Cardboard flashcards

In my previous post about memorising the countries of the world, I described making cardboard flash cards. Here is a photo of the collection I am currently memorising.

I printed the countries and capitals in a large font so I can read them without the aid of my glasses. This is most important for when I am on my walk! On the front of the card I write the peg number and the capital and country are pasted on the reverse side.

As I review the cards and think of associations, I jot notes in pencil under the country name. Lately I have not been writing a lot as the associations stick in my memory, which is the purpose of the exercise. My association skill generation is getting stronger.

Each day I add a few new cards to the ring, and remove the cards I have memorised. My longer term review of the material is done using a software program called Mnemosyne.

These cardboard cards are the scaffolding for building my long term geographic knowledge. Once they have fulfilled their purpose, I can throw them out knowing that the information is in my long term memory.