Practice and review

Listening to a lecture feels like having understood it. What separates that from really understanding it is pulling it out of memory without looking, and that is what these two cards on the document page do, each in its own way.

Practice

Practice is a stretch of questions. You pick how much time you have, about 5, up to 15 or about 30 minutes, and that becomes 8, 20 or 40 questions. Usually you practise what you have already studied, and if you have got further since last time, you first choose whether to practise the new part, the earlier part or all of it. With the lecture half done you can also choose the whole presentation, and with nothing studied it goes straight to the whole thing: maybe you already know it and uploaded it just for this.

The questions are written when you open the session, from what Mina explained, so the first time with a document takes a little while before the first one appears; with the whole presentation, Mina first reads what you have not studied, which takes a bit longer. Each question is checked against the explanation before it is shown, and any that does not match is thrown out. Slides that are only about the course, like the cover or the syllabus, produce no questions.

It starts with what gave you trouble: the slides you asked about while studying, what you got wrong last time and the slides that have class notes. Then comes what you have never practised and what is due today.

It counts questions, not minutes: the screen says which one you are on, "3 of 8", and a bar fills up with each answer. While the first questions are being put together there is no count and no bar. And the session's time only runs while a question is on screen: the minutes spent writing the next one do not count.

Four levels that adapt

You start at the second level, and every four answers it goes up or down depending on how you are doing. If a hard one goes wrong, the next one comes from the same slide and gives you more of a hand.

• Recognize. True or false, multiple choice, filling in the missing word, flashcards and matching each term with what it means.
• Understand. Several correct answers, putting steps in order, the open question and explaining it in your own words, typed or dictated.
• Apply. A case, sorting into categories and a problem with numbers.
• Master. Spotting the mistake, choosing the best argument and explaining it to a classmate who missed the lecture.

Before seeing whether you got it right, you say how sure you were, because after seeing the answer everyone was sure. What you get right with little confidence does not count as known: it comes back just as soon. And if you get one wrong, Why is it wrong? asks Mina without leaving the session.

What you explain in your own words, typed or dictated, is compared with the ideas of the concept that was asked about, and it tells you how many you covered and what you missed. Dictation is turned into text in the cloud, and the audio is not kept.

How it went

At the end, a number from 0 to 100 inside a ring, weighted towards the harder questions, and how far you got: you recognize the concepts, you understand them, you can apply them or you have mastered them. The colour says how it went: green from 75, yellow from 50 and red below that. It is there to show how you are doing from one time to the next, not to pass or fail you.

Every session stays on the document page, below the notes, and opens to the side: what you know, what came out halfway and what needs going over, with what you answered and what the answer was. From there, See slide takes you into the lecture.

What you got wrong comes back the next day, what you got right once comes back in three days and what you got right twice in a row, in a week. The Practice card tells you how many are due today. And practising again brings new questions: first what you did not know, and a fresh batch is written from what you already did.

The session is saved to your account at every step: reloading the page does not lose it. If you leave halfway, it asks you once whether you would rather keep going; however you leave, it stays in progress with the clock stopped, and when you come back to Practice it offers to pick it up. And if you leave while the first questions are still being put together, it asks nothing: they keep being written and the session waits for you.

The Free plan includes one practice session per document per month, counting the ones started from the chat or from a study plan step; picking up a session left halfway does not count. Pro has no cap.

Review

Reviewing is not listening to a shorter version of the lecture: that is just listening again. It is remembering first and looking afterwards. The card gives you a concept from the lecture with its name and a short hint, and you say or write what you remember, however it comes out. Only when you check do you see the ideas it is made of, which ones you got and which slides it comes from.

There is no time to pick: concepts keep coming until you leave. That is why the order matters, and each concept says why it came up. First what you could not recall last time, what gave you trouble in practice and the slides you asked about; then the core idea of each topic in the lecture; then the rest. What you recalled well less than three days ago goes to the end.

It does not ask you how it went. How many ideas you recalled is what says that, and it is saved on its own to decide what comes back next time.