Quiz & Spaced Repetition

This page covers Recall’s quiz and spaced repetition system: how questions are generated, the review session experience, the dashboard, challenges, settings, and tips.

For a quick overview, see the Getting Started guide.

Getting Started

What is Spaced Repetition?

Spaced repetition is a learning technique that spaces your reviews at optimal intervals. Instead of cramming everything at once, it schedules reviews based on how well you know each question:

• When you answer correctly, the next review is pushed further into the future because you’re demonstrating that you already know the material.
• When you answer incorrectly, the interval shortens so that you review the material again sooner and reinforce the correct answer.
• Over time, well-known material is reviewed less often (saving you time), while challenging material gets more frequent reviews until it sticks.

How Questions Are Generated

Recall uses AI to generate questions from your saved cards:

1. Open any card and navigate to the Quiz tab
2. Click Generate Questions. The AI will analyze your card’s content and create relevant questions in various formats.
3. In the generate modal, you can toggle Schedule for review to automatically add the generated questions to your spaced repetition cycle

You can also create questions manually using the Create button if you want to test yourself on specific concepts.

Your Review Schedule

Once questions are generated, they enter the review pipeline. The dashboard shows three categories of upcoming reviews:

• Ready for Review: questions that are due today. These are the ones you should focus on first.
• Due This Week: questions coming up in the next few days.
• Next Week: questions scheduled for the following week.

Click on any of these schedule cards to jump to the Questions tab filtered to show only those questions. This lets you browse and manage upcoming reviews before starting a quiz session.

Knowledge Stages

Every question moves through five stages as you review it. Each stage determines how frequently the question appears in your reviews:

If you get a mastered question wrong, it drops back to Learning so you can re-learn it. This ensures you always maintain accurate knowledge.

Quiz Session

Question Types

Recall supports seven question types, each designed to test different aspects of your understanding:

• Multiple Choice: pick the correct answer from several options. Tests recognition and distinguishing between similar concepts.
• True/False: decide whether a statement about the material is true or false. Tests understanding of facts and common misconceptions.
• Fill in the Blank: complete a sentence by selecting the missing word or phrase. Focuses on key terminology and definitions.
• Short Answer: type the answer from memory without any hints. The most challenging format, best for deep recall.
• Matching: connect related items by drawing pairs. Tests understanding of relationships between concepts.
• Ordering: arrange items in the correct sequence. Useful for processes, timelines, and hierarchies.
• Flashcard: a two-sided card with a prompt on the front and the answer on the back. Classic self-assessment where you rate whether you knew the answer.

When generating questions, you choose which question types to include in the generate modal. You can also manually create any type using the Create button.

During a Quiz Session

When you start a review, questions appear one at a time in a full-screen session. For each question you’ll see:

• Study material at the top showing which card the question comes from. Click on it to open the original card and review the source material.
• Progress bar showing how far through the session you are (e.g., “Question 3 / 10”).
• Difficulty badge in the top-left of the question card, showing whether the question is Easy, Medium, or Hard.
• Answer area that varies by question type, from clicking options to typing your answer to dragging items.

After you submit your answer, you’ll see whether you were correct along with a detailed explanation that helps reinforce the concept regardless of whether you got it right.

Hints and Explanations

Many questions include a hint to help nudge you toward the correct answer without giving it away:

• Look for the “Need a hint?” link at the bottom of the question card.
• Click it to reveal a helpful clue. The hint provides directional guidance without spoiling the answer.

After answering (whether correctly or not), the explanation box appears below your answer. This provides context about why the correct answer is right, helping you build deeper understanding beyond simple memorization.

Timed Questions

You can enable timed questions in Settings > Quiz to add a countdown timer to each question:

• A progress bar at the top of the question shows your remaining time.
• The bar changes color as time runs out, turning yellow when you’re running low and red in the final seconds.
• If time expires before you answer, the question is automatically marked as incorrect and the correct answer is shown.

The time limit per question (10 seconds up to 120 seconds) can be configured in Settings > Quiz. The timer can be turned on or off at any time without affecting your existing review schedule.

Managing Questions During a Quiz

During a quiz session, you have full control over each question. Click the menu button in the top-right corner of the question card to access these actions:

• Schedule / Unschedule: add or remove the question from your spaced repetition cycle. Unscheduling a question means it will no longer appear in future reviews.
• Edit: modify the question text, answer, or options if you spot an error or want to improve it.
• Delete: permanently remove the question if it’s no longer relevant.

