Rote learning using python!

For an upcoming exam I need to memorize a lot of genus and species names. Normally I would have written down each question/answer pair by hand and learn like this. However, on this occasion I had neither the time nor the will to take this approach. Instead I teamed up with AI (for speed) and drafted a little python script which (1) searches for quiz files in the working directory (2) lets you choose which files you want to go through (3) goes randomly through the questions of the files you chose in step 2.

Yes, I am sure there is already something out there which does memorization much better. However, there are still a few reasons why my little script might be useful after all:

• It is as minimalistic and easy as it gets
• Takes plaintext input (JSON) files, which can be generated fastly nowadays using LLMs (!)
• runs completely local

You can take a look at the Quiz and its features and usage here.

Usage

Again, technically everything you need to explore the quiz you can find on github. But if you are not well versed with git and github, let me give you a short summary of the usage here:

Essentially, the only file you really need is the ’lernquiz.py’-file, which you can download from github direcly. You need to have python installed and make the file executable on your OS. When you execute the script, it will search for special files with the ‘.json’ extension. These files host the actual quiz questions and answers. If it finds those files it will prompt you to select which topics you want to go through and start the quiz automatically.

💡 Tipp: Generate the JSON file(s) using an LLM like ChatGPT. Optimally, you give the LLM your lecture documents like slides or summaries from which it can generate question / answer pairs. Tell it to mind the below JSON-structure.

The JSON Documents need to have this (simple) structure:

{
  "title": "Mein neues Thema",
  "description": "Beschreibung des Themas",
  "flashcards": [
    {
      "question": "Was ist Photosynthese?",
      "answer": "Der Prozess, bei dem Pflanzen aus CO₂ und Wasser unter Lichteinwirkung Glucose und Sauerstoff produzieren."
    },
    {
      "question": "Welche Rolle spielt Chlorophyll?",
      "answer": "Chlorophyll absorbiert Lichtenergie für die Photosynthese."
    }
  ]
}

Mobile Usage

Using the same setup as above, you can also learn on your mobile devices by using python-apps like Pythonista. Just make a new folder and import (1) the lernquiz.py script and (2) all relevant JSON files. Now you can execute the script just as normal and go through your question.

That’s it. If you want to extend or alter the script, be free to do so, pull-requests are welcome.