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Show HN: Make spaced-repetition flashcards

zorbi.cards

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Re: Show HN: Make spaced-repetition flashcards

#2

Post by deagler »

Hi HN,

Meet Zorbi - a spaced-repetition tool built for exam study.

Zorbi helps you create flashcards straight from PDFs and Websites or from our Notion integration.

Creating flashcards with Zorbi is crazy fast and crazy easy.

Zorbi is a web-app so you'll be able to study from any device (but we have an Android app & an iOS app coming soon!)

Our mission is to build a full-featured exam study tool that people ACTUALLY want to use

(Combining the power of Anki with the simplicity and flexibility of Notion)

Let me know if you have any questions!

Re: Show HN: Make spaced-repetition flashcards

#4

Post by pella »

deagler wrote: post #2

Hi HN, Meet Zorbi - a spaced-repetition tool built for exam study. Zorbi helps you create flashcards straight from PDFs and Websites or from our Notion integration. Creating flashcards with Zorbi is crazy fast and crazy easy. Zorbi is a web-app so you'll be able to study from any device (but we have an Android app & an iOS app coming soon!) Our mission is to build a full-featured exam study tool that people ACTUALLY…

questions:

- What is the business model?

- any (detailed) info about the "data exporting" functions?

- Offline use is possible?

- Any API expected? ( creating 3rd party tools )

Thanks!

Re: Show HN: Make spaced-repetition flashcards

#5

Post by mshekow »

In my experience (I have over 10k flashcards in Anki and SuperMemo) it takes a lot of time to create the cards (vs. repeating/learning them). But the main reason is because I have to take time to think about and understand the content first, reformulate it in my own words (otherwise it won't stick well!), and cut it into bite-sized cards. What helped me most were articles "teaching" how to do this, or generally the experiences of others [1] [2].

From scanning your product's landing page, it seems you focus a lot on the time-savings during card creation, by relying on copy-and-paste. I'm not sure this is the best way to learn more complex topics, but may work fine for very clear things that are already bite-sized in the source material (e.g. chemical formulas, or language vocabulary). Are you focusing on these use cases?

[1] https://andymatuschak.org/prompts/ [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24878171

Re: Show HN: Make spaced-repetition flashcards

#6

Post by zwayhowder »

nestlequ1k wrote: post #3

Will it be able at some point to export the newly created flashcards to ANKI?

It actually looks very similar to this 5 year old chrome plugin. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/anki-quick-adder/g...

(I haven't used that one, I only use Anki for Japanese and therefore use Yomichan for the same thing).

Re: Show HN: Make spaced-repetition flashcards

#7

Post by laurieg »

The app experience is very smooth. I managed to make a flashcard and review it very quickly.

Do you have any support for cloze-deletion? I find that is the number one way to improve your output in a foreign language.

How are you going to stop people making hundreds and hundreds of cards and being unable to review them? I find that people often start of using SRS systems by putting in way too much information and then getting overwhelmed by reviews.

Final question: any plans for teacher/student models. Quizlet has a few nice features for this but there isn't any spaced repetition as far as I'm aware.

Re: Show HN: Make spaced-repetition flashcards

#8

Post by Smaug123 »

I'm afraid I feel this is kind of missing the point. I assert that you will spend the time coming up with how to remember a thing; the question is whether you choose to do that at card construction time (easiest, because you've got all the context available to you of the thing you're trying to remember), or ad-hoc during review time.

Creating a card is not just writing down some text (or, worse, copy-and-pasting it so that you remove all your agency entirely); rather, it's focusing a spotlight on a specific small aspect of your enormous mental model, determining how you can remember that particular aspect, and then writing down a card that will trigger you to illuminate that same spotlight in the future. Reviewing a card is not just dredging some detail from your memory; rather, it's remembering the reason you remember that card, and then re-activating the spotlight.

Writing and reviewing flashcards is a much more active process than many people think, and I am very wary of anything that purports to remove some of that activity, because the activity is what helps you remember!

Re: Show HN: Make spaced-repetition flashcards

#9

Post by ThouYS »

Smaug123 wrote: post #8

I'm afraid I feel this is kind of missing the point. I assert that you will spend the time coming up with how to remember a thing; the question is whether you choose to do that at card construction time (easiest, because you've got all the context available to you of the thing you're trying to remember), or ad-hoc during review time. Creating a card is not just writing down some text (or, worse, copy-and-pasting it s…

This! Writing your flashcard makes you think the subject through, and sometimes you need to try a few times until you get a good flashcard. This is the learning experience, the rest is just preventing you from forgetting it.
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