Flashcard Revision Calculator
Enter your deck size, days to the exam and seconds per review. The calculator prices spaced repetition honestly: new cards per day, the total review bill with expanding intervals, the peak-day minutes - and the date to stop adding cards.
Flashcard apps tell you whether you are due. This one tells you whether the plan is survivable - the 3.6x review multiplier, the mid-deck peak and the cut-off date are the parts apps let you discover at 1 a.m. in April.
How to use
- Count the real deck - the cards that exist, not the ones you intend to write.
- Enter honest days left and seconds per card (6 is typical; medicine runs longer).
- Set the daily new-card pace shown and treat the stop date as a subject: no new cards inside ten days.
Frequently asked questions
How many new flashcards per day is reasonable?
Whatever divides your deck across your days: 300 cards in 21 days is 15 daily, with review load stacking to roughly 25-40 minutes at peak. Past 30 new cards a day, retention and goodwill both collapse.
Why does the review total exceed the deck size?
Spaced repetition reschedules every card at growing intervals - first next-day, then three days, then a week - which costs about 3.6 reviews per card before an exam. That multiplier IS the forgetting curve being beaten.
When should I stop adding new cards?
About ten days out. A card added later gets two reviews at best, which feels like studying and performs like rereading. The final days belong to drills on what already failed, plus sleep.
Are flashcards actually better than rereading notes?
Yes - retrieval practice outperforms rereading in virtually every controlled comparison, because exams test retrieval and rereading trains recognition. The catch: cards must require real recall, and failed cards must be split, not stared at.