Brainscape - Smart Flashcards Reviews

by MelissaDann

In high school I’d use Brainscape for hours and hours a day and felt so proud to be learning so much about subjects that we didn’t learn in school. There didn’t used to be a limit to how many cards you could see in a day.
I’ve been using Brainscape loyally for years, and am now a junior university student studying biochemistry, coming back to this app to study for the MCAT. 5 minutes into studying, I get a notice saying that I’ve used all of my cards for the day and must upgrade for more.
I feel like 25 cards is such a low daily allowance for something that used to be completely free and unlimited; I went through 25 cards in 5 minutes.
I used to love Brainscape so much and have always recommended it to my friends, I was so excited to use it to study again, but I didn’t know that these changes came around and will have to find another app to study with.
So sad to see it go.

Update: I wouldn’t mind paying $2.99 a month for 12 months if it only charged the $2.99 each month rather than $36 at once. It’s hard to let go of $36 as a broke college student, whereas I can skip a coffee a month in order to pay for the upgrade, and maybe Brainscape locks you into a contract where it charges every month and you can’t cancel. I think a lot of people would agree with this and you’d gain a TON of subscribers if you implemented this. You could only gain money this way, and more people would be able to learn using Brainscape.

by DownOnDerby

This was literally my favorite app until it was “updated” a few days ago. Now, my investment in creating dozens of lesson plans is down the drain. Fundamentally, it just doesn’t work. When I try to bring up my lessons I get an error message. I have to sign out, sign back in, then download all the lessons each time I use it. Once I do get it to work some of the most important features have been eliminated. For example, reverse testing is a must for language learning. You need to test for the vocabulary both ways. That’s been eliminated in this version, basically rendering it half useless. The card formatting is all screwed-up with words that were formerly in lists now just running together. I’ve had to go in and reformat dozens of cards. In the old version it would run through the card stack in order. Now i get repeats before all the cards in a test appear. I could go on and on but what’s the point? My subscription is up in a few weeks and I’m not sure what I’ll do. A week ago I wouldn’t have given it a second thought, but the new version is basically unusable for me so I need to start to explore alternatives.

by Afeedback

Brainscape has great potential. It allows me to go over words that i don’t know over and over again until it becomes solidified in my head. I almost considered buying the premium version of Brainscape . However, as much as this app is a great app for its flash cards, it is extremely buggy. First, it relies heavily on its internet connection. If you try to study these flash cards while in the middle of a commute and the mobile network becomes spotty it crashes when you finish. If you want to double check a meaning on a card and you quickly switch apps and come back, Brainscape freezes. It somehow saves progress which I assume is due to its constant connection to the internet, but my inability to switch between apps while memorizing is hindering to my learning process. I even tried to find a way to contact someone from this app to talk about these things, but for some reason it says that there’s no email attached to Brainscape even though when I go to my account my email info is in there. There was even a this app representative that emailed me to promote the premium version so they do have my contact info so why doesn’t Brainscape reflect that. I love the way Brainscape works and would like to use it for a longer period of time, but if these problems persist it’ll become hard for me to do so.

by Youbreakyoubuy

Like I said, it’s pretty. I love the interface. It’s also nice that you can have multiple decks within one course. It keeps track of your mastery level which is great. However it’s missing several basics:

- it’s difficult to import cards from excel and word. This should be a basic function. You have to jump through a bunch of hoops to import the right file type, encoding, and format. It’s not fun.

- once you create a deck, you can’t change the order of the cards in the deck. If you want to add a card it goes to the bottom of the deck. This is terrible when you want to organize an outline and you forget to add a card. You would have to copy cards, create a new deck, delete the cards in the original deck, paste cards from the new deck into the original deck Ughh... that’s just if you forget once. Imagine wanting to add several new cards.

- the pc version does not allow you to browse the cards in order. You are forced to use their spaced repetition algorithm. You can browse on your mobile device but not your pc. That’s annoying af especially when studying a subject that contains many layers like law: rule, elements, exceptions, examples.

