Learn
A course through one board, written from your notes: the big picture first, then one lesson at a time, each opening with a question.
Learn takes you through a board you do not know yet: a short course written from its notes, the main parts first, then lessons in the order they build on each other. Each lesson asks you something before it explains anything.
It is a board's Learn tab on the web, and its Learn tile on the iPhone. The course is the same on both, and picks up at the step you left.
Starting a course#
Learn first asks How well do you know this already? Pick a level and press Build the course (about half a minute), or Skip for Know some of it. On a board shared with you, the course is your own.
Your level#
- New to this: the opening question is a choice of three; checks have two questions.
- Know some of it: you write the opening answer; checks have three questions.
- Revising: fewer lessons, your notes open by default, and you type each explanation's key terms from memory before reading it whole.
Change it from the level menu above the course. It applies to lessons you open next, and you are asked whether to rebuild the course at the new level.
The big picture#
The Overview gives the principle the board turns on and how its parts fit. The main parts, from memory asks you once to match each part to what it covers. On the web the course is also drawn as a map. Start lesson 1 opens the first lesson.
The course#
The lessons, grouped under the main parts, each marked Done, Skipped, Come back later or In progress. Nothing is locked: a lesson that builds on one you have not passed says Opens after it, and opens anyway. On the web, a lesson your cards and papers already show you know reads Looks solid.
Regenerate this course, at the foot, starts again and deletes your progress on that board. Cards you made from it stay.
A lesson#
One step at a time, with Continue and Back. The opening question, Before you read, comes first; I don't know counts as an answer, and once you have answered you can jump ahead. It is not scored: what you missed comes back as As you read, look out for.
Then short explanations, each followed by something to do. Your notes shows the board's own sections for the lesson. An example the AI wrote is labelled Example — not from your notes, and you are never marked on it.
Exercises#
From memory puts the key terms back into what you just read. Put in order, Sort and Match appear where the material has that shape. At a glance draws a table, timeline, mind map, algorithm or diagram, and may ask you to Complete the view.
They are marked on the spot and never scored; Show me fills in the rest. A term that needed a second go comes back once more, before the check or at the start of the next lesson. The phone draws tables, timelines and mind maps (as an outline); algorithms and diagrams are drawn on the web.
Lessons that teach a method#
A procedure is taught as a Worked example (say why each step follows before you open Why this step), then Your turn, part of the way, where you write the last steps, then Your turn, all the way. Both are marked.
Passing what you know#
Already know this? Answer one harder question to pass it, under the opening question: one try, and a full answer passes the lesson unread. If not, read on; the check is your next chance.
The check#
Check your understanding: two or three written questions, each a Short answer, Why, Teach it back or Brain dump, marked out of 2 with what you missed. You pass with 70% of the marks and no must-not-miss point missed. The lesson's Must not miss core appears only once the check is marked, so it never gives the answers away:
Under each answer, before it is marked, How sure are you? offers Sure, Think so or Guessing. Say so or leave it: it is never scored and never changes the mark. The same row sits under the opening question, the pass question and a method lesson's two cases. What it changes is what happens after a miss. An answer you were sure of that missed a must-not-miss point is a wrong idea held, so the lesson is explained again from another angle with that idea named, however many misses came before. A check missed on guesses alone is explained again more simply.
A miss never repeats the check. It offers Back up to an earlier lesson this one needs, Explain it differently (rewritten from another angle, with fresh questions), or, after a second miss, Leave it for now. What you missed waits as cards in the tray:
Which case held that an option exercised 'by notice in writing' needs the notice to arrive, so the postal rule does not apply?
Speaking an answer#
Teach it back and Brain dump have Say it. What you say, up to two minutes, is written into the box for you to edit before checking.
After the check#
A pass puts the lesson's own questions into the board's deck by itself, each with its marking key as the answer: no AI, nothing counted, and a card you have deleted is not put back. That is what keeps the lesson coming up in your card drills once the course has moved on.
A lecture on this writes a three-minute lecture on just this lesson. Make cards for this adds the lesson's own questions to the board's deck, then cards written from its notes (not on a board shared with you).
On a pass, Add this branch from memory asks which ideas belong under the lesson, and Next opens the next one, written while you answered this check. Skip lesson only marks the row. Rewrite this lesson writes it again and keeps your progress.
Two doors lead to the Oral tab. After a pass, A station on this opens it with one station on just this lesson on offer: written from the lesson's own notes and marked against its must-not-miss core, the idea used on a case rather than read back. Once you have rebuilt the tree (see Reviews), Explain the whole course aloud opens it with the course's spoken capstone, one question on the principle the board turns on. Nothing is written until you press Write station or Write and answer there; on the free plan either is your one oral question. See oral exams.
Once two or more lessons are passed, the foot of the course offers Sit a paper on what you've passed: a paper set on exactly those lessons' sections, in course order, and nothing else on the board. On the web the Exam tab sets it as it opens; on the phone the Set panel opens with those sections picked. It is a paper like any other, set in your examiner's style, counted as your one exam on the free plan, marked against your notes, and what you lose marks on waits in the tray. See exams.
Reviews#
Finishing one of the main parts brings a Checkpoint: one question from each of its lessons, mixed. A course without parts has a Quick review every third pass. At the end, Rebuild the tree asks you to put every lesson back under its part.
Asked again, and slipping#
A pass is tested again once it has had time to fade. Three to seven days after you pass a lesson, one of its own check questions (one the pass did not ask, where it has one) is dealt between your cards in the subject's due queue and in Everything due, headed From your Learn course. Write the answer from memory, say how sure you are if you like, and Mark it: it is marked out of 2 against the lesson's key, with what you missed, and the mark shows on the lesson's row in the course as asked again 1 of 2. Skip leaves it due. Each lesson is asked again once; a board's own drill deals none. The subject's Practice tab asks the same questions under its Learn format.
A passed lesson can also start slipping. If, since the pass, you lose marks on an exam question, score low on a viva criterion or keep failing a card on that lesson's notes, its row reads Done — slipping. The pass stands. Open the lesson and it says what slipped, with Explain it differently: written again from another angle, aimed at that point, with fresh questions, and passing that check clears it. A miss in Learn itself never marks a lesson slipping. Practice's Slipping quick pick gathers these lessons' sections.
Each passed lesson's row carries three small marks, Recall, Mechanism and Application, lit as its answers show that kind of question is held; there is no percentage. The subject dashboard's Study tab adds two lines: how many points you were sure of and wrong on, and which passed lesson has gone longest without being asked.
Explain and Play#
On the web, select text in an explanation or your notes and use Explain on the pen tray; it does not work on questions. On the phone, tap a block of an explanation for Explain or Read aloud. Play the lesson reads each explanation aloud and waits at every question. If Ask is switched on for your account, Ask about this sits on each explanation.
When your notes change#
The course, each lesson and each view say when they were built. After you edit their notes they read Your notes have changed since this was built, with a rebuild button. Nothing is rebuilt until you ask, and a rebuilt course keeps progress on lessons whose title stays.
On the free plan#
One course, Courses 0 of 1 in the account menu, counted when it is built. Nothing inside it counts, nor does rebuilding that board's course, nor a lesson being asked again later. A second board's course needs a plan. Cards, the lecture and a paper on what you've passed count as cards, a lecture and an exam (the lesson's own questions land even once your cards are spent). See plans and usage.