Spaced repetition

How Vocably decides which cards to show during a study session

Vocably is designed to handle extensive collections of cards – hundreds or even thousands. You never have to review all of them at once.

Reviewing every card in every session doesn't scale.

Once your collection hits a certain size (say, 30 or 100 cards), reviewing all of them in a single study session is not practical.

Thankfully, you don’t have to. With the help of a smart sorting algorithm called SuperMemo, created in 1985 based on research on long-term memory, Vocably shows you only the cards that need reviewing – like new cards or ones you haven’t studied in a while.

Every swipe tells the algorithm when to show the card again.

Every time you swipe a card, the algorithm adjusts when to show it again based on how you swiped.

  • Swipe left You don’t know it yet. The card comes back the next day or soon after.
  • Swipe down You’re not sure. The card comes back the next day without losing its progress.
  • Swipe right You know it. The card shows up again in a few days.

The better you know a card, the less often you see it.

If you swipe right again in a few days, the algorithm will push the card back further. Over time, if you keep swiping right, some cards might not come up again for years.

  1. New cardToday
  2. Swiped rightIn a few days
  3. Swiped right againIn a month
  4. Keep swiping rightIn years

With SuperMemo, you’ll focus on the cards you need to work on while occasionally reviewing the ones you know, helping you lock them into memory.