Flash Cards for Mac and iPhone

Mental Case brings premium quality flash cards to your Mac and iPhone. Use it to learn a language, memorize trivia, or study for an exam. Enter your information directly, or import it from online sources like The Flashcard Exchange. Mental Case automatically generates lessons for you, syncs them to your iPhone or iPod touch, and even tells you when to study.

Mental Case is also a drop box for useful information that you come across in the course of the day. With built-in screen and iSight capture, Mental Case can collect just about any piece of information from the real and virtual worlds, and will remind you about it when you next sit down to study.

You can enter text, drop in an image, take a screen shot, or snap a photo with your iSight. Your new mental note is scheduled to appear in future lessons, beautifully-presented slide shows which make studying something to look forward to.

What the Critics Say...

“Mental Case is a beautifully designed new commercial offering in the flashcard software world ... It offers excellent support for interval study, graded slideshows for both study on demand and interval study as well as convenient set management. ”

K. M. Lawson (foolsworkshop.com)

“I'm a HUGE flash card user for the very purpose that you seem to have built Mental Case ... I love it. Excellent concept and execution.”

Ethan Schoonover (kinkless.com)

“Flash cards are tedious to make, but Mental Case makes it quick and easy to create many cards. It is a great way to study and has many more options than old fashioned flash cards.”

Jack Amick (macapper.com)

“As a whole, this program really has an AJAX/Web 2.0 feel to it, and is very professional.”

Grey Matters Blog (headinside.blogspot.com)

Uses for Mental Case

The things you can use Mental Case for are as diverse as knowledge itself. Use it to remember day-to-day things like phone numbers, birthdays, and recipes. Study mathematics or history for an exam at school or college. You can even use it for self-development: remind yourself what's important in life (like your family and friends) or motivate yourself to continue a personal project or stick to that diet.

We've come up with a list of uses to give you some ideas, but it's far from exhaustive. Anything that you would ever want to remember or be reminded of can be put into Mental Case.

Know-Where: Existence Recall

There is so much information available to us in the information age that it is impossible to remember it all. What distinguishes a knowledgeable person from a less-knowledgeable one? More and more, it is not about what you know, but where you know to find out more. We call this 'know-where', because you know about the existence of something and where to find the details.

Mental Case is very useful for improving your know-where. It can help you recall the existence of a book, web site, or particular technique so — when you need to draw on that information — you know where to find out more. Knowing what to search for is 99% of the battle. Don't go nowhere, go know-where — Mental Case makes it easy.

Confused?

If you are still having trouble understanding what Mental Case is all about, and how it works in practice, you can take a look at our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page, ask a question in our Forums, or send an email and ask us directly.

Requires Mac OS X
10.4 or 10.5

Version 1.5.3 for $24.99
Students/Teachers $14.99
Other Discounts

Features

Mental notes

Mental notes are very similar to traditional flash cards. You can add a small amount of text and/or an image to each mental note, and optionally include a prompt or question.

Repetitive learning

Mental notes get scheduled for future revision in a lesson. Mental Case uses an optimized algorithm to ensure that you get maximum memory retention for the time you spend studying.

The Science of Mental Case

Mental Case is more than just a Flash Card application — it also incorporates advanced learning features. It takes your mental notes and sends them to you in the form of an automated lesson. You don't manage the lesson yourself, Mental Case does it for you.

The algorithm that Mental Case uses to schedule notes is based on a technique called spaced repetition. This has been shown scientifically to be an efficient way to study, giving the most memory recall for the amount of time spent studying. Notes are scheduled at longer and longer intervals until the schedule is completed; for example, notes may first appear in the lesson after 24 hours, and then 3 days after that, and 7 days after that, and so forth.

Sharing and Syncing

You can export (or print) mental notes in order to transfer them to your iPod or iPhone, upload to the web, or share with others.

Organize your notes

You can group your mental notes together in mental cases, which are like folders in the Finder. Drag-and-drop your notes from one case to another, or review an entire case in a slide show.

Quick entry

Mental Case includes quick note entry, which allows you to create new notes at any time using hot keys or a global menu, whether you are working in Mental Case or not.

Capture from screen or iSight

Sometimes the information you want to put in your mental notes is already on your screen, or in a book. Don't bother typing it over, just use the built in screen capture facilities, or take a photo with your iSight.

Themed slide shows

Lessons are presented in themed slide shows with attractive transitions, making learning less of a chore. You can choose the themes and transitions yourself.

Preferences

Mental Case includes an advanced system of preferences for controlling how often notes are scheduled to appear in a lesson, and how long they are displayed in slide shows.