I paid for the full lifetime membership assuming these basic functions were included. Silly me.

by D1992S

Great for studying but Brainscape does not have some of the beloved features that the website has, and I do not understand why. I cannot edit the cards I have made within Brainscape , but somehow can make new ones. I cannot select decks within a class to study together. It only allows either one deck at a time or the ENTIRE class to be studies. The website allows certain decks to be selected. I would like to be able to zoom in on the pictures posted within flash cards. The reason that I use the iPad app is that the website does not automatically resize photos to match a screen size, but Brainscape does. This makes large images on the website either look distorted/grainy or cuts off half the picture when you select full image size. The iPad app does not do this. Second, lately the website has been crashing, and I’m afraid that this app will shut down or something without notice, and that I’ll lose my study material.

by Discord Gamer

It hasn’t changed much over the years. It’s too bad, Apple forced a bunch of apps to consolidate if they had multiple apps for one concept. In this case, it’s language learning. Many companies that had Spanish, French, German, etc, language apps sold separately, had to consolidate all languages into one app. During this switch to the new format many apps offered a way to restore purchases. I will admit, many of my language app purchases and Brainscape upgrades were purchased at discounts or during a free unconditional purchase, but I have lost some of the old in app purchases that I had previously. Some of my previous unlocks were for a full set (complete course) or all decks of study cards, and now I seem to only have the first or first few decks. It’s not really a big deal as I have been using other language learning apps in place of this app. I will say,, the spoken content is clear compared to other apps, but it really is simply a digital study card application. I’m not really sure what I’d get for the $200 per year PRO upgrade, but $200 per year gets you a lot of upgrades with a bunch of your language apps compared to just this one, and other apps have tests/quizzes and study material that utilizes voice recognition to analyze your speech when determining if you answered correctly. I consider speaking the language more important than memorizing flash cards

by C.M$.$

I am new to this app and so far Im liking it. I have a few stuff it could modify. 1st. Every time I finish a card and select to go to the next card it says “network error” and that entire card is gone, deleted, erased- no where to be found. This is frustrating because i have to start all over again and sometimes i forget what i typed. 2nd: Bolding words and being able to highlight would be a nice feature to add. I am big on bolding or highlighting words that are important. 3rd: I wish there would be options to upload more than one pic ON THE QUESTION SIDE AND THE ANSWER SIDE. In science, we use many pics to understand the topic- at least myself and my study friend. 4th: Every time i copy and paste from another page, this app always asks “paste from outside source” it would be nice if it did not ask this constantly! If there is an option to remove this, please direct me to it. Its a great app to study but Brainscape def needs more options. Especially if im purchasing it.

by Bac2thaBasix

Im trying this app, I’m a lifetime member and I’m trying to being able to say I support Brainscape but the devs are making it hard. They refuse to listen to feedback from longtime users. They changed it because they wanted to and not from feedback. Here is a great little piece of feedback, being back the confidence setting in the browse mode. It went from one keystroke to set confidence in a card to four. I.e. when I first set up cards I like to go through and set my predetermined confidence. I used to be able to just do that automatically in Brainscape on the side via a drop down menu . Now, I have to open the card up, flip it over, rate confidence, be sent to another card, flip it over, rate it…oh wait, you rated your previous card a 1, you have to see that one again….or, you have to back out of browse mode, scroll down to the next unrated card and repeat the process all over again. It’s stupid. If you bring back one thing or change one thing, WHICH YOU SHOULD!!! Bring that back. It makes Brainscape unusable. At this point I would rather ask for a refund and go back to quizlett.

by Watson Emerson

The interface is ok. I don’t really use the algorithm/system of reminders. I just study whole decks at my own pace. But the stock Spanish Course is really really good and the reason I pay for a subscription. Two main requests. 1. Please make a dark mode. It’s so bright at night with the white background and I like to use as lying in bed. Almost every other app I use regularly has this feature yet I pay more for Brainscape than anything else on my phone. Frustrating. 2. Please let us flip a flash card without hearing the audio. It makes no sense that you can’t turn this off. I like to listen to music while flipping through cards but it stops the phone audio to play the card and doesn’t return to the song or whatever is playing. It’s also annoying when I flip through while somewhere I don’t want the audio playing out loud as I need to turn the whole phone volume off. I’ve seen this requested for a long time and seems simple to offer. Please make these simple things happen!

