We recommend Buffl for vocabulary flash cards
It is recommended that you use a flashcards app with Go Correct, to help you track and practise the vocabulary that you learn.
We set out to find the best flashcards app to recommend. We wanted an app where you can create your own flashcards and test yourself on them. We tried a few apps and the one we’ve decided to recommend is Buffl.
[Buffl are not paying for this article. We have never been in contact.]
First, why use a flashcards app?
When you’re learning a language you should be keep a list of all the new words you learn, so that you can revise them later and test yourself. You can do this in a notebook but it’s much much more convenient to use a flashcards app on your phone. It’s always with you and it makes it really easy to test yourself on the words.
Reasons we like Buffl
It’s a clean and simple interface, without too many additional features. It focuses on the tasks of creating and viewing flashcards.
You can create flashcards in a web browser on a computer or in the app. Your cards are shared between both.
It’s fast and easy to flip the cards and move to the next one.
Flashcards are categorised into boxes according to the number of times you’ve got the words right. At first I was confused by this box system. Then I realised the words are moved through the boxes every time you get them right. That means you can find your newer cards and the ones you often get wrong in the earlier boxes (boxes 1 and 2) and the older cards that you know well in the later boxes (boxes 4 and 5). This is a great way of giving you some control over which words you study.
Why is Buffl better than Memrise or Quizlet?
As I mentioned, I tried a few flashcard apps. Some weren’t up to scratch and aren’t worth mentioning here. But what about two of the most famous – Memrise and Quizlet?
Although Memrise started life as an app for flashcards, it’s now become more about teaching languages at beginner and intermediate levels.
It’s probably still possible to create your own cards but you have to start by choosing a language course and there are only courses for lower levels.
Quizlet is another good option for creating your own flashcards. However, it’s more complicated than Buffl and has more features, all of which were unnecessary for me.
Quizlet gives you other ways to test yourself on the words (eg. multiple choice quizzes and matching games). Personally I didn’t like this, although some people might. The reason I didn’t like it is it’s an unrealistic representation of how we use language. When we’re in the middle of saying a sentence and we need to think of a word, we don’t have a list of multiple choice options to choose from.