How to Make Good Flashcards for IB Economics

Making flashcards is easy. Making flashcards that are actually useful takes a little more thought.

A good flashcard gives you a clear question, forces you to remember something without looking, and gives you an answer that is easy to check.

For IB Economics, this works particularly well for definitions, economic relationships, policy mechanisms, diagrams, evaluation points and real world examples.

Consider these two cards.

Card 1

Question: Explain monetary policy.

Answer: Monetary policy is when the central bank changes interest rates or the money supply. Lower interest rates can increase consumption and investment. Higher interest rates can reduce aggregate demand and inflation. There are advantages and disadvantages and it depends on the situation.

Card 2

Question: How can lower interest rates increase aggregate demand?

Answer: Lower interest rates can encourage borrowing and reduce the incentive to save. Consumption and investment may increase, raising aggregate demand.

The second card is much easier to use.

It tests one idea. You can tell whether you remembered it. If you get it wrong, you know exactly what needs more practice.

This article explains how to build flashcards like that.

If you would rather start with ready made decks, IBonomics has flashcards covering the major IB Economics units. You can read more in IB Economics Flashcards for Every Unit.

Start with something you understand

Flashcards are better at helping you remember an idea than teaching you an idea for the first time.

Suppose you are confused about why an indirect tax creates a welfare loss.

Copying a definition onto a flashcard does not solve that confusion. You first need to understand how the tax changes costs, prices, consumption and the allocation of resources.

Once the explanation makes sense, flashcards can help you keep the important steps in memory.

You might create:

Question: What happens to supply when an indirect tax is introduced?

Answer: Firms face a higher cost of supplying each unit, so the supply curve shifts upwards or to the left.

Then:

Question: Who can bear the burden of an indirect tax?

Answer: Consumers through a higher price and producers through a lower price received after tax.

Then:

Question: What determines how the burden of an indirect tax is shared?

Answer: The relative price elasticities of demand and supply.

These cards reinforce knowledge you already understand.

When a topic still feels unclear, use your notes, textbook, teacher or another explanation first. Then turn the important ideas into questions.

Make the front of the card a real question

A flashcard should tell you exactly what you are trying to remember.

A front that simply says:

Inflation

is vague.

Are you supposed to define inflation? Explain its causes? Describe its effects? Draw a diagram? Evaluate a policy response?

A better card asks:

What is inflation?

Another could ask:

What causes demand pull inflation?

Another:

How is cost push inflation shown on an AD and AS diagram?

Clear questions produce clearer retrieval.

They also make it easier to judge your answer honestly.

Keep each card focused

One of the easiest ways to make flashcards difficult to use is putting too much on one card.

Imagine the question:

Explain everything you need to know about price elasticity of demand.

You might remember the definition and formula but forget the determinants. Did you know the card or not?

There is no obvious answer.

Split the topic instead.

Question: What does price elasticity of demand measure?

Answer: The responsiveness of quantity demanded to a change in price.

Question: What is the formula for price elasticity of demand?

Answer: Percentage change in quantity demanded divided by percentage change in price.

Question: What does a PED value between zero and one mean?

Answer: Demand is price inelastic.

Question: Why do necessities often have relatively inelastic demand?

Answer: Consumers have less ability or willingness to reduce consumption when the price rises.

Now each card tests a specific piece of knowledge.

This also helps spaced repetition work properly. If you struggle with the determinants of elasticity but know the formula perfectly, there is no reason for both ideas to return at the same frequency.

Try to answer before revealing the back

This is one of the most important parts of using flashcards.

Looking at a question and immediately flipping the card turns the exercise into rereading.

Pause first.

Try to produce the answer from memory.

Research on retrieval practice provides strong evidence for this approach. In a well known 2006 study, Henry Roediger and Jeffrey Karpicke compared repeated studying with testing students on material they had learned. The students who practised retrieving the material remembered more after a longer delay.

A major review by John Dunlosky and colleagues later rated practice testing as one of the most useful study techniques they examined.

Flashcards are a simple form of practice testing.

The important part is the attempt to remember.

You do not need to say every answer aloud, but you should be able to form an answer before checking the back.

Keep the answer short enough to check

A flashcard answer does not need to contain everything you know about a topic.

It needs to answer the question.

Consider:

Question: Why can contractionary monetary policy reduce inflation?

A useful answer could be:

Answer: Higher interest rates can reduce consumption and investment, causing aggregate demand to fall and reducing demand pull inflationary pressure.

That is enough to check whether you remembered the mechanism.

You do not need to add every possible evaluation point, diagram explanation and stakeholder effect to the same card.

Those can become separate questions.

Shorter answers also make mistakes easier to notice. If the back of a card contains a full paragraph, it becomes tempting to decide that your answer was close enough.

Do more than definitions

Definitions are an obvious use for flashcards, but IB Economics requires much more than vocabulary.

Good decks can test several types of knowledge.

Definitions

Question: What is opportunity cost?

Answer: The value of the next best alternative forgone when a choice is made.

Cause and effect

Question: What usually happens to imports when a currency appreciates?

Answer: Imports become cheaper for domestic consumers because the domestic currency can buy more foreign currency.

