As a vocabularly building application, Declan FlashCards delivers a useful and logical method of learning. You first choose your list from the drop-down on the main screen, then select the excercise. The excercises available are a straight forward review of the words in the list, followed by four tests to test your memory. The first two of these simply either present the Russian word and you need to pick from a list of English meanings, or vice-versa, the English word is presented and you need to pick the corresponding Russian word. These aren't really "flash-cards" in the sense that you always see the first word and the answer is presented underneath as opposed to the card turning over and revealing the answer. However, this method suffices. The disadvantage is that the list of words to pick as the answer is small and fiddly. It's not really possible to use your finger without inadvertently pressing the wrong one. Also, I question the value of picking the answer from a list. In a real world situation, you would just hear the word in a conversation and you will not have a list of words to help you. For example if a number word is presented, then the multiple choice words will all be numbers and therefore you will automatically realise that the word being presented is a number. I prefer Rowanvale Software's Audialearn method of just showing you the word and you having to think the answer and then press Yes or No.
The other tests available are an listening practice where the word is spoken by the native speaker, and again you pick the meaning from a list of words. The criticism of this is that I found the volume and clarity of the audio too low and even with the volume on my device turned up full, it was still hard to hear. The last test available is typing, where you try and spell the word using a little on screen keyboard. Again, maybe it's useful to some, but maybe it's more of a gimmick.
Our Rating:
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3 out of 5]