Flashcards, Quizzes, and Exams

Scholarly turns any study material into flashcards, quizzes, and exams using AI. You upload or paste your content, configure how the cards should be generated, and start studying immediately.

Creating Flashcards

Open the flashcard creator from the home page bento grid or through the upload modal. The window is split into four tabs so you can pick how to build a deck without scrolling:

• Library — pick a file you've already uploaded.
• Upload — drop in your source material.
• Google Drive — pull a Doc, PDF, Slides deck, or Word file straight from your Drive. See Connected Apps.
• Prompt AI — describe a topic and let the AI write the deck from scratch, no file required. Perfect for review on a topic you don't have a source for yet.

Prefer to write every card yourself? Click Build a blank deck in the modal footer — no AI involved.

You can generate AI-powered flashcards from:

• PDFs -- Upload a document and optionally select specific page ranges
• Pasted text -- Copy and paste notes, articles, or any text. See Paste Text
• Text files -- Upload .txt files directly
• Images -- Photos of handwritten notes, whiteboards, diagrams, or textbook pages
• Website URLs -- Paste a link and the AI extracts the content
• YouTube video URLs -- Paste a video link to generate cards from its transcript. See YouTube Sources
• Audio recordings -- Use existing recordings as source material
• Question banks -- A CSV, Excel, Anki, or Quizlet export with Question/Answer columns is imported 1:1, word-for-word, every row as its own card. Scholarly doesn't sample a question bank; if your file has 500 rows, you get 500 cards.

You can also create flashcards from chat. During any AI conversation, ask it to generate flashcards and it will create them from the conversation context. Look for the one-click Turn this into: Flashcards / Practice quiz / Study guide suggestions that appear in chat — one tap builds the study material straight from what you've been discussing.

Picking PDF Pages

For any PDF source, the PDF page selector lets you focus the deck on just the pages that matter — a single chapter, a few key sections, or a custom mix of page ranges. It's available in every flashcard create flow (Upload, Library, and Prompt with an attached PDF), and the same selector lives in every other AI create modal (quizzes, slides, study guides, worksheets, podcasts, video lectures, infographics, mind maps, story books, and Study Packs) so you can scope a generation to one chapter consistently.

Build a Blank Deck

Sometimes you don't need AI — you just want a clean deck builder. The Build a blank deck button in the create window's footer gives you a stack of empty cards to fill in by hand. Type the question, type the answer, hit add, repeat. No daily limit, no AI calls, your deck saves the moment you create it.

This is the fastest path when you're typing up a fixed list of vocabulary words, formulas, or facts where the wording matters and you want full control. You can always run Refine with AI on the deck later to add hints, examples, or rewrite a few cards if you change your mind.

A Blank Deck option is also available straight from the New menu's Blank tab — same idea, one click. See Home & Library.

Customization Options

Before generating, you can configure how cards are created:

• Density -- Control how many cards to generate from your source material. Four levels are available:
  • Low (~30+ cards) -- Quick review of the most important concepts.
  • Medium (~60+ cards) -- A balanced default for most topics.
  • High (~120+ cards) -- A comprehensive deep dive, good for exam prep.
  • Very High (400+ cards) -- Exhaustive, leave-nothing-uncovered study sessions.
• Personality -- Set the tone of the cards: Academic, Casual, Challenge, or ELI5
• Question types -- Choose from Direct, Fill-in-the-Blank, Scenario, Compare, or Why/How
• Answer depth -- Brief, Explained, or Detailed
• Language -- Select the language for your cards, or choose Auto to let the AI detect the language of your source material and generate cards in that language
• Custom instructions -- Free text field to give the AI specific directions
• Page selection -- For PDFs, choose specific page ranges to focus on

Special Extras

Toggle additional generation features:

• Mnemonics
• Real-world examples
• Connect concepts
• Common mistakes
• Exam predictions
• Formulas

AI Model

Paid users can pick which AI model writes the deck. On a paid plan, Gemini 3 Flash is the default — fast, accurate, and the recommended pick — with GPT 5.4 Mini and Mistral Small 4 available as alternates when you want a second style. Free users generate with DeepSeek V4 Flash and can browse the full picker, with a lock badge on models that need an upgrade. See Choosing an AI Model.

Studying Flashcards

Flip each card to reveal the answer, then rate the difficulty. The spaced repetition algorithm uses your ratings to schedule future reviews -- cards you struggle with appear more frequently, and cards you know well are spaced further apart.

Opening study mode automatically launches a 10-question Focus Mode session using Quick Review, prioritizing cards you have not seen recently. No setup needed -- just start studying.

