There are numerous apps on the market designed to help you learn more effectively. They generally fall into one of three categories:
- Flashcard apps These apps assist in reviewing material, typically featuring spaced repetition and active recall, which are well-known, effective retrieval practices.
- Note-taking apps Whether you're taking notes in class, from a textbook, or an online course, you're likely using an app for that purpose. Note-taking apps have gained popularity since Roam Research introduced the concept of connected notes, making it easier to link notes across various topics.
- Mind mapping apps First introduced by Tony Buzan in 1974, mind mapping has consistently been shown to be an effective way to make sense of new material and build deep understanding. However, its popularity among students has been limited to top academic performers.
These three categories correspond to the learning process as understood by cognitive science. When new information is first learned, the brain needs to make logical sense of it and connect it to existing knowledge; otherwise, you're just memorizing isolated facts that don't stick. This process is called 'Encoding,' where mind mapping is particularly beneficial.
After initially learning the information, students review it to improve retention. This process, called 'Retrieval practice,' involves techniques like active recall and spaced repetition, where flashcard apps excel.
Note-taking apps can be useful at both stages. When making connections between notes, they can assist in the encoding process. When reviewing them later, they serve as a form of retrieval practice. However, note-taking isn't ideal for either job: it's easy to fall into the trap of taking notes that merely restate what a lecturer said, leading to poor encoding. Moreover, reviewing notes is often a passive activity of re-reading. Thus, note-taking is best viewed as a complementary practice to mind mapping and flashcards.
The good news is that many students (67% according to one study) already use flashcards. However, once a flashcard practice is formed, many students fall into the trap of using flashcards for everything, leading to poor encoding. It's like memorizing without first understanding, which takes more time (as more reviews are needed to memorize the same amount of information) and is often tedious or boring.
Traverse addresses this issue by providing both encoding and retrieval practices in one app, offering mind mapping, note-taking, and flashcards in an integrated way.
Let's explore some of the most popular study apps and examine how they could be used as part of an effective study process.
Flashcards and spaced repetition apps
Anki
Anki is a classic choice for spaced repetition practice and is especially popular among medical students. It's free to use on Windows, Mac, and Android, with a paid iOS app available.
Though highly customizable regarding spaced repetition scheduling and flashcard content, the interface is outdated, and the app comes with a steep learning curve. Apart from extensive support for grouping and tagging flashcards, there's limited assistance for features that aid in encoding information effectively.
Conclusion: Anki can be utilized for spaced repetition practice alone, but it's essential to supplement your practice with other apps to ensure effective encoding and avoid becoming trapped in 'flashcard hell'.
Quizlet
Quizlet is another popular option for flashcard practice. Its advantage is that it's much simpler to use than Anki. While it doesn't support spaced repetition, this doesn't have to be an obstacle (as we've seen from the research on increasing intervals). However, it does have a strong focus on shared decks, which can easily tempt users to skip creating their own flashcards altogether.
Conclusion: Quizlet offers a solid flashcard experience, but you'll need to supplement it with other apps for encoding and be cautious not to fall into the trap of relying solely on shared decks.
Note-taking apps
RemNote
RemNote offers both note-taking and flashcards. Notes can be interlinked and organized in 'rems'. Creating flashcards within notes may take some getting used to, but overall, the spaced repetition experience is satisfactory. Additionally, there is partial support for importing Anki decks for students looking to transition, although schedules won't be preserved and images, audio, and video may only be imported in some cases.
According to Moritz Wallawitsch from RemNote who commented for this article, it has many rich text features including text highlights, highlight backgrounds, font style changes, latex, and many more which makes it a very visual experience, including a graph/mind-map view (see https://www.youtube.com/live/KyfXoTvpngA?si=qIX1W5GPJkJzVzrn&t=452).
Conclusion: RemNote is a commendable effort to combine encoding and retrieval practice. The primary limitation is that it centers around rich text, with limited possibilities for visual note-taking and mind mapping.
Notion
Notion was not initially designed as a study app, but its popularity as a task-management tool has attracted many students. Unfortunately, aside from advanced note-taking features, Notion does not provide any elements that support the actual learning process.
Conclusion: Notion is an excellent task management tool (we use it to manage our projects at Traverse and for this blog!), but it is not well-suited as a learning tool.
Obsidian
Obsidian promotes itself as a personal knowledge management tool. With a focus on building a 'second brain' instead of enhancing learning in the user's actual brain, it lacks retrieval practice features such as flashcards and microlearning (although some form of spaced repetition can be added with custom extensions). However, its capabilities for encoding knowledge are robust, particularly since the addition of a mind mapping canvas last year.
Conclusion: Obsidian is a fantastic tool for encoding, but it needs to be complemented with other apps for effective retrieval practice.
Mind mapping, concept mapping and sketchnoting apps
Notability
Similar to Obsidian, Notability excels at expressing and encoding new ideas and knowledge. It has a stronger visual focus than Obsidian but is more limited in its note-taking capabilities.
Conclusion: Just like Obsidian, Notability is a fantastic tool for encoding but requires the use of other apps to support retrieval practice effectively.
Miro
Miro review coming soon!
Xmind
Xmind review coming soon!
GoodNotes
GoodNotes review coming soon!
The all-in-one app
Traverse
Traverse is an app we developed specifically to provide a comprehensive, science-based study method within a single app. It offers user-friendly spaced repetition flashcards, note-taking features, and a visually organized mind map that enables you to express your thoughts and learnings in a vibrant, colorful manner. For those transitioning from Anki, decks can be imported, including scheduling information, media, and image occlusions.
Conclusion: Traverse is currently the only app on the market that delivers a complete evidence-based study process, developed together with knowledgeable advisors like Dr. Justin Sung.
Conclusion
Traverse is the only app that encompasses the entire learning process, featuring flashcards, note-taking, and mind mapping all in one. This is not surprising, as our goal in developing it was to create a comprehensive, evidence-based learning app.
Alternatively, a robust study practice can be achieved by combining some of the other apps listed. However, this approach comes at the cost of frequently transferring information from one place to another - time that might be better spent on learning.
We've summarized all the learning science-related features of popular study apps in the diagram and in the table below.
Comparison Table
ㅤ | Anki | Quizlet | RemNote | Traverse | Notion | Obsidian | Notability |
Flashcards | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
Spaced repetition | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | only with extension | ❌ |
Microlearning | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
Note-taking | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Mind mapping | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
Creating connections | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Color-coding | only with extension | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | only with extension | ✅ |
Grouping | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Visual organization | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
Free hand drawing | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
Anki import | Not applicable | ❌ | Partial (no scheduling, limited media) | Full (scheduling, media, occlusions) | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
(Features in blue relate to retrieval practice, while features in green relate to encoding.)
