Lecture to flashcards: make a deck from a recorded lecture
Upload a lecture recording and QuerySpark writes flashcards from what is actually in it, so you can drill the key terms on exactly what your course covers. MP3, M4A, WAV, MP4, WEBM and more, up to 25 MB.
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Drop a PDF, slides or notes
or paste a YouTube link
Quick answer
How do you turn a lecture recording into flashcards?
Upload the recording of your lecture as an audio or video file. QuerySpark transcribes it, finds the terms, definitions and ideas the lecturer explained, and turns them into a flashcard deck with spaced repetition, so cards you find hard come back sooner. Recordings up to 25 MB are accepted, with caps of 5 MB on the free plan, 20 MB on Student and 25 MB on Educator. New accounts get a 3-day Pro trial with no credit card; the free plan then includes 20 flashcards a month.
- Works from MP3, M4A, WAV, MP4, WEBM and more
- Term cards plus why-and-how concept cards
- Spaced repetition with nothing to configure
- Export as CSV for Anki or Quizlet
How it works
How to turn a lecture recording into flashcards
- 01
Record the lecture
A phone on the desk running a voice memo app is enough. Put it close to where the lecturer speaks, not in your bag, and check your course's policy on recording first.
- 02
Upload the file after class
Upload the audio file and choose flashcards. Doing it the same day means your first review happens while the lecture is still fresh, which is when it helps most.
- 03
Rate every card on the first pass
Go through the deck once and mark each card as known, still learning or not known. Be strict: that rating decides when each card comes back.
- 04
Keep reviews short and daily
Spaced repetition works through small, regular sessions. Ten minutes a day across the term beats a long session before the exam.
Example
Flashcards from PSY 100 lecture
A sample of what you get from a lecture recording on psychology. Yours is written from your own file.
Extinction
The fading of a conditioned response when the CS is repeatedly presented without the US
Variable-ratio schedule
Reward after an unpredictable number of responses; very resistant to extinction
Shaping
Reinforcing successive approximations of a target behavior
What your flashcards include
- Term and definition cards for every key concept
- Concept cards that ask why and how, not only what
- Cards sized to your material: a short reading gets a short deck
- Spaced repetition built in: no deck settings to configure
How you study them
Flip, rate how well you knew it, and move on. Cards you find hard return sooner; cards you know well fade out until just before you would forget them.
Best for: vocabulary and definitions, formulas and dates, daily ten-minute review.
How we read lecture recordings
We transcribe the audio with Whisper, which also pulls the audio track out of video files, then write questions from the transcript so you can study a lecture you only half heard.
Get the best results
- Record in mono at a modest bitrate; speech does not need music quality.
- Pair the recording with the slides for the richest set.
How to turn lectures into flashcards
Record the lecture, upload the file, and choose flashcards as the output. The deck comes from what the lecturer said, so it matches the way your course frames the topic, including the terms and examples your exam will use.
Lectures give the best decks when the lecturer defines things out loud, works through lists ('there are three types of...') and names theories, people or stages. Lectures that are mostly discussion or demonstration give fewer cards, because there is less to pin to the front of a card.
Recording, slides or notes: which to make cards from
Lecture slides usually carry the terms; the recording carries the explanation of them. Slides make good definition cards. The recording adds the cards that ask why and how, because that is what the lecturer spends their time talking through.
If you have both, make a deck from the slides (upload the PowerPoint or a PDF of it) and one from the recording, and study them side by side. If you only have one, the recording is the better choice for lectures where the slides are mostly headings and images.
Making cards from a lecture you missed
If a classmate recorded the lecture and shares the file with you, a deck from it is a quick way to catch up on the vocabulary before the next session. It will not replace hearing the explanation, but it means the next lecture builds on terms you already know rather than ones you are hearing for the first time.
Check that the lecturer allows recordings to be shared before you pass files around.
Taking lecture flashcards into Anki or Quizlet
Export the deck as CSV. Anki imports it through File, Import with the first column mapped to the front of the card; Quizlet takes the same rows through its import box with a comma separator. There is no direct export to either app, and you do not need one if you review in QuerySpark.
Things that trip people up with lecture recordings
Recordings over 25 MB need splitting or compressing first (a 60 minute lecture in mono MP3 at 48 kbps fits).
Lecture-hall echo and distance from the speaker reduce accuracy. Sit near the front or use a clip-on mic.
Apple .mov files are not accepted. Convert to .mp4 or export the audio.
Questions about lecture recording to flashcards
Yes. Any spoken audio file works the same way as a lecture: it is transcribed and the key ideas become cards. MP3, M4A, WAV, OGG, FLAC and WEBM are accepted, as are MP4 videos.
Yes. iPhone Voice Memos saves .m4a files, which upload directly. Android recorder apps usually save .m4a or .mp3, which also work.
The deck is sized to how much was actually taught, not to the length of the file. A lecture packed with terminology gives a bigger deck than one spent on a single worked example.
No. Only speech is transcribed. If something important was written but not said, add it yourself or photograph the board and make cards from the photo.
Some. Chatter close to your phone and lecture-hall echo both make the transcript less accurate, which can garble a technical term on a card. A clip-on microphone or a seat near the front helps most.
Free to start with the 3-day Pro trial with no credit card. The free plan then gives you 20 flashcards a month and files up to 5 MB, which is about 20 minutes of mono audio at 32 kbps.
Record it with your phone's voice memo app and upload the file afterwards. Check your school's recording policy first.
Whisper transcribes most major languages; questions are written in the language of the lecture.
Yes. Export any deck as CSV, which both Anki and Quizlet import.
Yes, to start. New accounts get a 3-day Pro trial with no credit card. After the trial the free plan includes 1 study session, 20 questions and 10 PDF pages a month, and you keep everything you made. You can also try the question generator on pasted text without an account, 3 times a day.
Still stuck? Email us.
Make flashcards from your lecture recordings
Start with a 3-day Pro trial. No credit card, and you keep everything you make.
