I set out this academic year to try and make introductory managerial accounting a more effective learning experience for students by using a simple card system. For each new concept the students get a card, I write the basic concept on the board and how it behaves or what it is, and then I provide an example. Students keep these cards; they may refer to them when I offer illustrations from the chapter and use them for study outside of class. Students end up with eight to 10 cards by the end of the course. The cards divorce the ideas from the individual chapters and thereby enable students to apply the concepts to more complex business decisions.