Your last-used study mode and quiz question type filters are remembered per deck and restored on your next visit.

Study Mode Presets

Choose a study mode that matches your goal:

• Cramming -- High frequency, short intervals for last-minute prep
• Deep Learning -- Longer intervals focused on retention
• Quick Review -- Fast pass through material you mostly know
• Comprehensive -- Balanced approach covering all cards

Focus Mode

Focus mode narrows your session to specific subsets of cards:

• Hard Questions -- Only flagged difficult cards
• Quick Review -- Cards you have seen before
• Weak Areas -- Cards with low performance history

Keyboard Shortcuts

Speed up your study sessions with keyboard input:

• Number keys (1-4) -- Select a multiple-choice answer (quiz mode)
• Letter keys (a-d) -- Select multiple choice answers
• t/f -- Answer true/false questions

Session Timer

Track your study time with three timer modes:

• Stopwatch -- Count up from zero
• Countdown -- Set a fixed duration
• Pomodoro -- Timed work/break intervals

Hard Questions

Flag difficult cards during study by marking them as hard. Access all flagged cards through the brain icon in the study mode header.

Each flagged card gets a short AI hint — one or two sentences written for that specific card — generated automatically when you open your hard questions list, to nudge you toward the answer without giving it away.

Hard questions auto-resolve after 3 consecutive correct answers, removing the flag automatically. See Hard Questions for the full guide.

Card Editing

Edit any flashcard to fix issues or improve quality. The card editor includes Repair Card actions:

• Regenerate -- Have the AI rewrite the card entirely.
• Simplify -- Make the card easier to understand.
• Make harder -- Increase the difficulty level.
• Add missing detail -- Fill in information the card is missing.

You can also report low-quality cards using built-in issue presets.

Refining the Whole Deck with AI

If a whole deck needs a tune-up -- not just one card -- use Refine with AI to reshape every card in a single action. Tell the AI to make the deck harder, simpler, more detailed, or anything else, and it rewrites cards in batches.

Refine with AI appears in two places:

• On the Editor tab for any deck.
• Inside study mode, after you have reviewed at least 5 cards.

Refine with AI is a paid-plan feature with 3 refinements per deck. See the full guide: Refine Flashcards with AI.

Quizzes and Exams

Quizzes

Quiz mode presents structured questions with progress tracking. Quiz questions are generated alongside your flashcards in the same step, so they are ready the moment your deck is -- no second wait for a separate processing pass. Available question types:

• True/False -- Simple binary answers
• Multiple Choice -- Select from generated options
• Fill in the Blank -- Type the missing term
• Short Response -- Write a free-form answer, graded by AI with feedback

Exams

Create exams with more control over the test format. Three presets let you start instantly:

• Quick Quiz -- 15 questions, mixed types.
• Full Exam -- 30 questions, 30-minute time limit.
• Weak Spots -- 20 questions weighted toward cards you struggle with, using your study progress data.

Clicking a preset creates the exam and starts it immediately. Or choose Customize your own to configure question counts, difficulty filters, time limits, and question types manually.

You can also start an exam without opening a deck first — click the Practice Exam action on the home page and pick one of your recent decks.

Navigate between questions with previous/next buttons and a question counter showing your progress. After completing an exam, your score is recorded. Access your full exam attempt history and score tracking from the exam view. For the full breakdown, see Quizzes and Exams.

Adding Images to Cards

Add images to any flashcard from three sources:

• Content library -- Reuse images you have already uploaded
• Google Search -- Find and attach relevant images
• AI-generated images -- Create images on demand with style options: Realistic, Cartoon, or Sketch

Editing a Deck with AI Chat While You Study

The chat panel on a flashcard deck can change the deck itself, not just answer questions about it. While you are studying, ask the assistant to add a card, rewrite a card, or remove a card, and it updates the deck — the new or edited cards show up in your session right away, and the change is saved back to the deck automatically. This is handy for plugging a gap you notice mid-review without leaving study mode.

Exporting

Take your deck with you:

• Anki -- Download a ready-to-open .apkg deck file, including card images.
• PDF -- A clean, printable document of your cards (or quiz questions).
• Print -- Send the deck to your printer, with answers shown or hidden as a worksheet.

Open the deck's three-dot menu and choose Export. Exporting and printing are paid-plan features. See the full guide: Exporting Flashcards.

Organization

Keep large flashcard sets manageable with built-in organization tools:

• Favorites -- Bookmark important cards for quick access
• Categories -- Apply category labels to group related cards
• Filters -- Narrow your view by favorites, hard questions, category, page, difficulty, or question type