Lectures
The examiner turns a board's notes into a spoken lecture, with a transcript you can click to jump to any word.
A lecture is one of your boards, spoken. On the board's Lecture tab, your subject's examiner writes a script from the board's notes and reads it aloud, so you can revise while walking, driving or cooking. The script uses only what your notes say. It explains how the ideas connect rather than reading the board in order.
Transcript · tap any word to jump there
So the question that decides almost everything here is when the acceptance takes effect, and it is worth being clear that the answer depends on how it was sent, not on when it was read.
Take the rules in order. A posted acceptance counts the moment it is posted. A revocation counts only when it arrives. An email or a telex counts when it is received, because the law treats it as instantaneous.
The postal rule is the one people get muddled about, because it can be switched off. If the offer says the acceptance must reach the offeror, posting is not enough, and the letter has to arrive.
Writing one#
First choose how long you have (5, 10, 15 or 20 minutes) and whether to cover the whole board or only sections you pick. The script is written to fill that time. On the free plan the lengths are 5 and 10 minutes; 15 and 20 are part of a plan.
Suggest lectures then offers up to six titles, each with one line on its angle: for example a synthesis across sections, a deep dive, a comparison of things that get confused, or what gets examined hardest. Nothing is written or spoken yet. Each idea keeps the length it was suggested at, even if you change the setting later. Suggest more adds new ideas without replacing the list, and the cross beside an idea removes it.
Write lecture (Record lecture on the phone) writes the script and records it. The first part starts playing within a few seconds while the rest is recorded ("Recording the rest…"). On the web the finished recording takes over without a break; on the phone the first part plays on its own and the rest carries on from where it ends. The recording is kept, so playing it again is instant and free.
You can leave while a script is being written. It is still written, and waits on the list as Script only when you come back. A Script only lecture is recorded when you press Record and listen (on the phone, tap it).
If a recording could not be saved, the web shows Not saved yet. Press Finish saving before you close or reload the tab: after that the recording is gone, the lecture shows as Script only, and it is recorded again the next time you play it. On the phone the recording stays on the phone, even after a restart, and the next tap on the lecture saves it without recording it again.
A board with too little written on it (less than a short paragraph) offers no suggestions: the tab asks you to add to the board first, so a lecture is never written from a title alone. Lectures already made still play.
What it costs#
On the free plan you get one lecture, shown beside Suggest lectures (under the lengths on the phone) as Lectures 0 of 1. It is counted when its script is written, and its recording and read-along come with it. Suggesting ideas is not counted. Once it is used, Write lecture shows what a plan adds instead.
On a plan, a lecture is only recorded if your remaining included usage plus any top-up credits covers all of it. If not, none of the recording is charged. You are told when your usage refills, and the lecture stays Script only, ready to record then (see plans and usage).
Listening#
On the web, Listen plays a recorded lecture in a player pinned above the transcript, with a speed setting (1×, 1.25×, 1.5× or 2×). It stops when you leave the page. On the phone, tap a recorded lecture: the player has a scrubber, 15 seconds back and forward, and a speed button that steps through the same four. It keeps playing from a bar along the bottom when you leave the screen, and from the lock screen.
Stop part-way and the lecture starts where you left it next time, and your dashboard offers to carry on.
Read along#
The script sits under the player. Click any word (tap it on the phone) and the audio jumps there. While it plays, the spoken word is highlighted. On the web the transcript scrolls to keep that word in view; on the phone you scroll it yourself.
The highlight follows the actual voice and works on the web and on the phone. On a lecture you have just recorded it is estimated at first, and moves to the measured timings when they are ready, a little later. Some older lectures recorded on the phone follow the recording's length instead, so the highlight is less exact, but clicking a word still works.
Deleting#
On the web, Delete lecture is in the lecture's ⋯ menu and takes effect at once. On the phone, press the bin beside the lecture and confirm. Its recording is deleted with it, including one still waiting on the phone to be saved. Deleting does not give back the free plan's lecture.
What the examiner does here#
A lecture is not marked. The examiner affects two things:
- Accent and register. The voice speaks in your examiner's style, in an unhurried, teaching tone. The voice itself is the same for every examiner.
- Who it is pitched at. The script is written for the learner your examiner describes, so the same board sounds different for a postgraduate course than for an introductory one.
Nothing you listen to is scored, and listening does not change your cards, marks or due queue.
Switching examiner#
Changing the subject's examiner leaves existing lectures as they are. On the web, a lecture made for a different examiner is marked written for another examiner, and opening its row says who it was made for. The phone does not mark them.
On the web, an idea you have written for the current examiner leaves Not written yet. It comes back when the examiner changes, with a Written for … pill for each examiner it has been written for. To write a lecture again for the current examiner, use Write again for this examiner in its ⋯ menu. On the phone every idea stays listed with Recorded for … pills, and Record again writes it once more. Either way it is a new lecture beside the old one, counted and charged like the first.