Policy mechanisms

Question: How can higher government spending increase real output?

Answer: Government spending is a component of aggregate demand, so higher spending can shift aggregate demand to the right and increase real output when spare capacity exists.

Evaluation

Question: Give one limitation of using higher interest rates against cost push inflation.

Answer: Higher interest rates reduce aggregate demand but do not directly solve the increase in production costs that caused the inflation.

Diagrams

Question: Which curve shifts when production costs increase?

Answer: Short run aggregate supply shifts to the left.

This variety matters because Economics requires you to connect ideas rather than simply define them.

Make cards that ask why

Some of the most useful Economics flashcards begin with why or how.

Compare:

Question: What is a subsidy?

with:

Question: Why can a subsidy increase consumption of a merit good?

The first tests a definition.

The second asks you to remember an economic mechanism.

Both are useful, but they serve different purposes.

You could answer the second card:

Answer: A subsidy lowers firms' costs of production, which can reduce the market price and increase the quantity consumed.

Questions like this help practise the chains of reasoning that later appear in essays and data response questions.

They still remain small enough to work as flashcards.

Turn evaluation into flashcards

Evaluation often feels harder to revise because there is rarely one perfect answer.

You can still use flashcards to remember useful lines of evaluation.

Suppose you are revising a minimum wage.

One card could ask:

Question: Why might a minimum wage have little effect on employment?

Answer: If the minimum wage is set below the existing equilibrium wage, it may not affect the labour market.

Another:

Question: Why does the elasticity of demand for labour matter when evaluating a minimum wage?

Answer: If demand for labour is relatively inelastic, a higher wage may cause only a small fall in employment.

Another:

Question: Why can the effect of a minimum wage differ between industries?

Answer: Industries differ in wages, labour demand, productivity, market power and their ability to replace workers with capital.

These cards do not replace evaluation practice.

They give you possible arguments that can later be selected and developed in an essay.

Use real world examples carefully

Real world examples can also work well as flashcards.

For example:

Question: Give a real world example of a government using a tax to reduce consumption of a demerit good.

The answer could contain a sugar tax, tobacco tax or another example you have studied.

Another card could ask what happened after the policy was introduced.

The important part is checking that the example is accurate.

Avoid filling a deck with statistics you do not understand. Knowing that a tax rate was exactly 17 percent in a particular year is rarely useful if you cannot explain why the policy was introduced or what effect it was intended to have.

Focus on the parts of the example that help you apply Economics.

Real world examples can also become outdated, so review them occasionally if you plan to use them in an exam.

Use diagram cards for relationships

You can use flashcards to practise diagrams without trying to squeeze an entire diagram onto every card.

Ask about the relationships inside the model.

For example:

Question: What happens to equilibrium price and quantity when demand increases?

Answer: Equilibrium price rises and equilibrium quantity rises, assuming supply remains unchanged.

Or:

Question: What happens to the average price level and real output when aggregate demand shifts right?

Answer: The average price level rises and real output usually rises in the short run.

You can also use a flashcard as a prompt to draw.

Question: Draw a negative consumption externality diagram.

Before revealing the back, draw it on paper.

The answer can then show which curves and labels should be present.

This combines retrieval with actual diagram practice.

Always check the answer

Testing yourself is useful, but checking what you got wrong matters too.

Research by Andrew Butler, Jeffrey Karpicke and Henry Roediger found that feedback after retrieval improved later retention. Feedback was useful for correcting wrong answers and also helped when participants answered correctly but were uncertain.

Flashcards provide immediate feedback because the answer is available on the back.

Use it.

If your answer was wrong, read the correct answer carefully before moving on.

Suppose the card asks:

What happens to exports when a currency appreciates?

You answer that exports become cheaper.

The back tells you that exports become more expensive for foreign buyers.

Do not simply mark the card wrong and continue. Work out why your answer was wrong.

A stronger correction would be:

One unit of foreign currency now buys less of the domestic currency, so foreign buyers need to spend more of their currency to purchase the same domestic product.

That correction gives you something meaningful to remember the next time the card appears.

One correct answer does not mean you know the card forever

Students often stop practising something once they have answered it correctly once.

Research by Jeffrey Karpicke found that when learners controlled their own studying, many removed items from practice after successfully recalling them. Repeated retrieval produced stronger retention, but students often stopped earlier than was ideal.

This is easy to recognise when using flashcards.

You forget a definition twice, finally remember it on the third attempt, and think:

Got it.

Maybe you do.

The more useful question is whether you will still remember it next week.

This is why flashcards work well with spaced repetition. A correct card does not disappear permanently. It simply waits longer before returning.

Our guide to Spaced Repetition for Flashcards explains the research behind this process in more detail.

Do not make every card typed

Typing an answer can be useful when exact wording matters.

Definitions, formulas and short factual answers are good candidates.

For example:

Question: What is the formula for PED?

Typing the formula forces you to produce it precisely.

Longer analytical questions are different.

If a card asks why expansionary fiscal policy can create inflation, there may be several valid ways to express the answer. Requiring one exact sentence can make the card frustrating without improving the underlying Economics.

Use typed answers where precision adds value.

