Core features
Practice
Everything that happens when you press Start session — card types, practice modes, the adaptive algorithm, XP, streaks, and how to flag a problem card.
Card types
Educator uses eight card formats. Every card in the corpus is authored as one of these types — the type is chosen to match what the subject actually demands, not to fill variety for its own sake.
Recall
A short-answer card. You type your response and it is checked against the correct answer plus an accepted answers list that covers common alternative spellings, abbreviations, and phrasings. Answers are typically six words or fewer.
Prompt:
What nutrient is the primary energy source in a diet?
Correct answer:
Carbohydrates (also accepted: carbs, carbohydrate)
Multiple choice (MCQ)
Four options, one correct. Distractors are designed to be plausible — the answers a student who half-knows the topic might choose — never silly red herrings. In History, both the correct answer and the distractors are often full explanatory sentences, because History examiners reward contextual reasoning.
Prompt:
Why did Germany experience hyperinflation in 1923?
Options:
- The government printed money to pay reparations after France occupied the Ruhr. ✓
- The USA called in its loans following the Wall Street Crash.
- The Reichstag passed an emergency budget that doubled taxation.
- Germany defaulted on its war-bond repayments to domestic investors.
Match-pairs
Several terms are shown on the left and their definitions on the right, shuffled. You drag (or tap) to connect each pair. All pairs must be correct to earn the card. Match cards cover vocabulary sets where learning terms in isolation would be artificial.
Example (Food GCSE — vitamins):
- Vitamin C
- Needed for healthy skin and gums; found in citrus fruit
- Vitamin D
- Helps absorb calcium; made by the skin in sunlight
- Vitamin A
- Supports vision in dim light; found in liver and carrots
- Vitamin B12
- Required for red blood cell production; found in meat and dairy
True / False
A factual statement is shown. Tap True or False. The card back explains why the statement is correct or incorrect. Good for misconceptions and commonly confused facts.
Statement:
"Saturated fats are liquid at room temperature."
Answer: False. Saturated fats are solid at room temperature; unsaturated fats are typically liquid.
Cloze (fill-the-blank)
A sentence with one word or phrase removed, shown as a blank. You type the missing word. Cloze cards are particularly effective for definitions, processes, and formula structures where the surrounding context carries most of the meaning.
Prompt:
Osmosis is the movement of water molecules through a partially permeable membrane from a region of high water potential to a region of ___ water potential.
Answer: low
Chronology (reserved for future sessions)
A set of events shown out of order — drag them into the correct chronological sequence. Chronology cards exist in the card schema and are used in History curriculum planning, but they do not appear in any current practice session. This card type is reserved for a future release.
Year
You type the year a specific event occurred. A narrow tolerance is accepted (typically ±1 year unless the exact date is assessed). Used in History for key turning-point dates that examiners expect students to know precisely.
Prompt:
In what year did Britain declare war on Germany, starting the Second World War?
Answer: 1939
Fill the gap (Scaffold)
A model paragraph or explanation with a key term replaced by a dropdown or MCQ option. You pick the correct term to complete the passage. Scaffold cards are particularly effective for extended-response topics where seeing a well-structured answer and identifying the missing component builds both vocabulary and argument structure. Served in standard sessions where scaffold cards exist for a subject.
Evaluate (Mark it)
A complete model answer to an extended-response question is shown alongside the mark scheme band descriptors. You select the mark band the answer deserves. This is the card type that powers Mark It mode — the entire mode is built on evaluate cards. Only available for subjects and topics where evaluate cards have been authored. Currently in Beta.
Calculation
A numerical question with a unit (e.g. %, £, units). The prompt gives the numbers and a one-sentence ask. The card back shows the formula and worked steps. Used in Business Studies and Combined Science, where numerical fluency is assessed.
Prompt:
A business sells 2,000 units at £15 each with variable costs of £8 per unit and fixed costs of £6,000. What is the profit?
