New at SuperMemo.com: Sort your repetitions

This way we repeat at first the material which is more vulnerable to potential repetition delays and later things which are usually easier and better stabilized in our memory.

Based on our own experience with the learning process in courses with outstanding repetitions, we came across an idea that repetitions can be sorted in an alternative way. Instead of interval length, you can now also sort them chronologically, according to their position in the course, which is usually consistent with how long ago a particular screen was first introduced in your learning process. This way, your repetitions for a given day can start with the material that you started learning earlier, and gradually screens from the more recent learning sessions will pop up.

You are free to choose from these two options according to your individual needs and preferences, and for each course independently. The default option remains to be the traditional one based on interval length, but go ahead and try out the other one to see which one works best for you. For those learners with many overdue repetitions, we would suggest changing the order to the new option that sorts them chronologically. This way, you will first repeat the material that should be relatively easier, and feel less discouraged to continue with clearing your repetitions and then learning new material from your course. For structured courses, it means reviewing the material incrementally, chapter by chapter. If your percentage of outstanding repetitions is close to 100%, it is like going through the whole course from scratch again, but this time new repetition dates will account for whatever you are able to recall. So rather than several days, your new intervals may reach months or years, depending on how much time has passed since last repetition for the items that you still remember.

How to choose the sorting option? When learning with a given course, simply go to top right-hand menu, click on the Settings icon and switch the selection icon next to “SORT REPETITIONS”. The icon with a clock means sorting by interval length. If you want to go back to chronological ordering, set the icon to three horizontal lines.

Watch this short video to see how to sort your repetitions:

Alicja Jankowiak & Krzysztof Biedalak