These actions take effect immediately, so you can curate your question set while you review without breaking your flow.

Dashboard

Review Schedule

The top of the dashboard shows your review schedule with three columns. Each column is clickable and takes you directly to the Questions tab filtered for that time period:

• Ready for Review shows how many questions are due right now. If this number is greater than zero, start a review session.
• Due This Week shows questions coming in the next few days. Planning ahead helps you stay on track.
• Next Week shows what’s on the horizon. These questions are already progressing through the spaced repetition cycle.

Click Start Review to begin a session with up to 10 of your most-due questions. The system prioritizes questions that are most overdue to ensure nothing falls through the cracks.

Streak Calendar

The streak calendar shows your review consistency over time. Building and maintaining a streak helps make spaced repetition a habit:

• Fire icons appear on past days (or weeks, depending on your goal) where you completed at least one review.
• Check marks appear on today (or the current week) if you’ve already reviewed.
• Gray dots show past days where you missed a review.

Your current streak count is displayed below the calendar. You can switch between a daily or weekly streak goal in Settings > Quiz. Click View all to open a full activity heatmap that shows your review history over the past year, similar to a GitHub contribution graph.

Activity Chart

The activity chart shows your daily review stats as a bar chart. Each bar represents one day and shows how many questions you reviewed:

• Use the period selector in the top-right to switch between Last 7 days, Last 14 days, Last 30 days, Last 6 months, or All time.
• The summary stats above the chart show your total answered, correct count, and accuracy percentage for the selected period.
• An accuracy of 80% or higher is highlighted in green.

Memory Stats

The Memory Stats chart gives you a snapshot of where all your questions stand across the five knowledge stages:

• New: not yet reviewed, waiting for the first attempt.
• Learning: last answer was incorrect, reviewed again in about 1 day.
• Practiced: 1-2 correct in a row, reviewed every 3-7 days.
• Confident: 3-4 correct in a row, reviewed every 14 days to 1 month.
• Mastered: 5+ correct in a row, reviewed every 3 months.

The goal is to move as many questions as possible toward Mastered. If you answer a mastered question incorrectly, it drops back to Learning so you can reinforce it.

Memory Progress

The Memory Progress chart tracks how your questions move through stages over time. It’s a stacked area chart where:

• Each color band represents a knowledge stage (New, Learning, Practiced, Confident, Mastered).
• You should see the Mastered band growing over time as you consistently review.
• Use the period selector to view trends across different time ranges (Last 7 days up to All time).

This chart helps you visualize the long-term impact of your spaced repetition practice. A growing Mastered area means you’re transferring knowledge to long-term memory.

Questions Tab

The Questions tab on the Review page gives you a complete view of all your questions across all cards:

• Browse by card to see questions grouped under the card they belong to.
• Filter by review status: Due Now, This Week, Next Week, Unscheduled, or All.
• Filter by tag to narrow down to questions from cards with specific tags.
• Search to find specific questions by text.
• Bulk actions to select multiple questions and schedule, unschedule, review, or delete them at once.

Each question shows its type, difficulty, and next review date. You can click on any question to expand it and see the full details, or use the edit button to modify it.

Challenges

What Are Challenges?

Challenges let you share your quiz questions with friends, classmates, or colleagues and compete for the best score:

• Create a challenge from any card that has generated questions.
• Share a link with anyone, even people who don’t have a Recall account (no sign-up required to participate).
• Everyone takes the same quiz and their scores appear on a shared leaderboard.

Challenges are separate from your personal spaced repetition schedule. They don’t affect your review timings or streak.

Creating and Sharing a Challenge

To create a challenge:

1. Open a card that already has quiz questions generated.
2. Go to the Quiz tab and click the Share Challenge button.
3. A shareable link is generated that you can copy and send to anyone.

If you’ve already taken a quiz on that card, your result is automatically used as your challenge score (as long as the questions haven’t changed since). You can also create a challenge directly after completing a quiz session by clicking Challenge Someone on the results screen.

