Spaced repetition is why Wise Arabic asks you to review some cards today and leaves others alone. A memory strengthens when you recall it just before it would fade.
Reviewing too early wastes effort. Reviewing too late means relearning. Spaced repetition tries to keep you between those two failures.
Why intervals change
After each review, the next interval depends on how well you remembered.
- Again brings the card back soon.
- Hard keeps the interval short.
- Good lets the interval grow normally.
- Easy lets the interval grow faster.
This is why honest ratings matter. The schedule is only as good as the signal you give it.
Why Arabic needs more than simple flashcards
Arabic vocabulary is not just translation pairs.
A single word may involve:
- a plural that is not obvious;
- a root shared with many related words;
- a form or wazn that changes meaning;
- several near-synonyms in English;
- a fixed phrase where the whole expression matters.
Spaced repetition helps retention, but understanding still matters. If you keep missing a word, read the word details rather than only repeating the card.
Review day
Wise Arabic schedules around your review day. Your review day follows your timezone and day-reset hour in Settings.
The default reset is 3 AM. That means a review at 1 AM still belongs to the previous study day. This is intentional: many learners study late, and midnight is often the wrong boundary.
Your review day affects:
- what counts as due today;
- streaks;
- daily review totals;
- when another card for the same word can appear again.
Why related cards are separated
One saved word can have multiple cards. For example, a noun may have Arabic-to-English, English-to-Arabic, and singular-to-plural recall.
Wise Arabic avoids showing related cards for the same word on the same review day. Otherwise, the first card can give away the answer to the second. Separating them gives a better measure of what you actually remembered.
How to use spaced repetition well
- Review due cards before adding many new words.
- Add small batches. Large batches create future backlogs.
- Rate honestly, especially between Hard and Good.
- Open word details after repeated mistakes.
- Reduce new words for a few days if due cards become too heavy.
The schedule helps only if your saved words stay reviewable. The dashboard's daily pace does this arithmetic for you: it suggests how many new words fit today given what is already coming due.
Where to go next
- How reviews work: the practical review flow.
- Your daily pace: balancing new words against future reviews.
- Review groups: choosing what to practise.
- Your dashboard: using due counts and progress to decide the next action.