Maths flashcards, with real LaTeX.

Why write maths in LaTeX

Typed with Unicode, ∫₀¹ x² dx is just about readable. A fraction inside a square root, a limit under a sum or a three-by-three matrix is not. A screenshot of your notes looks right, but you can’t edit it, search it or reuse half of it on another card.

LaTeX is the notation most university maths and physics notes are written in. You type a short code and the app draws the formula. The same code works in Overleaf, in Anki and in most maths tools, and about ten commands cover nearly every card.

How to write a formula on a card

Flashcard apps that support maths usually read LaTeX between delimiters. Anki documents these: inline maths goes between \( and \), so \(e^{i\pi} + 1 = 0\) sits inside a sentence. Display maths goes between \[ and \] and gets a centred line of its own. If your app uses other delimiters, its help page says which.

• check_circleFractions and roots: \frac{a}{b} and \sqrt{x}.
• check_circlePowers and indices: x^2 and x_n. Braces group a longer one: e^{-x^2}, a_{n+1}.
• check_circleIntegrals, sums and limits: \int_a^b, \sum_{n=1}^{\infty}, \lim_{x \to 0}.
• check_circleVectors and derivatives: \vec{v}, \partial, \nabla.
• check_circleSets and logic: \mathbb{R}, \in, \forall, \Rightarrow.
• check_circleGreek letters by name: \alpha, \lambda, \pi.

What is \(\int_0^{\infty} e^{-x^2}\,dx\)?

\(\frac{\sqrt{\pi}}{2}\)

Which flashcard apps render LaTeX

This is what each app states on its own pages. Where an app doesn’t mention LaTeX, the table says “not stated”: that doesn’t prove it can’t, only that it doesn’t claim to.

Checked on each app’s own page, or its App Store listing, on 13 October 2026.

Anki has two modes. MathJax works out of the box in the desktop app, in AnkiMobile and in AnkiDroid 2.9 and later, with nothing to install. Its [latex]…[/latex] mode uses a real TeX installation on your computer, and only the desktop app can generate those images; the phone apps then display them. The Anki manual has the details.

What makes a good maths card

1. One formula per card.A card that asks for three identities gets graded “OK” every time, and you never learn which one you keep missing.
2. Ask for the conditions, not only the formula.A theorem learned without its hypotheses gets applied where it doesn’t hold. Give it a second card: “When does Parseval’s identity hold?”
3. Ask when to use it.Spotting which method a problem needs is what exercises test. A card like “Which substitution for the integral of 1/(1 + x²)?” trains exactly that.
4. Split a derivation into steps.Make one card for each step you tend to forget, with the step before it as the question.
5. Test both directions when it matters.Name to formula, and formula to name: a problem can hand you either one.

Hide one term: cloze cards

A cloze card shows the whole formula with one part blanked out, and asks you for that part. It suits long results where you remember the shape and forget one detail: the 1/π in front of Parseval’s identity, the minus sign in integration by parts, the square in Var(aX) = a² Var(X).

• check_circleParseval. Blank the factor in front of the integral: \frac{1}{\pi}.
• check_circleIntegration by parts. Blank the sign before the second integral.
• check_circleTaylor series. Blank the factorial in the denominator of the nth term.

RemNote lists “Math (LaTeX) cloze” cards on its pricing page. Whatever the app, keep the blank small. Blank out half the formula and the card turns into recognition: you see the shape of the answer and guess the rest.

Cards for physics and computer science

• check_circleUnits and signs. Ask for the unit of a quantity, or the sign convention a formula assumes. Whether work is written -p\,dV or p\,dV depends on it.
• check_circleWhat a symbol stands for. “In the Lorentz force, what is B?” is a card. So is the unit of B.
• check_circleComplexity. “Worst-case time of quicksort?” with O(n^2) on the back, and the input that causes it.
• check_circleWhat code does. A few lines on the front, what they print on the back. Keep it short enough to read, not to run in your head for a minute.

Three example cards

Written the way you would type them. The app renders the answer column as a formula. Each question also names its conditions, “small angles” or “sorted items”, because the answer is wrong without them.

Printable LaTeX flashcards

For paper cards, the flashcards class on CTAN typesets two-sided cards to print and cut, and Overleaf has templates built on it. Paper works, but nothing tells you which cards are due today: you sort them into boxes yourself.

One card, one thing to recall.

Common questions

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