Brainscape | The Brainscape Blog: Learn How to Learn Faster

Video of the Week: The Learning Revolution

By Isabell Collet, 2/23/2012 at 3:35 pm

Sir Ken Robinson’s speeches on learning and education systems are often among the most popular talks posted on TED. In the past, we’ve posted two videos of him talking about language learning and creativity on our own blog. This time, Robinson speaks out on a topic that concerns us at Brainscape very closely. In his very well structured analysis of the state of learning and the education system today, he makes this point: Like all things, our approach to teaching and learning has to change.

Now more than ever, we need less standardization and more personalized learning. Different people have differents strengths and abilities, which is something that should be recognized by and implemented in education institutes and their teaching strategies. The 21st century and its numerous inventions and revolutions make this very easy. (more…)

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How to Stay Active

By Isabell Collet, 2/22/2012 at 8:40 am

Desk Stretch You may have learned recently that sitting can kill you. Did you read the article, acknowledge the information, worry about it but still not take any action? Lucky for you we at Brainscape feel that it’s our job to make sure you live a long and healthy life, even if you spend hours upon hours of it hunched over your keyboard. For all office workers like ourselves that spend 8+ hours per day sitting in their desk chairs: Stay active! Get up, take a walk, stretch; there are many ways to take break from sitting.

It doesn’t even have to be a standing desk, something that seems to become increasingly popular. (Its health benefits compared to sitting are being explored in a new study.) The idea of standing all day for some may be even less attractive than crouching at a desks for hours, so below are some fast and simple tips on how to stay mobile while working. Read through the article and then click through the gallery over at Huffington Post, which will hopefully inspire you and make you leave your desk chair today. (more…)

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Brainscape’s Vision for the Future of Education

By Andrew Cohen, 2/8/2012 at 5:39 pm

You may have already experienced Brainscape as a mobile education tool that helps you study things more efficiently using intelligent flashcards. If so, thanks for being one of our “early adopters!” Brainscape’s adaptive study algorithm has already helped over one million people like you do things like ace a test or learn a foreign language faster than you ever thought possible.

Yet there’s so much more innovation left to be done in education. Intelligent flashcards can cover only a small part of the knowledge and skills you want to acquire. People deserve a world where any bite-sized learning experience can be made available at their fingertips and delivered seamlessly into their brain. Until Apple invents the iBrain to embed knowledge into our skulls in the year 2025, people deserve to know that every moment of learning time is used as efficiently as possible!

Putting on our science fiction hats for a moment, let’s design a future Personal Learning System that truly optimizes learning. (more…)

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By not using Brainscape, you are actually killing baby seals

By Andrew Cohen, 2/6/2012 at 8:29 am

No, I’m not being melodramatic. If you are still creating paper flashcards to study, instead of using Brainscape to create shared web/mobile study resources for you and your classmates, then you are personally increasing the pace of deforestation. This deforestation increases the production of CO2, which shrinks the cooling band of atmosphere that spans the earth along the Equator, which naturally warms the planet, which causes the polar ice caps to melt, which destroys the habitat of arctic wildlife, which consequently causes millions of baby seals to die.

So stop being a murderer, and instead use Brainscape to learn faster. You might just improve your brain power in the process.

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12 Hours Left: 1/2 Off Brainscape Apps!

By Amanda Moritz, 1/18/2012 at 12:00 pm

Only 12 hours left to get Brainscape’s foreign language and vocabulary apps 1/2 off!

Keep your New Year’s Resolutions with the aid of Brainscape: Learn a language and improve your vocabulary.

Until tonight at midnight, Brainscape’s Spanish, French, Chinese, GRE, and SAT apps are HALF OFF.

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Keep Your Resolution: 1/2 Off Apps Until 1/18!

By Amanda Moritz, 1/12/2012 at 12:00 pm

This week only:

Brainscape’s foreign language and vocabulary apps are 1/2 off!

Did you resolve to Learn a Language or improve your Vocabulary this year? We figured some of you could use the extra motivation 2 weeks into the new year, and what better motivation than a new fun and effective tool to help you learn your target language!

From today (1/12) until next Wednesday (1/18) at Midnight, Brainscape’s Spanish, French, Chinese, GRE, and SAT apps are HALF OFF.

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How detailed should your startup’s product road map be?

By Andrew Cohen, 1/9/2012 at 8:06 am

I spend a lot of time thinking about Brainscape’s long-term product vision. Sometimes, I’ll lay awake until the wee hours of the morning, visualizing some new feature suite that is so advanced that we’re probably at least 1 or 2 years away from being ready to develop. My enthusiasm for these visions is often so great that I am tempted to draw up wireframes, call a design meeting for the next morning, and present my new mockups as the potential future of Brainscape’s product architecture.

But then I snap out of it. You see, there is a delicate balance between the size of your engineering team and the level of detail with which you should be pre-planning your product long-term development. (more…)

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Should your startup begin in “Stealth Mode”?

By Andrew Cohen, 1/3/2012 at 7:41 am

I often find it hilarious how many people I see on LinkedIn, or hear introduce themselves at a networking event, professing themselves to be founders of a “Stealth Startup.” These people presumably want you to know that there is a good reason for their current lack of formal employment, but they don’t want you to know what their actual project is, for fear that someone might copy their idea. Their intent is usually to stay in Stealth Mode for just enough time to prepare an impressive product and marketing blitz, so that the eventual launch has the highest impact possible, with momentum that cannot be easily replicated by copycats.

The problem is that being in Stealth Mode could kill your company.
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Brainscape’s Year in Bullets, and a Look Ahead at 2012

By Andrew Cohen, 12/28/2011 at 6:06 am

Ah, nostalgia. I just got done reading the short blog post I wrote last year to ring in the year 2011. It feels like we were such a baby company barely 12 months ago! I mean, we were so excited about the mere facts that we had launched a few pilot iPhone apps and had a new website “on its way”. Gosh we were so cute. Fast-forward to late-December 2011.