I don't buy a whole lot of software, and I rarely ever pay for freeware, shareware, etc. I have purchased a handful of programs over the years though, and right now my favorite computer app has got to be Flashcard Exchange.
This isn't my favorite because I get the most enjoyment out of it or anything like that. It is my favorite because it is a web-based app that I paid for just once and can use at any time, anywhere, on any computer. I also use it a lot and it has helped me out a lot in studying Hebrew, Greek, and for my part-time jobs at UPS and now... Domino's.
For just $16.50 I get a lifetime membership to this flashcard program, which has a really nice free account available too. I liked the free account so much that eventually I decided that I owed the guy well over $20, so I got the full membership. The full membership is sweet because it lets you do all these extra things that are really helpful in learning things that you need to simply memorize.
The big thing that this software designer pushes for his full membership are Card Files. Basically, the card files allows you to pick and choose flashcards from all over and put them into one file. Then you can give the file any number of compartments. When you go through your flash cards the cards you mark as correct advance to the next compartment. The cards you mark as incorrect fall back to compartment #1. The designer recommends 5 compartments, and after using all different numbers I can see why five or more is a good idea. By the time you get every card into the fifth compartment you pretty much know them all.
Over time you tend to forget things that you memorized for a quiz, exam, or promotion, no? This guy anticipated that and he built in a schedule that you can set up so that the program sends you an e-mail reminding you to go through the flashcards again. You start with all the cards in a card file at compartment #1 again and then you go through them again until they are all in the last compartment. Doing this every so often helps you retain the information really well. After a while you are only going through the flash cards every other week, and you know them really well still so you get through them quickly.
Even with all these features I have to say that my favorite part of the app is that it is a web-based app. This can have it's draw backs (you can't use it unless you're computer is currently connected to the Internet) but my computers usually are. Now that I have multiple computers all with different operating systems it is a bonus to have applications that work on all of them without having to buy a new license (See MS Office for Windows and Office:Mac.)
Posted by David at January 24, 2006 11:29 PM