Making flashcards by hand is one of the most effective study methods and one of the slowest. A single lecture can take an hour to turn into cards, which is time you could spend actually reviewing them. AI can do the first draft for you in seconds.
What you need
- Your lecture slides as a PowerPoint (PPTX) or PDF file, or your notes as a Word (DOCX) file
- A phone with DoomStudy installed (free on iPhone and Android)
Step by step
- Create a course. Name it after the class so cards from different subjects stay organized. You can add custom tags too.
- Upload your slides. Add the PPTX, PDF or DOCX file. DoomStudy extracts the text automatically, so there is nothing to copy and paste.
- Choose your card types. Pick from facts, key concepts, Q&A, true/false and multiple choice, or define your own custom card types.
- Pick an AI model. Use Google Gemini online, or download an offline model (Llama 3.2, Phi 3.5 or Qwen 2.5) to generate cards on your phone. On iOS 26 or later you can also use Apple Intelligence.
- Generate and scroll. Your cards appear in a swipeable feed. Review them anywhere.
Tips for better AI flashcards
- Upload one lecture per file. Smaller, focused files produce more specific cards.
- Toggle files on and off. Before an exam, enable only the chapters that will be tested so new cards come from the right material.
- Mix question types. Q&A and multiple-choice cards make you retrieve information, which works better than only reading facts.
- Check important cards against your slides. AI is fast but not perfect, so verify anything you will need word-for-word.
Slides with little text
Some slide decks are mostly images with a few keywords. The AI can only work with the text it can read, so for very visual decks, add a PDF of your own notes or the course reader to the same course. The cards will be much richer.
Why not just reread the slides?
Rereading feels productive because the material looks familiar, but familiarity is not the same as being able to recall it in an exam. Flashcards and quiz questions force you to pull the answer out of memory, which is what makes it stick. Turning slides into cards automatically means you get that benefit without the hour of typing.
Ready to try it? DoomStudy is free on the App Store and Google Play.
