In this guide
Tips & anti-patterns
Common mistakes & anti-patterns
A living list of the traps that make decks worse — and the fixes.
What & why
Most weak decks fail in a handful of predictable ways. Here are the traps that come up most, each with its fix. This page grows as new patterns show up — think of it as the checklist of things to avoid, next to the deck-craft pages that show what to do.
The traps
Two facts on one card. If the answer has an “and”, it’s really two cards, and the learner can’t grade it cleanly. → One card, one fact
A front that displays instead of asks. “The powerhouse of the cell” is a heading; the learner reads it and feels familiar without recalling anything. Turn it into a question. → Ask, don’t display
Paragraph answers. A long back can’t be judged in one breath, so self-grading becomes a guess. Keep the answer crisp; move context below it. → Answers you can self-grade
Cloze overuse. Blanking out every other word leaves nothing to recall from, and piling many blanks into one sentence quietly multiplies your review load. Blank the one word worth recalling. → Cloze
Orphan cards. “And its capital?” or “the verb above” only makes sense next to a sibling card the learner may not have seen for weeks. Each card must stand alone. → Write for the stranger
Trick questions. Deliberately tricky or ambiguous prompts test whether the learner can read your mind, not whether they know the material. Ask plainly.
The everything deck. A 2,000-card “complete” deck impresses no one who quits at card 50. Scope it to something finishable. → Small decks that finish
Decoration dressed as Rich Media. An image that adds nothing just makes a Basic card heavier. Use Rich Media only when the image is the question. → Rich Media