ADR 0029 Quick Revision

ADR-0029: Quick revision revises known words, and records only the misses

Source of truth: this wiki page.

• Status: Accepted. Amended by ADR-0033: a revision from Today records every answer.
• Date: 2026-10-04

Context

Today showed what was due, a lesson, and "Your decks". The owner: "I need a way to quickly revise all that I know. The review section only shows what are pending. Instead of the your decks, the app should have a bunch of quick revision (5,10,15,20 cards) buttons followed by a fact of the day card."

Asked which words, they chose random words from what the learner knows. Asked whether answers are recorded, they asked what SM-2 says. SM-2 (Woźniak, 1990) grades a card only when it is due, and has no rule for an early review. Its step 7 repeats, the same day, items graded below 4 until they reach it, and those extra repetitions change no interval. This app's SM-2 also multiplies the interval on a right answer as if the card had been due, so recording an early right answer would push the card out too far. Told this, the owner chose to record the misses only.

Decision

• Where: "Your decks" on Today gives way to Quick revision: buttons for 5, 10, 15 and 20 words. The fact of the day follows it, as before. The Decks tab still lists every deck.
• Which words: words the learner has been taught, from every language they learn, picked at random each time. Each is asked in a skill it has been reviewed in and can be drilled in now, the way reviews ask it. Asking for more than are known revises all of them. With none known, the buttons are off, and a line says that revision opens up after a lesson.
• What is recorded: a wrong answer, as a review with its failing grade. It is a lapse, and brings the word back sooner. A right answer is not recorded, and its word's schedule stays as it was.
• DrillRequest.revision(count) asks for it. It is a revise request, so every reviewed pair counts as due, limited to [count] words picked at random.

Consequences

• A learner can revise as much as they like without stretching any word's interval.
• A word missed in revision comes back in reviews sooner, which goes beyond SM-2: early failures count, early successes do not. The log shows the miss like any other review.
• One session mixes the languages learned, where Start review takes them one at a time (#153). Each card still names its deck.
• Today no longer lists decks; the Decks tab does.

Alternatives considered

• Strict SM-2, nothing recorded: a forgotten word would wait for its date. The owner chose to record the misses.
• Record everything: an early right answer would stretch the interval as if the word had been remembered for all of it.
• Weakest first, or not seen longest first: the owner chose random.

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