with a lot to memorize: biology, anatomy and physiology, nursing, pharmacology, psychology, history, government and law. Language learners use it for vocabulary lists too.
- Biology and pre-med students turning dense chapters into decks they can do on the bus.
- Nursing students keeping up with drug classes, lab values and med-surg content.
- History and government students who need names, dates and definitions straight.
- Anyone with a test on Friday and a 70-slide lecture they haven’t opened yet.
Make your first deck
Sign in, upload your notes, slides or a PDF, and get a deck of flashcards in about 30 seconds, with a study guide and a practice quiz. The free plan covers 2 classes a month.
PDF, photos, Word, PowerPoint or a YouTube linkYou can upload right after you sign inFrequently asked questions
What is a flashcard maker?
It’s a tool for creating flashcards. Most flashcard makers give you blank cards to type into. Revizly writes the cards for you from your own class material, then schedules them with spaced repetition.
Is Revizly’s flashcard maker free?
There’s a free plan with 2 classes a month and a preview deck for each. Your first class is made in full. Essential ($6.99 a month) and Premium ($9.99 a month) give you complete decks.
Do I need an account?
Yes. You sign in with Google or your email before uploading, so your decks and your review schedule are saved on your phone and your laptop.
How many flashcards do I get per class?
It depends on how much material there is. On a paid plan, Revizly writes up to 8 cards per topic, across up to 12 topics. A short handout gets a small deck, a long chapter gets a big one.
Can I make flashcards from a PDF?
Yes. Upload the PDF and Revizly writes the deck from it. Scanned PDFs work too, because Revizly runs OCR on pages that have no selectable text.
Can I make flashcards from PowerPoint slides?
Yes. Upload the .pptx file. Revizly reads the text on every slide, including speaker notes, which is often where the useful explanations are.
Can it read my handwritten notes?
Yes. Take one clear photo per page in good light. Revizly reads the handwriting and writes cards from it. Very messy handwriting may need a quick fix afterward.
Can I edit the cards or add my own?
Yes. You can reword any card, delete it, or add new ones. Cards you write or edit are kept as yours.
Does it use spaced repetition?
Yes. Every deck is scheduled with FSRS, a modern spaced repetition algorithm. Cards you know show up less often, cards you miss come back sooner.
Can I export my flashcards to Anki?
Yes, on the Premium plan (and on your first class). You download an Anki file and import it into Anki on your computer or phone.
Can I print my flashcards?
Not as printable cards right now. You can study them in the app or on the website, and Premium users can export them to Anki. Study guides can be exported as a PDF on paid plans.
Is there a flashcard app for my phone?
Yes. Revizly has iPhone and Android apps. Your decks and your review schedule sync between the apps and the website.
How is this different from Quizlet?
Quizlet is built around sets that you or other students type. Revizly writes the deck from your own slides and PDFs, and adds a study guide and a practice quiz from the same material.
Are AI-made flashcards accurate?
They’re written only from what you upload, so they follow your professor’s material. Skim a new deck once, and fix or delete anything that doesn’t match what your class emphasized.
What subjects does it work best for?
Subjects with lots of terms, facts and processes: biology, anatomy, pharmacology, chemistry, psychology, history, government, economics and law. It also handles formulas in math and physics classes.
Can I get a fresh set of cards on the same material?
Yes, on Premium. When you’ve learned the first deck, you can generate a new one from the same material, and the cards you wrote yourself stay in it.
How many flashcards do I get for a class?
On Essential and Premium, Revizly writes up to 8 cards per topic, so a typical chapter gives you a few dozen. On the free plan, after your first class, you get a preview: up to 2 cards for each of the first 2 topics.
Can I print my flashcards?
Not as printable cards right now. You can study them in Revizly on your phone or laptop, and on Premium you can export your deck to Anki. Study guides, not flashcards, can be exported as a PDF on Essential and Premium.
How big can my file be?
Each file can be up to 50 MB, which covers most lecture decks and textbook chapters. For a whole textbook, upload one chapter at a time so each deck stays focused.