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If you are studying Germann this post is for you. You might know that I post German Grammar Flashcards on my homepage to help you study German.
I am a firm believer in studying with flashcards! I like to use flashcards for memorizing words and for memorizing grammar.
Vocabulary
I recommend learning vocabulary by copying them on Index cards. I recommend using colored 5" x 8" cards.
Be consistent if using colored cards for example female nouns red, male nouns green, neuter nouns blue.
Big flashcards allow adding additional information.
Next, I will introduce you to the German method on how to learn with flashcards. Maybe you are already familiar with the system. If not, give it a try. If you have a system that works for you already don't bother learning a new system. But if you have never learned with flashcards you really want to listen to this method and check it out.
What you need is a) flashcards and b) a storage container.
You can either use a classic flashcard box as pictured in the left upper corner or an “accordion letter file” as pictured in the right corner. The classic flashcard boxes are sometimes hard to find here in the US. That's why I use the accordion letter file, but both work fine.
Now let's look at the system: the bottom picture shows a cross-section of a flashcard box. And you can see that we have different sections. This is where your personal learning style matters.
You can see that I went for 13 sections. You can also use more or less. This really depends on how often YOU need to repeat vocabulary to remember them. In the beginning, you might want to use the 13 sections as well and then see how it works out for you and adjust accordingly afterward.
Alright, let's look at the different sections.
The first section Is the section where your new flashcards go in. These flashcards you have to repeat every day for one week. If you remember them every day for a week they move to the next section.
In the next section, you repeat the vocabulary every three days. If you remember the vocabulary for three days seven times they moved to the next section.
In the next section, you repeat the vocabulary every five days. If you remember them every five days 4 seven times they move into the next section.
In the next section, you have to repeat them every week. And here you will need to adjust according to your style. Repeat them at least twice. But maybe you need to repeat them a little bit more. You need to see how that goes in the beginning, start with repeating them every week for example every Monday two Mondays in a row.
Then move it to the next section. If you notice that that is not often enough just increase to repetitions.
The words in the next section should be repeated every 2 two weeks,
After that every month after that every three months, after that every six months, after that every year. Again, you want to adjust this to your learning style this is what works for me you have to see if this works for you. “Working for you” means do you remember the words?
If at any point you don’t remember the word or parts of it like an article or the conjugation, then the card moves to the beginning section and has to repeat the entire cycle.
The last four sections are for the vocabulary that you remembered. This is basically storage. I recommend separating it into four sections: first nouns second verbs third adjectives adverbs and forth everything else. But again, just do you. This is my recommendation, but you might want to separate them differently.
Grammar
I also recommend starting a collection of “Grammar Flashcards” with important grammar rules that feel challenging to you. Keep this collection going and add to it. Feel free to refer to my homepage and use the Grammar Flashcards that I provide there. However, it is even better to use your own explanations.
If you like my flashcards you can download them below.
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