Genius for OS X Helps You Learn Anything
Flash cards are a great way to learn everything from state capitals to a new language. But, if you’re like me and would rather carry around your Mac than a deck of cards, give Genius from jrc software a try. Genius is a free virtual flash card program for your Mac that delivers custom quizzes in a familiar question-answer style format. Enter your vocabulary into Genius (questions in one row, answers in the next – it’s transparently straight forward), hit study and get learning! Genius lets you study straight questions to answers, answers to questions or a mix of both.
In my current quest to master basic Korean, I’ve had excellent results with Genius. For some reason, having to physically input the answers to questions tends to make them much more sticky for me. Moreover, the app has taught me to touch type the Korean language (??), which in itself is impressive (by my standards, anyhow!).
It’s an excellent application and I highly recommend it. However, I do have a few caveats. Firstly, once you’ve spent the time to input your quiz into Genius, there’s no useful way to export it except as a plain text file; that is, no versatile spreadsheet export option. Secondly, Genius’ ‘Import’ feature is weak and seems to perform inconsistently, and it too only works with plain text files. I’ve gotten the best results from Import using a plain text file organized in two columns of questions and answers similar to the layout of Genius itself. Lastly, from what I can tell, the app hasn’t been updated in ages and thus I don’t expect improvements in the near future. But it’s completely solid and Leopard compatible, so it’s not a huge concern.
While the above certainly are drawbacks, Genius is a great little app that I guarantee will help you memorize anything that can be formatted into a question-answer style format. Download Genius from jrc Software and let me know if you get some positive results!
