Oh, definitely not! What’s not immediately clear to other people from my card template is that typically only the first sentence in the notes on the back is what I actually try to recall (or, in the case of an equation-with-question-mark, just what’s indicated by the question mark).

This happens because the image is actually what’s in my answer field. I write the “words I should say when I describe the image” just below at the beginning of my “notes” field. Of course, I’m used to this, but it confuses people when I share pictures of my cards :P.

All the rest of the notes are just there for extra context if I feel insecure in the big picture. 95% of the time, I don’t even read them. My cards take less than 12–15 seconds to read and answer on average.

One other advantage of having so many notes on the back, is that sometimes when I answer a card, several related facts will pop into my head. Having notes gives me a chance to verify those “bonus facts,” helping cement a few associations for the concept for free.