Focus Card
Create active-recall flashcards, organize them into decks, and review with smart spaced repetition that adapts to how well you actually know each card.
1What Focus Cards are for
Focus Cards are flashcards built for active recall, pulling an answer from memory instead of re-reading your notes. It's one of the most effective ways to learn, full stop.
Each card has a front (the prompt) and a back (the answer you want to produce). The best cards test one clear thing, so your brain gets a clean signal about what it knows.
Front: “Capital of Australia?” Back: “Canberra.” One idea, one clean test, far better than a card cramming in five facts.
2Creating and managing cards
Open Focus Cards to see your decks, each with a mastery percentage and the cards due today.
- Tap Create New Deck, or open an existing one.
- Add the front and back, attach an image to either side if the idea is visual.
- Pick the deck it belongs to, and add tags if you want to find it again later.
Cards can also come from elsewhere: generate them from Notes, or let Spark draft them from your material. You never set a Bloom level yourself: FocusPace tags each card automatically from its wording, so “Define…” reads as Remember and “Compare…” as Analyze.
3Reviewing cards
In a review, the front shows first, answer it in your head before you flip. That moment of retrieval is where the learning happens.
Rate how it went and spaced repetition does the rest: easy cards come back later, tricky ones sooner. Filter tabs (All, Due, New, Learning, Favorites) let you aim a session where it counts.
Only want to clear overdue cards before bed? Tap the Due tab and review just those.
4Tips for effective cards
Keep each card to one idea, if the back turns into a paragraph, split it (or map the topic first). Use images whenever a concept is visual; with image occlusion, each covered label becomes its own card.
A card you keep failing is information, not a failure. It may be too broad, need a deeper note or map, or belong in your Mistake Log.