Card back:
Formula: Profit = Total Revenue − Total Costs
- Revenue: 2,000 × £15 = £30,000
- Variable costs: 2,000 × £8 = £16,000
- Total costs: £16,000 + £6,000 = £22,000
- Profit: £30,000 − £22,000 = £8,000
Practice modes
Seven ways to practise, each designed for a different moment in the revision cycle. You choose a mode from the mode picker before each session.
Standard session
The default mode and the one that counts towards your daily streak. The session runs for however many cards your daily goal is set to (15 by default, configurable by your teacher in class settings). Cards are selected by the adaptive picker — skipped and wrong cards that are overdue first, then unseen cards, then cards due for review that you previously got right. This ensures you're always working on the material that needs the most attention rather than replaying cards you already know well.
Best used: every day, as your primary revision habit.
Speed Round
Fifteen cards with an 8-second countdown per card. If time runs out, the card is marked wrong. Speed Round builds the fluency and pressure tolerance you need in an exam room, where you cannot afford to spend 30 seconds on a factual recall question. The tight clock reveals which knowledge is truly automatic and which is still effortful.
Tip: Run a standard session before your first Speed Round of a topic — you want to consolidate the facts before you drill under pressure, not discover gaps with an 8-second clock.
Note: Match-pairs cards are excluded from Speed Round — the drag-tap interaction is incompatible with the 8-second countdown.
Marathon
Fifty cards using the same adaptive picker as the standard session — weak first, due next, unseen last. A Marathon session earns the same XP per card as standard but covers five times the ground in one sitting. Designed for the week before an exam when you want a comprehensive sweep of a subject.
Best used: pre-exam revision blocks when you have 20–30 minutes available and want maximum coverage.
Mark it Beta
Extended-response cards that ask you to read a model answer and decide how many marks it would earn under the mark scheme. You are playing examiner rather than student, which forces you to internalise the criteria at a deeper level than recall alone. Mark it is in Beta and only appears in the mode picker for subjects that include evaluate-type cards in their corpus.
Best used: once you are confident on the facts and want to practise applying the mark scheme to extended writing.
Drill weak cards
Pulls only the cards you have answered incorrectly in recent sessions and repeats them until you answer each one correctly. The session ends when every card in the weak set has been answered correctly at least once. This is the fastest way to close specific knowledge gaps rather than relying on the normal spaced-repetition schedule to resurface them.
Best used: after any session where you got several wrong — do a quick Drill session immediately while the gaps are fresh.
Topic drill
Accessible from the mode picker: scroll to the topic list and tap any topic name to practise only cards from that topic, using the same adaptive ordering as the standard session. Useful when your class has just covered a specific topic and you want targeted reinforcement, or when Class accuracy by topic shows a particular area in red.
Study
30 cards shown prompt-and-answer together with no right/wrong judgment — a read-through rather than a test. Study mode awards 1 XP per card seen (rather than 10 for a correct answer), counts toward your daily streak, and advances unseen cards to the first mastery level. Launch it from the Learn page using the Study this topic or Study this section buttons.
Best used: before attempting practice on a topic you haven't seen yet — read through once so the first retrieval attempt lands in context rather than cold.
The adaptive card picker
Every standard session, Marathon, and Drill session uses the same five-bucket priority ordering. Buckets are worked through in order — if bucket 1 has no candidates, cards come from bucket 2, and so on:
- Skipped + due. Cards skipped in a previous session whose review interval has also elapsed — highest priority because you already indicated difficulty.
- Wrong + due. Cards answered incorrectly whose review interval has elapsed.
- Unseen. Cards never shown before — drawn ahead of cards already answered correctly to ensure new material reaches students promptly.
- Due and correct. Cards whose interval has elapsed and were previously answered correctly.
- Not yet due. Cards whose interval has not elapsed — only drawn when all other buckets are empty.
