The Pacer

Issue date: 3/27/07 Section: Technology

Quizlet.com claims to be the end of flashcards ... and that may well be true. It allows you to create your own digital flashcards.

Once you have made a "set" of flashcards, Quizlet gives you three ways to learn your terms. First, you familiarize yourself with the terms by simply looking through them, term, definition and all.

Then Quizlet goes through your set, flashing cards and prompting you to type in the correct term. It remembers which ones you get wrong, too, and goes back over them at the end of the session. After you have completed those, Quizlet creates a custom test with your choice of written, matching, multiple choice and true/false questions.

In addition to letting you create sets, Quizlet gives you the ability to create groups. This means that you can share your sets with everyone else in the class (and they can share theirs with you). This could be put to great use by, say, having everyone in the class each put in the vocabulary for one chapter. Then, with a minimal amount of effort, everyone could study. To throw in a bit of competitive spirit, Quizlet even posts the top scoring members of the group.

Quizlet is well designed and all the features are fairly easy to use. Some features of the groups seem counter-intuitive at times, but it should be nothing to keep your average Internet user at bay. Also, it would be great if Quizlet incorporated a wiki aspect for taking and sharing notes.

Despite these shortcomings, Quizlet obviously can be a beneficial piece of your studying habits: it is always ready to go over your flashcards with you (unlike your friends sometimes, who need to sleep and eat) and it won't cheat and hold the card in front of a light just right like you might do when studying alone. Give this one a try before your next vocabulary test.

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