In 2021, I designed and developed a specialized web application aimed primarily at high school and university students who need to effectively learn and memorize technical terms, definitions, concepts, or entire formulations as part of their studies.
The idea is simple yet effective – the student creates their own set of questions from their study materials, which can be either open-ended or multiple-choice. They then launch the testing mode, during which the application presents the questions one by one and instantly evaluates the answers. The user can see not only their success rate for the current question but also their overall performance statistics, all in real time.
The application is fully web-based and built with JavaScript, which allows it to be launched instantly in any standard web browser without the need for installation.
How It Works and Its Educational Effect
The effectiveness of this tool is based on a simple yet proven psychological principle, supported by my own experience. The core of its success lies in two interlinked processes that naturally occur when using the application and together significantly enhance the retention of study material.
- Creating Test Questions
The process of creating questions is cognitively demanding. While formulating meaningful prompts, the student actively engages with the study material, organizes information, identifies relationships, and refines wording. This process forces them to think about the content more deeply than they would through passive reading alone. - Self-Testing
Once the questions are prepared, the student moves on to repeated self-testing. They run their own quiz again and again, with the number of incorrect answers naturally decreasing with each attempt. This form of targeted practice, known as active recall, has a proven impact on long-term retention of information.
In essence, the application combines two key learning strategies – active processing of information and repeated memory retrieval – into a single tool that is easily accessible, intuitive, and highly effective.