by PharmSchool

I have switched over from Quizlet because I hate having to add * to stuff that I want bolded. Editing is WAY easier with this app, like adding italics or underling. However, the study mode on the website itself drives me crazy! It forces you to rate your confidence and then you can’t go back to a previous card if you accidentally moved forward. Please add BROWSE mode to the website!! I love the BROWSE mode on my phone and IPad and the interface in browse is BEAUTIFUL which makes me want to study. I like looking at the card list and the tags I added which tell me exactly where I am. Rating your confidence is great when you have the time but sometimes I only have time to get quickly once through a deck.. and it would be nice if there was some indicator of your position in study mode (I like to know how many cards I have left), other than percentage. Oh yeah, maybe a highlighting feature would be nice too! It’s almost perfect 👌!

by Jdhdjdhdh

I downloaded several flashcards apps to see which one had the best diversity of study options, and though it costs to acquire the options I wanted it seems worth it to me. Like- being able to reverse or shuffle the deck, having deck categories and being able to study them together or alone. Most free apps just don't make the cut for what I need to really study effectively. I was looking for an app that was ideal for making my own flashcards, and not only did I like this one the best for flashcard creating, but it also actually has a pretty wide variety of already made decks that can be download and studied that I like to utilize for the fun of it sometimes. The one thing I really really wish was available was being able to put a gif, an animated photo, or even a video on a flashcard. I haven't yet found a flashcard app that has this option available but it would be so helpful! I am studying sign-language and an animated photo or video option would be perfect. this app would be the ultimate flashcard app if they added a feature like that!

by LaLaLand !

There has been a new update that completely renovated the look of Brainscape . When you now open Brainscape it is white with more organization options. Brainscape is very helpful while studying for exams, tests, or any other memorization required.
At first the update was hard to get used to since I was using the previous version for multiple years. Non the less, I have always used Brainscape since lower school, and it has never failed me. Although, the one thing I would really appreciate is being able to edit my rating on how I well I did on a card from inside the edit deck option. This would be beneficial when trying to go back and re-learn old material for exams.
Over all it is a good app for flash cards that, in my opinion, is a better alternative than using paper flash cards. Brainscape is better for the environment and also has a good algorithm for gradually introducing new material to the learner.

by Pcborup

The overall app is quite good and provided me a valuable certification study aid that is more portable and flexible than a stack of 3x5 cards. The breadth of available topics is huge and the cost reasonable. Ease of use and fast downloading of decks get positive marks.
On the downside the decks that I made use of had some inaccuracies and errors. While there is a mechanism for submitting feedback it is very glitchy and relies on the user to know realise the error exists. While it’s probably understandable that given the breadth of topics available that internal company monitoring for accuracy is not feasible it means that “buyer beware” prevails and the quality of a deck appears dependent upon whoever uploaded it in the first place for the quality and accuracy of questions and answers.

by FR3321

Not sure if my original review is still floating around somewhere but I felt it only right to amend it. I received VERY prompt tech support from Desiree and quickly learned the glitch was not with Brainscape but with me, all me. My only complaint, and I feel it is a justifiable one, is that you are quite limited as to what you can do within Brainscape itself, it relies rather heavily on you using their website. For instance, I had to not only use the website but also the desktop in order to do something as simple as rearrange the order of the decks within a given class. Uh, what? I’m not holding it against them because chica ain’t paying for the subscription but that is seriously anti-user friendly IMO.

by Skayell

The subjects I am working on now:

Chinese Vocabulary and ‘Survival Chinese.’* Why? Because I live in an apartment complex with about 80% occupancy of Chinese graduate students, who all speak English, but why shouldn’t I learn some of their language? (*Gotta love that name!)

Knowledge Rehab Why? Because high school and college were a long time ago! (62 yo now)

World Geography Why? Because when we had geography in the early 70’s, they didn’t think it was important to cover anyplace but North America, Europe and a little of the Middle-Eastern countries. Oh, sure, they pointed out India, China (they called it Red China back then!) and Australia. Oh, they included Egypt and South Africa in the list, also. Of course we all knew about North and South Vietnam, but most couldn’t point to them on a map. So, since I never learned much about the rest of the world, and since many of the names and boundaries have changed, why not learn something?

this app is for people who want to learn something specific and for people who just want to learn something new and for folks who want to “brush up.”