Taking a Challenge

When someone opens your challenge link, they land on the challenge lobby. They’ll see:

• The card title and image showing what the challenge is about.
• Stats including the number of questions, total attempts, and average score.
• A Study material button that lets participants review the source content before attempting the quiz.
• If they were challenged by a specific person, they’ll see that person’s score as a target to beat.

Before starting, participants enter their display name (which appears on the leaderboard). Then they take the quiz like a regular review session, with a timer tracking their total time.

Leaderboard

Every challenge has a leaderboard showing all participants ranked by score:

• Score percentage is the primary ranking factor.
• Time spent is shown as a tiebreaker for equal scores.
• Your own entry is highlighted so you can quickly see your position.
• The challenger’s entry (if you opened a specific person’s link) is also marked.

After completing a challenge, you can challenge someone else by sharing your own link.

Settings

Streak Goal

Your streak goal determines how the streak calendar and streak counter work:

• Daily: you need to complete at least one review every day to maintain your streak. The calendar shows individual days of the current week.
• Weekly: you need to review at least once per week. The calendar shows the past 6 weeks.

You can change your streak goal at any time in Settings > Quiz.

Timed Questions Settings

Timed questions add a countdown timer to each question during review sessions. Configure this in Settings > Quiz:

• Toggle on/off to enable or disable the timer entirely.
• Time per question: choose how many seconds you get for each question. Options range from 10 seconds (for quick-fire recall) up to 120 seconds (for complex questions).

The timer applies to all question types equally. If you find certain question types need more time (like Matching or Ordering), consider setting a longer time limit to accommodate them.

Notifications

Recall can send you reminders to help you stay consistent with your reviews. There are two types, each with email and push options:

• Spaced repetition notifications alert you when you have questions due for review. These are sent based on your actual review schedule.
• Streak notifications remind you to review before your streak breaks. Especially helpful for maintaining daily streaks.

Each notification type can be independently configured for email and push delivery. Go to Settings > Quiz to customize which notifications you receive.

Tips

Maximize Your Retention

It’s better to do a short 5-minute review every day than a 30-minute session once a week. Consistency is the most important factor for spaced repetition to work.

• Start your day with a review. Make it part of your morning routine. Even 5-10 questions takes just a few minutes.
• Don’t skip “due” questions. When questions are marked as “Ready for Review,” that’s the optimal time to review them. Delaying reduces the effectiveness of the spacing algorithm.
• Trust the process. If a question keeps coming back, it means the algorithm detected you need more practice. Don’t unschedule it just because it feels repetitive.

Getting the Most from Questions

The quality of your questions directly impacts how well you’ll retain the material:

• Review generated questions. AI-generated questions are a good starting point, but you can improve them by editing to focus on what matters most to you.
• Add your own questions. Questions you write yourself are often the most effective because they target exactly what you want to remember.
• Use the explanation field. When editing questions, add detailed explanations. These appear after answering and help reinforce the “why” behind each answer.
• Delete poor questions. If a question is ambiguous or tests trivial information, delete it. Quality matters more than quantity.

Connecting Cards and Questions

Your quiz questions are tied to specific cards in your library. Take advantage of this connection:

• Click the study material link during a quiz to quickly review the source content if you’re stuck.
• Generate questions for connected cards. If you have a cluster of related cards in your knowledge graph, make sure they all have questions. This creates a comprehensive study set for that topic.
• Use tags to organize. Tag your cards by topic or course, then use the Questions tab’s tag filter to focus your review on specific areas.

Challenge Best Practices

• Challenge study partners on material you’re all learning. Seeing others’ scores adds motivation to review more carefully.
• Share the study material link first. Before sending the challenge, let people know they can read the source material. This levels the playing field and encourages learning.
• Create challenges for your own cards and share them in group chats or study groups. The leaderboard creates healthy competition.
• Try challenges from others as a way to discover new content. If you score well, it validates your knowledge. If not, you’ve found a gap to fill.

Reading Your Dashboard

How to interpret your dashboard metrics:

• Growing “Mastered” count in Memory Stats means your spaced repetition is working.
• High “Learning” count means many questions were recently answered incorrectly. Focus your next session on these.
• Accuracy above 80% is a good target. If it consistently drops below 60%, consider enabling hints or reviewing your study material before quizzing.
• Activity dips in the chart often correspond to weekends or busy periods. Use weekly streak goals if daily consistency is difficult to maintain.