How large can the PDF be?

Large lecture decks and full chapters work fine — big documents are split into sub-topics automatically, so the cards stay organized instead of becoming one giant pile.

Does it work with scanned PDFs?

Yes. Scanned chapters and photographed pages are read and converted the same way as digital PDFs, then turned into flashcards.

Will the cards cover the whole PDF or just parts of it?

The whole document. Every sub-topic gets its own cards, so a point from slide 74 is as likely to be drilled as one from slide 4.

Can I upload several PDFs for the same course?

Yes. Add each lecture or chapter as it arrives, and the cards join the same review queue — your whole course in one daily session.

What about figures and diagrams in the PDF?

StudyDone works from the document's substance — the claims, definitions, and relationships — including what figures are there to show, and turns that into cards.

PDF to Flashcards

Upload a lecture PDF or a textbook chapter and get flashcards split into clean sub-topics — with a daily review schedule attached.

Get Started

Why convert PDFs

A PDF is storage. It isn't studying.

Most course material arrives as PDFs — lecture decks, chapter scans, assigned readings. And most of it gets studied the same way: scroll, highlight, scroll again. That feels like progress, but recognition isn't recall. On exam day there's no PDF to scroll through, only a blank page and a question.

Converting a PDF into flashcards changes what your brain has to do. Each card asks you to retrieve an answer from memory — active recall — which is what makes the material stick. The hard part has always been the conversion itself: nobody wants to hand-write 60 cards from an 80-slide deck. StudyDone does that step in seconds and splits long documents into sub-topics, so one monster file becomes a series of short, focused decks.

From there, spaced repetition takes over. Cards resurface on a schedule paced to your exam date, so the deck you made from week 2's PDF is still alive in your memory at finals.

Built for

The PDFs students actually get

80-slide lecture decks

Professors export slides as PDFs and move on. Upload the deck and get it back as sub-topics with cards — instead of scrolling slides the night before.

Scanned textbook chapters

Old course readers and scanned chapters become flashcards too. The dense paragraphs turn into questions you can actually drill.

Research-heavy courses

Assigned papers and long reports pile up fast. Turn each PDF into a card set so the key findings survive past the week you read them.

Starting from typed notes instead? Use the flashcard generator — or condense a whole semester with the study guide maker.

How it works

From PDF to daily reviews

Upload the PDF

Drop in a lecture deck, a textbook chapter, or a scanned handout — whatever your course runs on.

Get cards by sub-topic

StudyDone reads the whole document and splits it into sub-topics, each with its own set of flashcards.

Review on a schedule

Cards enter a spaced repetition queue paced to your exam date — a short session each day, no planning required.

FAQ

Good questions

How large can the PDF be?: Large lecture decks and full chapters work fine — big documents are split into sub-topics automatically, so the cards stay organized instead of becoming one giant pile.
Does it work with scanned PDFs?: Yes. Scanned chapters and photographed pages are read and converted the same way as digital PDFs, then turned into flashcards.
Will the cards cover the whole PDF or just parts of it?: The whole document. Every sub-topic gets its own cards, so a point from slide 74 is as likely to be drilled as one from slide 4.
Can I upload several PDFs for the same course?: Yes. Add each lecture or chapter as it arrives, and the cards join the same review queue — your whole course in one daily session.
What about figures and diagrams in the PDF?: StudyDone works from the document's substance — the claims, definitions, and relationships — including what figures are there to show, and turns that into cards.

Learn the method

That PDF won't read itself. Convert it.

Join StudyDone and turn this week's lecture files into flashcards today.