Yes, it’s true that some decks are better than others. But all I’ve seen are an improvement over ignorance or incomplete knowledge. Why not learn something starting today?

by Studymeister

just the rockinist flashcard app ever! does everything i want it too! u can even export ur flashcard as an excel file to reference the information another way. works beautifully. these developers are geNius! thanks so much gang for making a great app for those of us who need to be reminded of what we need to know. ive used it for school and work and always to great success. the only improvements I'd suggest after years of use is (1) if u could edit cards from the cards (while ur studying them), (2) if you could SEARCH the cards in your library easier (without searching ALL flash cards) with a more generous search bar (because then this app would also be an in INCREdIBLE quick reference guide).

by JakeStook

I have extensively used anki as well as Brainscape. I gotta say I prefer Brainscape given the fact that I feel I learn the cards faster and don’t have to repeat the cards I know we’ll nearly as many times overall. The interface is clean and nice and I don’t get sidetracked with adjusting settings and addons. The browse feature definitely has room for improvement both on mobile, and implement on desktop to help search and consolidate repeat cards, etc. It would be nice to have subdecks, no deck card limits, ability to tag cards, more advanced study stats, and more. Right now Brainscape is very good, and I’m hoping that as they continue to improve Brainscape they will add these features and more, making it the clear winner above all others. Thanks this app!

by Elephanttrip

As an all-around nerd and intrepid fan of linguistics I have downloaded a lionshare of various apps to upskill my language game. Rosetta, Anki, you name it. I had it. Paid for it. And committed to them each for months at a time. But then I got referred to this app by my professor and it was love at first tap.

I can add on any number of languages and certified classes ( that I must say are exceptionally well crafted ), as well as create my own. I have, to the best of my ability with the aid of this app, now automated my long term data consumption and maximized the volume of information I can hold.

This is, as of today, the best product out there. I am very much excited about what new features are coming down the road. As I am sure there are many. Oh yah, and the new app is so beautiful, it gets me confused why they don’t offer Pulitzers for this kind of innovation.

by Reverend Onyx

Right now I’m currently attending a high school, in the Jrotc, I was informed about a way to prepare for the ACT and ASVAB. I decided to take them up on the offer and went to the website, since I don’t have a computer and have to use a mobile device I had to use Brainscape . On to the point it’s easy to navigate and the questions don’t seem random and actually have structure like the real ACT. I won’t have to take the ACT for another two years as I’m currently a freshman but I do have experience with the ACT, which allows me to say definitely use Brainscape. I shouldn’t even have to mention that the sight I used is technically a navy owned sight, which means if the military is willing to bet on this then you should too.

Edit: Forgot to mention some cards have cut off sentences making them impossible to be done correct making them what I call “freebies.” As in there’s nothing to do but skip.

by Teamka04

I LOVE Brainscape!!! I’ve used it for the MCAT, throughout my first 2 years of medical school and am now using the pre-made USMLE deck for my board exam prep. I love the percent mastery metric. It is ALWAYS within 3% of my exam scores (including the MCAT)! I only wish there was a plug in or connection with Picmonic that allowed quick search of Picmonics. 100% prefer the spaced repetition algorithm over Anki! I don’t need to fiddle with settings. this app shows me what I need to see when I need to see it.
The search function for terms is ok, but I wish I could search and it would leave the list of results up instead of having to search the term again after looking at the first one. Also, I preferred the browse mode from the older version. When I do a quick review for exams I just want to flip through them. But this new version only shows a preview and you only have the option to study the deck from that card. Please allow for quick edits in Brainscape .
Overall, I am very happy with the new version!! It is much quicker!

by Dprest66

I started using this several years ago and it was good then, but my role changed and haven’t picked up again until this month, and man they have not been resting on their laurels! Brainscape has progressed to be easier to use, show more relevant content in with questions along with answers and good formatting. The website also is full of science based recommendations and research for best practices in learning, and even notes some controversial theories (well labeled as controversial). These make me more confident in spending the time to study using Brainscape. I use this mainly to learn about areas of my job, especially when I change jobs. People roles, tech terms, project names, etc. helps a lot! I wish there were a little more info on the importing of excel files.