Unseen cards (bucket 3) are prioritised above cards you have already answered correctly (bucket 4). This means new material is surfaced before revision of familiar cards — preventing the pattern where students see the same cards every session while new content remains unseen.
The picker selects purely by a card's review status. It does not filter or sequence by card type — MCQ, recall, cloze, true/false, and other formats are not withheld based on how proficient a student is. The mix of question types in any session reflects the composition of the card bank for that subject, not a proficiency gate. Type variety is an authoring decision, not a runtime one.
The intervals between reviews are calculated using a variant of the SM-2 spaced-repetition algorithm. Each correct answer extends the gap before the card reappears; each incorrect answer resets it. Response speed also influences the interval — a fast correct answer indicates stronger recall and earns a longer gap than a slow correct answer.
For the full algorithm specification — ease factors, interval rules, and the five mastery levels (Unseen → Seen → Familiar → Proficient → Mastered) — see the Spaced repetition deep dive.
XP and streaks
XP (experience points)
Students earn 10 XPper correct card. Incorrect cards earn nothing. XP is tracked per subject — Food XP and History XP are separate counters. XP drives the student's rank label (e.g. Apprentice → Master Chef in Food, Trainee Historian → Master Historian in History) and unlocks cosmetics at five thresholds: 0, 500, 1,500, 4,000, and 10,000 XP.
An average student completing two 15-card sessions per day at 75% accuracy earns roughly 2,000 XP per week. A student putting in an hour a day at pace earns roughly 16,000 XP per week.
Boss battle events
During themed boss-battle events, every correct card earns 10 + bonus XP — the bonus amount is set per event. The banner on your dashboard tells you when a boss battle is active and when it ends. Complete sessions during the event window to make the most of the boosted rate.
Streaks
A student's streak increments by one every day they complete a regular session — Standard, Speed Round, Marathon, Mark it, Drill weak cards, Topic drills, and Study mode all count. Teacher-hosted live sessions do not count toward the streak. The streak advances once per calendar day (UTC); multiple sessions in one day still only increment it once. Missing a day resets the streak to zero unless a streak freeze is consumed automatically.
Streak freezes
A streak freeze protects your streak on a day you do not complete a session. When a freeze is available, it is automatically consumed on the first missed day — your streak stays intact and the freeze is spent. You can hold multiple freezes in reserve.
Earning freezes: school students earn +1 freeze for each homework assignment completed (first completion only) and earn one additional freeze for every 7-day streak milestone (capped at 5 total). Free individual accounts outside their 7-day trial cannot earn freezes through homework — they receive freezes only when subscribed to Pro.
Free-tier note: free individual accounts outside their 7-day trial cannot earn streak freezes. If you are away for multiple consecutive days, a Pro subscription or school account is required to build a freeze reserve. A single freeze only protects one missed day.
Reporting a card
If you believe a card has a wrong answer, an ambiguous prompt, a typo, or is missing a valid accepted answer, you can flag it without leaving your session. Every card has a Report button (typically a flag or similar icon) visible during and after the card is shown.
Tapping Report opens a short form with five fixed reasons: Wrong answer, Ambiguous, Typo, Out of date, Other. Select the one that best describes the issue. Your report is saved to a queue reviewed by the Educator content team. Teachers and HoDs can see reports from their own students.
Reporting a card does not skip or remove it from your session — it flags it for review while allowing you to continue. If you think the card is wrong and you know the correct answer, answer what you believe is right and select the most relevant report reason.
Daily goal
Your daily goal is the number of cards you need to complete in a session to count the day as done and advance your streak. The default is 15 cards.
For school students, the daily goal is set by your teacher in class settings. For independent learners, the default of 15 applies unless changed. Either way, completing any regular session that meets the goal advances your streak — the goal controls session length, not mode.
Recommendation: keep the goal achievable every single day rather than heroic on good days. Research on habit formation shows that consistency — even a small amount — outperforms occasional long sessions.