Once I'd created an account and logged in the first thing I had to do was create a Semester - that seems odd. I just wanted to get started with "topics" and "cards". It seems that you're more tightly focused upon "academia" than "learning" which seems unduly restrictive.
Im assuming you mean the layout for the Semesters/Sections/Notecards? if so they are meant to be 3 vertical rows so it looks a bit better when you have some content filled in. Obviously thats not ideal but I'm still working on my design skills. the pagination numbers also seem to be a bit off center which I'm still working on.
It is geared towards academia with creating semesters and sections first, but I agree that I should allow you to jump right into creating notecards.
http://notecard.herokuapp.com/auth/login/
That has things centered in a way that is really off-putting.