by Leewilson5932

These flash cards saved my life when studying Bar-tested subjects (during law school) and especially while studying for the bar. Super easy to study here and there — I pull them up when I’m awkwardly waiting for a table at restaurants, etc. I wish someone had told me about these at the beginning of 1L year. I’m in Crim Pro now, and instead of reading the cases intensely to prepare for class, I study the flashcards and briefly review the cases enough to answer cold calling. While everyone else in the room is confused because the professor is reviewing multiple different rules, overturning of precedent, etc, I am able to easily just spit out rule statements. People look at me like I’m a genius when in actuality I’ve just been using this app. The only “genius” part was buying the this app flash cards and studying them during law school, not just after. TOTALLY WORTH IT!

by Rpotter1000

I’ve used this app on and off for years, and it keeps getting better every time I return to it.
They have high-quality content for just about any topic. It’s great for test preparation, general curiosity, knowledge refreshing, and exploring a topic before going into it more deeply through books or other study—and thus it also gives you a solid grounding if you do go more deeply. It allows real learning to happen when you don’t necessarily feel like doing traditional study with books, notes, highlighting, and all that. It allows you to basically be puttering around on your phone—but productively!
I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily the ultimate flashcard service. I use a different one (the big Q) for when I want the various study modes that that one provides, but I don’t WANT this app to do anything differently than it does. I love its simplicity and consistency in how you interact with the content. And it’s extremely simple to find excellent quality content to study (UNLIKE with the big Q).

by Wykatmom

I recently started using this app, and I must say, it has exceeded my expectations in every way. Brainscape boasts excellent visuals that make the learning experience as enjoyable as binge-watching my favorite show (almost!). The ease of navigation is remarkable, allowing me to find what I need faster than I can find my car keys.

One of the standout features is the variety of real-time testing options. This not only makes studying fun but also helps reinforce learning in an interactive way. The friendly verbiage throughout Brainscape inspires and encourages me to keep pushing forward, which is incredibly motivating—like having a cheerleader who knows when you need that extra nudge.

The user interface is both intuitive and aesthetically pleasing, with smooth navigation that ensures a seamless experience. Everything is quick and easy to locate, thanks to the well-designed graphical user interface (GUI). The designer/s of Brainscape have intuitively placed buttons and links where I expect them to be.

In summary, this app has been a fantastic tool for my learning journey. It's fun, helpful, and perfectly designed to enhance my study sessions. Thank you, this app, for creating such a wonderful app! Now, if only it could help me remember where I left my coffee…

by KristenMLV

I LOVE Brainscape!!! I’ve used it for the MCAT, throughout my first 2 years of medical school and am now using the pre-made USMLE deck for my board exam prep. I love the percent mastery metric. It is ALWAYS within 3% of my exam scores (including the MCAT)! I only wish there was a plug in or connection with Picmonic that allowed quick search of Picmonics. 100% prefer the spaced repetition algorithm over Anki! I don’t need to fiddle with settings. this app shows me what I need to see when I need to see it.
The search function for terms is ok, but I wish I could search and it would leave the list of results up instead of having to search the term again after looking at the first one. Also, I preferred the browse mode from the older version. When I do a quick review for exams I just want to flip through them. But this new version only shows a preview and you only have the option to study the deck from that card. Please allow for quick edits in Brainscape .
Overall, I am very happy with the new version!! It is much quicker!

by Etchavious

I happened to run across this site on my PC while looking for materials for ways to study mock exams or similar for my upcoming Archimate certification exams. I started with the free component and was able to get a feel for whether this flashcard system was going to work for me.

After purchasing to gain full access, I continued to use the site to enhance and reinforce my existing knowledge. While, in my opinion, this shouldn’t replace training courses and standard learning tools (otherwise, you’re just studying concepts without a complete understanding), it was a fantastic accompaniment to the rest of my study materials.

The system itself and the concept behind it is straightforward. Beat the knowledge into your head with repetition. I wish I had this when I took my TOGAF exam. Yes, I passed that exam, and my Archimate exam that I used this tool to study with, but my confidence going into this latest exam was very high. I did way better than expected, and I would like to associate some of that with this tool and its successful methods.

