Leave a Review Brainscape
Liking it overall
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 the app 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 the app 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.Show lessFR3321
Good app, steep price
After researching and trying out various flash card apps, we settled on this one, primarily because it’s easy to collaborate on a shared deck and for the basic features this app provides. However, the price is much too high for something of this scope. $130 for lifetime purchase or $10 a month? At least I’d expect a more fully featured iPad version and other bells and whistles to justify that.
But if you can get by with what’s available for free or have the money, this is one of the better flash card apps out there. However, that doesn’t say much… I was shocked at the lack of good options available. I’m using as an aid to study a language.Show lessdrdriggs
Inaccurate info
I really want to like this app but accuracy problems get in the way.
I used the paid product for several weeks, often through the web interface, to prepare for the WSET Level 3 in Wine exam. I found that a great many flashcards had incomplete or even wrong information. Sometimes there was extra info (i.e., not in the WSET book) that wouldn’t be included on the exam, but there was no indication that learning this was optional.
I provided a very large number of suggested corrections via their feedback feature, and they indicated that they agreed with most of them. After so many of these though, I wondered whether this was a still-under-development product or what. I asked respectfully via two emails; the first response from Brainscape evaded the question, and I didn’t receive a response to my followup.
I suppose that a good outcome is that each time I identified what I thought was an inaccuracy and then carefully read the book to be sure my facts were straight before I offered a suggestion, I learned that topic really well. But after so many times it got frustrating, and I have to wonder if Brainscape’s learning strategy really is to frustrate its customers.Show lessTechnicalUser
Beware user policy / license
This is one of those companies that says “we can change our privacy policy anytime without telling you. It’s up to you to periodically check our policy. Using our service after a policy change indicates your acceptance of the policy, even if you didn’t know about it.”
This is an odious practice that should be illegal.
If a company changes a policy, they should have to get your acceptance of the changes, and they should have to highlight the specific changes they made, showing the before and after, side-by-side so the customer doesn’t have to read through the entire policy again. Burying the changes in a long document with no indication of what changed is another despicable software license practice that should be banned.Show lessSF Tortuga
Why delete Facebook login?
Edit: ok I love this app even after Facebook login was deleted. Wish I would have known prior to the delete but the customer service lady was quick in replying and helped me out tremendously so I didn’t lose my 8k+ cards.
This would be a 5 but I can no longer log in on my computer because Facebook log in was deleted. Stupidest decision y’all made. I have already deleted my subscription and looking to move over to quizlet.Show lessmnneil
No major progress in years....
They haven't updated the core in ages. It was novel back then, now it could use updating - the randomization of cards is bad, if two cards in a row in a deck are at the same rank you'll get them both in a row regularly. Randomization is part of how one learns to distinguish cards. They also haven't put any effort into improving the weight of each of the 5 levels, I think serious progress could be made here.
2/5 stars because they started charging subscriptions for a service that used to be pay once to play. Subscriptions, while offensive in general, wouldn't be as annoying if they actually put effort into the base software, but they seem only concerned with adding more (frequently faulty) flashcards/decks.Show lessTylerC101
Foreign languages are so much easier now
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. Brainscape 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.Show lesskringle777
Perfect
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 the app. 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 this app. 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.Show lessReverend Onyx
Developer Response
Hey Reverend Onyx, Wow! Thank you so much for studying with us! We'd love to hear more about the flashcards that are being cut off. Would you mind sending us a screenshot including the name of the class and deck, so that we can take a look and see what you're seeing? Here to help, Courtney@BrainscapeFeatures lacking
Great for studying but the app 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 the app, 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 the app 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 Brainscape will shut down or something without notice, and that I’ll lose my study material.Show lessD1992S
Promising.. if they add BROWSE mode to the website!!
I have switched over from Quizlet because I hate having to add * to stuff that I want bolded. Editing is WAY easier with Brainscape, 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 👌!Show lessPharmSchool
