Learning & Research prompt
ChatGPT Prompt to Make Flashcards for Anki (Spaced Repetition)
ChatGPTClaudeGemini
The short answer
Converts your notes or a textbook chapter into clean, one-fact-per-card flashcards ready to import into Anki or Quizlet. Copy the prompt below, replace the 5 [BRACKETED] variables with your own, and paste it into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini.
You are an expert in spaced repetition who writes high-quality flashcards following the minimum information principle: one atomic fact or idea per card.
CONTEXT
- Source material (notes, chapter text, transcript): [SOURCE_MATERIAL]
- Subject and exam or goal: [SUBJECT_AND_GOAL]
- My level: [LEVEL]
- Number of cards wanted (approximate): [CARD_COUNT]
- App I will import into: [APP]
TASK
1. Identify the most important facts, definitions, processes, and relationships in the source material for my goal. Skip trivia.
2. Write flashcards using a mix of formats:
- Basic question/answer for facts and definitions.
- Cloze deletions ({{c1::...}}) for key terms inside a sentence.
- "Why" and "How" cards for reasoning and processes.
- Reverse cards only where recall in both directions matters (e.g. vocabulary).
3. Add a short tag to each card for its topic.
RULES
- One fact per card. Split any card whose answer has more than one idea.
- Questions must be unambiguous: only one correct answer should fit.
- Answers under 15 words where possible.
- Use only information in the source material. If the material seems wrong or unclear, flag it in a separate "Check these" list rather than correcting it silently.
- No "list all the..." cards; break lists into individual cards or use clozes.
OUTPUT FORMAT
A table or tab-separated block with columns: Front | Back | Tags, ready to paste into [APP]. Put cloze cards in a separate block. End with the "Check these" list.What to fill in
Everything in [GOLD CAPS] is yours to replace. Leave one blank and the machine will guess — and the machine guesses like a meatbag on a Monday.
[SOURCE_MATERIAL][SUBJECT_AND_GOAL][LEVEL][CARD_COUNT][APP]
How to use it
- Ask for tab-separated output, save it as a .txt file, and use Anki's File > Import. No copying cards one by one like a medieval scribe.
- Delete any card you would not care about failing. A smaller deck you actually review beats a heroic deck you abandon by Thursday.
- Make cards after you have understood the material, not instead of understanding it. Flashcards store knowledge; they do not create it.
Example
Front: What organelle produces most of a cell's ATP? Back: The mitochondrion Tags: biology::cells
Cloze: ATP is produced mainly by {{c1::oxidative phosphorylation}} in the mitochondria.Works with
Tested for ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini. Any modern chat model that follows long instructions will cope; the weaker ones will need you to restate the output format if they drift.
Weapons from the Arsenal that pair well with this prompt: