Memorization. For some it’s a four-letter word. Whether the subject is Spanish or Biology or History, memorization is both the key and the crux. And if you’re in seminary like me, memorization is a word that’s not going away any time soon.
Thankfully, I’ve found Mental Case. Mental Case is a digital flashcard application for Mac OS X and the iPhone that really simplifies the process of memorization.
Carrying ALL Your Cards
One of the challenges that I have run into with regular 3×5 flashcards is that I often don’t have them with me. There are a lot of situations where I’m left with five to ten minutes of free time, but without the flashcards to study. For example, if I’m waiting in line at the grocery store, it’d be nice to be able to flip through a few flashcards while I wait, but I’d have to carry them around all the time. Or if I’m out on an errand and get stuck waiting, I’d like to be able to redeem that time.
That’s one of the major benefits of Mental Case. Since I have an iPhone everywhere I go, I can have my flashcards with me as well. And while 300 physical Hebrew flashcards would become very cumbersome very quickly, I carry my iPhone like it’s an additional body-part (which may not be a good thing). So instead of having to decide between carrying some of my Hebrew cards or some of my Greek cards, I can carry all of them and still be able to fit my lip balm in my pocket (which is good because I’m addicted to my Burt’s Bees).
Flashcard Exchange
There’s another great benefit that I’ve found with the Mental Case iPhone client. If I were using physical cards, I would probably have to make them myself. And although that can be a good way of learning content, sometimes it can be too time-consuming to be worthwhile. But Mental Case for the iPhone has a feature called “Exchange” (not to be confused with the mail server). Exchange lets you search the website Flashcard Exchange for sets of flashcards that other people have created. For example, there was a set of vocabulary cards for the Hebrew grammar that I was using, so I didn’t have to create them myself.
Mental Case for OS X is $29.99 ($19.99 for students and teachers). Mental Case for the iPhone is $2.99. In upcoming posts, I’ll cover Mental Case’s features in more depth.