Use normal recall where the meaning matters more than exact wording.

Build several cards from one important topic

A good deck does not need one card for every paragraph in your notes.

Focus on the knowledge you want to be able to retrieve later.

Consider unemployment.

You could build a small set like this:

Card 1: What is unemployment?

Card 2: What is cyclical unemployment?

Card 3: What causes structural unemployment?

Card 4: Why can unemployment reduce government tax revenue?

Card 5: How can expansionary fiscal policy reduce cyclical unemployment?

Card 6: Why might expansionary fiscal policy be ineffective against structural unemployment?

These cards move from definitions to causes, consequences, policy and evaluation.

Together they cover much more useful ground than a single card called "Unemployment".

Make cards while you study, not only before the exam

Creating hundreds of flashcards one week before an exam misses much of their value.

Add cards as you finish topics.

If your class has just covered price controls, make the important cards while the topic is fresh.

A few months later, those cards can still appear in your reviews while your class has moved on to Macroeconomics or the Global Economy.

Research on repeated retrieval suggests that remembering something successfully once is less useful for long term retention than returning to it across later sessions.

This is another reason to build your deck gradually.

Should you create your own flashcards or use ready made ones?

Creating your own cards has clear advantages.

You decide which concepts deserve attention. You can add examples from class. You can make extra cards for topics you personally struggle with.

The downside is time.

Writing fifty good cards can take longer than actually studying fifty existing cards.

Ready made decks are useful when you want to start revising quickly or check your coverage of a unit.

A sensible approach is to combine both.

Start with a good existing deck, then add your own cards for anything missing or particularly difficult.

IBonomics provides ready made decks across the IB Economics syllabus and also lets you create and share your own decks. You can read more about the available material in IB Economics Flashcards for Every Unit.

Choosing a flashcard tool

Good flashcard design matters more than having dozens of features.

At a minimum, the tool should make it easy to create questions, reveal answers, revisit difficult material and organise your cards.

Spaced repetition can save time by deciding when each card should return.

Some students prefer a highly configurable tool such as Anki. Others prefer simpler interfaces or a platform built around the subject they are studying.

Our comparison of the Best Flashcard Apps for IB Economics Students looks at those differences in more detail.

A simple checklist for a good flashcard

Before adding a card, ask yourself five questions.

1. Is the question clear?

You should know exactly what you are being asked to remember.

2. Does the card test one manageable idea?

If the answer requires half a page, split it.

3. Can I answer before looking at the back?

The card should encourage retrieval rather than recognition.

4. Is the answer easy to check?

You should be able to tell whether you were correct.

5. Is this information worth remembering?

A deck becomes less useful when important concepts are buried among dozens of trivial facts.

These rules are simple, but following them makes a large deck much easier to revise.

How to use your cards after making them

A flashcard only becomes useful when you actually try to remember the answer.

Read the question.

Pause.

Produce an answer from memory.

Reveal the back.

Check what you got right and what you missed.

Then let difficult cards return more frequently and easier cards wait longer.

On IBonomics, you can rate cards according to how well you remembered them. The review schedule then changes for each card.

This means a deck gradually adapts to the parts of Economics you personally find difficult.

You can start practising IB Economics flashcards, create your own deck, or browse decks shared by other students.

Good flashcards do not need clever wording or complicated formatting.

They need clear questions, useful answers and repeated attempts to recall the information over time.

Research behind these recommendations

The recommendations in this article draw on a broader body of research on retrieval practice, feedback and repeated learning.

Roediger and Karpicke's 2006 research on test enhanced learning found that retrieving material can produce stronger long term retention than repeatedly studying the same material.

Dunlosky and colleagues reviewed ten common learning techniques in 2013 and gave practice testing and distributed practice their highest utility rating.

Karpicke's 2009 experiments showed that learners often stop retrieval practice too early when controlling their own study, even though continued retrieval can improve later retention.

Research by Butler, Karpicke and Roediger in 2008 found that feedback after retrieval can improve later memory by correcting both wrong answers and uncertainty about answers that happened to be correct.

Rawson and Dunlosky's 2011 work on retrieval schedules also supports returning to material across repeated learning sessions rather than treating one successful recall as permanent learning.

These studies do not prescribe one perfect flashcard format. They support the principles that make flashcards useful: try to retrieve the answer, check the result, correct mistakes and return to important material over time.

Sources and further reading

Roediger, H. L. and Karpicke, J. D. 2006. Test Enhanced Learning: Taking Memory Tests Improves Long Term Retention. Psychological Science.

Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J. and Willingham, D. T. 2013. Improving Students' Learning With Effective Learning Techniques. Psychological Science in the Public Interest.

Karpicke, J. D. 2009. Metacognitive Control and Strategy Selection: Deciding to Practice Retrieval During Learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.

Butler, A. C., Karpicke, J. D. and Roediger, H. L. 2008. Correcting a Metacognitive Error: Feedback Increases Retention of Low Confidence Correct Responses. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition.

Rawson, K. A. and Dunlosky, J. 2011. Optimizing Schedules of Retrieval Practice for Durable and Efficient Learning: How Much Is Enough? Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.