How This App Works

This page explains what each part of the flashcard app does and how your cards move through review.

What Spaced Repetition Means

Spaced repetition is a way of studying where you review information more often when it is hard, and less often when it is easy.

Instead of reviewing every card every day, the app tries to bring cards back right before you are likely to forget them.

This helps you spend more time on the cards you struggle with and less time on the ones you already know well.

The Forgetting Curve

The forgetting curve is the idea that people forget new information quickly if they do not review it.

Each time you successfully review a card, the memory usually becomes a little stronger, so the next review can be farther away.

That is why the app schedules easy cards later and difficult cards sooner.

Study Page

The study page shows one card at a time. You can switch bundles from the menu, reveal the answer, view explanations, and rate the card with the review buttons.

Review Mode shows cards that are due today.

Extra Practice Mode lets you keep studying after your due cards are done.

Place Cards In Queue lets you pull in cards that are scheduled for later today if you want to see them now.

Learning Phase

New cards and recently missed cards start in a short-term learning phase.

Hard brings the card back in about 5 to 15 minutes.

Okay brings it back in about 6 to 12 hours, then can graduate it toward 1 day.

Good graduates the card to about 1 day.

Easy can move it out to about 2 to 4 days.

Adaptive Review Phase

Once a card reaches about 1 day, it moves into long-term review scheduling.

The app tracks how many successful reviews the card has had, how long its current interval is, and an ease factor that reflects how easy the card feels for you.

Okay grows the interval cautiously, Good grows it normally, and Easy grows it faster.

Hard sends the card back into learning so you can rebuild it before stretching it out again.

Due Cards Vs Extra Practice

Due cards are cards scheduled for today.

Extra practice is optional review after your due cards are finished.

If there are no due cards, review mode stays empty so you can clearly tell that today's work is done.

Manage Cards Page

The Manage Cards page is where you organize categories and subcategories, create cards, edit questions and answers, add images, duplicate cards, and import Anki-style files.

You can rename categories and subcategories there too, so imported labels like Imported do not have to stay that way.

Card Types

Written Response cards show the question and let you reveal the answer.

Multiple Choice cards show answer options that shuffle each time the card appears.

Image cards can include images in the question, explanation, or answer.

Explanations

After you reveal an answer or pick a multiple-choice option, the Explanation button appears. Explanations can include text and multiple images.

Click an explanation image to enlarge it. Click outside the image to close it.

Archives And Restore Points

Deleted cards go to Archives instead of disappearing forever.

You can resurrect a deleted card back into a bundle later.

Restore points save a snapshot of all bundles, cards, and archives so you can roll the whole collection back to an earlier version.

Anki Import

The easiest imports are simpler text-based exports. Some complex Anki note types, especially image-heavy or cloze-heavy decks, may need cleanup after import.

The format this app currently handles best is an Anki-exported text file of cards rather than a full Anki deck package.

If the cards use images, the app also works best when the matching Anki media files are available from your local collection.media folder.

This app can match some imported image references to your local Anki media folder, but not every Anki export format imports perfectly.

Where Things Are Saved

Your cards, progress, archives, and restore points are saved in your browser storage on this computer.

If you clear browser storage or switch to a different browser/profile, your local data may not follow automatically.

How The Scheduler Adapts

Each card stores its own review history, interval length, ease factor, and next review time.

The app adds a very small amount of timing randomness so too many cards do not pile up on exactly the same day.

This means two similar cards may drift apart over time if one becomes easier for you than the other.

What Model This Is Based On

This scheduler is based on the SM-2 spaced-repetition model, which is a classic review algorithm originally used in early SuperMemo systems and later inspired systems like Anki.

Synapset uses an adapted version of that idea. It keeps the core SM-2 concepts like repetitions, interval growth, and ease factor, but combines them with a separate learning phase for brand new or recently missed cards.

What The App Actually Tracks Per Card

Each card stores a few scheduler values behind the scenes: its stage, how many successful reviews it has built up, its current interval length, its ease factor, its last review time, and its next review time.

That means the app is not just remembering whether you saw a card. It is remembering how stable that memory seems to be and using that to decide when the card should return.

Why There Is A Separate Learning Phase

Classic SM-2 works best once a card has already become at least somewhat stable. New cards are usually too fragile for that right away, so Synapset gives them a short learning phase first.

In that phase, the app uses short windows like minutes or hours. The goal is to let the card prove that it can survive at least a day before it starts using long-term interval growth.

What Ease Factor Actually Changes

The ease factor, or EF, is the multiplier that helps decide how quickly a review card's interval can grow. Higher EF means the card is behaving like an easier memory. Lower EF means the card is acting more fragile.

In practice, EF does not directly set the next date by itself. Instead, it changes how strongly the next interval expands after successful reviews. Two cards can have the same current interval, but if one has a stronger EF it will stretch farther on the next successful review.

How Interval Growth Works In Review

Once a card has graduated into review, Synapset uses its current interval plus the review button you pressed to decide the next interval. Okay grows the card cautiously, Good grows it at the normal EF-based pace, and Easy grows it faster than normal.

That means intervals are not chosen from a fixed list like 1, 3, 7, 14 forever. They are recalculated dynamically from the card's own history.

What The Buttons Do To The Curve

Hard acts like a lapse. Instead of pretending the memory is stable, the app sends the card back into short-term rebuilding. That is why a hard card can feel like it suddenly became much earlier again.

Okay counts as a successful review, but a weaker one. It lets the card move forward without rewarding it as strongly as Good.

Good is the baseline successful review. It tells the app the card was recalled solidly enough to continue normal long-term growth.

Easy is stronger than just correct. It tells the app the card felt comfortably overlearned at that moment, so the next interval can stretch more aggressively.

Why Cards Drift Apart Over Time

Even if two cards start on the same day, they quickly stop behaving like twins. One may get mostly Good and Easy reviews, while another may get more Okay or Hard. That changes both their interval growth and their ease factor over time.

Synapset also adds a very small amount of random spread to review intervals. That is not meant to change learning quality. It is mainly there to keep too many cards from piling up on exactly the same review day.

Why The Curve Matters

The basic idea is not to review everything as often as possible. It is to review a card near the point where forgetting is beginning, because that is where one review tends to strengthen memory the most efficiently.

If the app brings a card back too early, you waste time. If it brings it back too late, you fully forget it. The scheduler is trying to stay in the middle ground where review still feels effortful but productive.