I passed my exam with 95% and 90% - Thank you, this app, for your help! I’ve already shown my co-workers Brainscape , and I’ll spread this to others at my company. This tool is fantastic. I hope you push to grow it more!

by TheCaT4568

I first found out about this app Senior year of high school. My friend recommended it and I absolutely LOVED it! I got it when everything was free, but I liked it so much that when they came up with "Pro" I chose to buy the one year subscription (thinking I wouldn't use it after high school). However, I continued to use it through college and STILL love it! So much that when the year was over I upgraded to the lifetime subscription. Brainscape got me through some of my toughest classes. It also helped me study for HOSA state which I then qualified for HOSA nationals and went even further! I couldn't have done it without Brainscape! I will do anything for my grades and success in life, and this app proved to me that I'm even willing to pay for a subscription to help me study! Definitely recommend! Even if you're not planning on buying the Pro.

by Scott A

... but I don't think it's the "only" flashcard app you will ever want. Anki is useful too, albeit in my experience only if you make your own flash cards. In this app you don't have to. In this app I have used only the pre-made Spanish cards, so that's all I can review: they're terrific.

A year later: I stand by my previous remarks: this app has the best pre-made flash cards for learning Spanish that I’ve seen. BUT you also owe it to yourself to use Anki.

The two complement each other really well: you probably would not love making huge batches of Anki cards for every conjugation of a long list of verbs. No need: this app already has them. But for learning new vocabulary, especially phrases (and things like idiomatic expressions) your own “bespoke” (get it?) Anki cards (¡with images!) can’t be beat.

by Wannabe Legendary Polyglot

As someone who loves learning languages this has been a very good app for learning languages. I find Brainscape to be very organized and you can even make topics and have individual decks for each lesson/chapter and it’s supper nice to have that feature. I love using the teach yourself series books and they have chapters where they I introduce new words to you so if makes it nice to divide up the words from each chapter in that language. Brainscape is way better than Anki. Anki with the flash cards would’ve made it a decade to find stuff but with app you can find it because you can make individual things and it be super convenient!!!!!

by Lad_jr

I contacted this app during beta letting them know there was a serious bug not allowing Brainscape to open. It opens and crashes. They wrote back and said that they are aware of it and are waiting for Apple to approve their update, but honestly this should have been taken care of weeks ago! This is not some small bug that can be worked out in some future update. This is a bug that doesn’t even allow Brainscape to open, hence the 1 star. When Brainscape is updated, then I will update my review.

UPDATE: iOS 11 patch has been released and all is well in the world again. No more crashing. Thank you!!!

by Samys123

Flash Cards to prep Bar Exam was amazing, professional and it will save huge times to event it. Organized.
Let me tell you an experience with a flash cards most of it cost money most of it come with a full course they have to pay thousands but flashcards with this app just one time payment lifetime and you enjoy all times with a flash Cards you make it an exam you take it or retake it so I am really admitted for the people study Bar Exam or especially Bar Exam because this is my goal you have to purchase and be a member is this app will help you memorize the MBE is multiple choice and MEE relevant to ESSAY exam.
I am-lifetime purchaser. Just share my experience to help not to hurt. This is my opinion.
Just Enjoy it. 🙃

by Kringle777

I have tried a ton of methods for learning foreign languages over the years — audio only, grammar intensive, books, audiobooks, videos, computer apps, etc. They all have their little gimmick — no studying, guided situations, games, etc. And at the end of the day, the simple flashcard method (with audio) works the best at having things to say in the moment you need it and at the tip of your tongue. this app takes it further by offering curated professional flash cards courses for Spanish and French, plus smaller subsets of offerings (like verbs only or nouns only) for other languages like Mandarin or Italian. I wish they had entire courses in all the popular languages, because their method works best. It really does. Their method of progressive training, interval recall, and 5-level self scoring quite well at getting you to recall words and phrases. Plus I can create my own sets of flash cards and hook audio or picture content to them. All in all, there is no better method for learning a foreign language.

by Sandrahoverter

I have always had a hard time studying the traditional way by filling out index cards and using them as flash cards. Brainscape is a great way to truly learn as you are studying. I love how I can grade myself as I go. The questions/answers I am confident with get graded as I know them therefore I see them less and the ones I am not confident with I see more. I can study anywhere on my phone or laptop. I recommend Brainscape to everyone studying for any subject like math, humanities, foreign language, even real estate. I am 39, I fully believe in this system and wish something like this was around when I was in grade school.