Biology
Introductory and upper-level biology mix three kinds of memory: vocabulary, processes, and figures. Each wants a different card, and a deck that uses only one of them fails the other two.
Vocabulary wants basic cards, and reversed ones: term to definition and definition to term, because the exam asks both ways. Processes want cloze cards on the sentence that describes the step, so the order and the cause stay in the card. Figures want image occlusion, because a cycle you can name but cannot redraw is a cycle you do not know.
The summary slide at the end of a lecture is the worst source for cards. It names the topics without the reasons, and a deck made from it tests whether you remember the headings. Make cards from the slides in the middle and from the textbook chapter, where the mechanism is written out.
In Lovelydeck the textbook chapter can be marked as a master document, so it is read first, and every card cites the page it came from. A card made from page 212 of the chapter can be checked against page 212 when it feels wrong.
The Krebs cycle, the light reactions, DNA replication: these are asked as figures. Cover the labels on the figure and each cover becomes a card. Then make one cloze card per step, so you have the picture and the sentence. Diagram-only slides are set aside in the coverage list, which is your cue to cover them.
Fourteen lectures at forty cards each is 560 cards by the final. On a spaced schedule that settles at roughly forty to seventy reviews a day, which fits in half an hour. The same 560 cards crammed in the last week do not fit anywhere. The due forecast on each deck shows the load before the term gets there.
Two ways, usually. Cards made from the summary slide, which test headings. And decks of three hundred cards from a single lecture, which get abandoned. The coverage list handles the first: it names the content slides that got nothing, so you make cards from the middle of the lecture. A review budget handles the second.
Starter decks for biology
Guides that apply
FAQ
Straight answers.
Match the card to the fact. Basic and reversed cards for vocabulary, cloze cards for processes so the order and the cause stay in the sentence, image occlusion for figures you have to redraw. Make them from the middle of the lecture and the textbook chapter, not from the summary slide.
Yes. Upload the chapter as a PDF, mark it as a master document, and cards are proposed with the page each came from. A card whose sentence is not in the chapter is refused, and the pages that produced no card are listed.
Both, for different facts. Basic and reversed for vocabulary, cloze for processes and mechanisms. A deck that uses only basic cards tests names; a deck that uses only cloze cards struggles with definitions.
Image occlusion. Cover the labels on the figure and each cover becomes a card, one label asked at a time. Add a cloze card per step so the sentence goes with the picture. A cycle you can name but cannot redraw is one you do not know yet.
It works with any course that has slides or a textbook. First-year and AP biology both come with both, and the card types above cover what those exams ask.
Drop it in. Read what comes back. Keep what's right.
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