Ali Abdaal’s essay-memorisation article describes his exam preparation using flashcards for content blocks and diagrams for whole essays. This original Deckumi guide uses a new exercise to connect cards and writing practice. His personal experience does not guarantee an exam outcome; the full account is linked below.
Read the task before making the cards
Essay questions may ask you to explain, compare, argue or apply an idea to a case. Identify those verbs and list the required parts of the answer. A definition of one option is usually insufficient for a comparison of two options.
Prepare the material for each part: a claim, supporting evidence, the conditions under which it applies and its limitations. Cards can be organized around these writing tasks.
An original exercise: compare two proposals
Practice question: compare two service-deployment approaches in terms of deployment independence and operating cost. Assume your project material documents the team, change process and maintenance work. Check specific conclusions against that material.
Card task | What to put on the back |
|---|---|
A claim | A short argument with its conditions. |
Evidence | An observation or measurement from the material and its location. |
A limitation | A condition under which the claim fails or is insufficient to decide. |
A structure | The role of the opening, comparison dimensions, case and conclusion. |
For example, ask: “Which fact in this project material supports our assessment of deployment independence?” Answer with a fact you have actually found. Do not invent incident counts, performance gains or project experience to fill the card.
Give longer content blocks a boundary
A card can retain a short argument. Specify the claim being recalled and what satisfies the task. An entire essay on the back makes it difficult to locate a missing claim, piece of evidence or structural step.
Add a short support card if a term inside the argument repeatedly interrupts your recall. Shorter support questions and longer argument questions can coexist. Adjust them in response to difficulties you encounter while writing.
Recall the whole essay on paper
Close the material and draw or write the outline. Compare it with your plan: does it answer the question, connect paragraphs and use evidence that supports the claims? Then write one paragraph in full to inspect your explanation.
Use paper or your existing document tool for this exercise. Record connections you missed in Deckumi card notes so you can revisit them when editing.
Organize the material in Deckumi
Create a group for an essay topic and move the related cards into it. For document-generated cards, keep or rename the source-outline groups. Preserve the evidence for each card rather than judging relevance from its topic name alone.
Practice recall with the cards, then leave them to write an outline or argument. The four review ratings reflect your response on this occasion; they do not automatically grade the quality of an entire essay.
Interface hierarchy and argument structure
Deckumi’s large set cover and narrow group covers help locate material; the question, answer and notes carry the content. A distinctive group can make browsing easier. Whether an argument is complete still depends on answering the question and checking its evidence.
- Prepare one claim, one piece of evidence and one limitation for a topic today.
- Close the material and explain how the three connect.
- Use the difficulties in your writing to decide what to revise in the cards.
Deckumi wrote this comparison exercise and practice sequence. Follow the reference for Ali Abdaal’s account of his own preparation and use of essay diagrams.