Learning & Review

Cardary builds a daily study queue around the current learning day and schedules cards with an FSRS-style spaced-repetition scheduler. The goal is simple: show each card near the time it is useful to recall it, while keeping the daily workload under control.

This page explains the learning model, queue states, answer grades, visible settings, mode differences, statistics, and practical tuning rules.

Mental Model

Cardary separates three questions:

Which cards should appear today? The queue builder selects due reviews, learning cards, relearning cards, and a limited number of new cards.
What happened when you answered? The scheduler receives an answer grade such as missed, hard, good, or easy.
When should the card return? The scheduler updates the card’s due time, interval, learning step, stability, difficulty, and statistics.

The queue decides today’s workload. The scheduler decides the next due time. The card design determines whether the grade is meaningful.

Queue States

State	Meaning	What to do
New	The card has not entered active learning.	Introduce it slowly through the daily new-card limit.
Learning	The card is in short learning steps before graduation.	Answer normally; it may return within minutes.
Review	The card has graduated to spaced review.	Use missed/hard/good/easy honestly.
Relearning	A review card was missed and is being strengthened again.	Treat it as a card that needs repair or another short step.
Completed	The card is marked finished after a completion rule.	It is outside ordinary review unless you reset or re-enable it.
Suspended	The card is excluded from normal study.	Use this for material you do not want in the queue.

Internally, Cardary stores schedule data such as queue, step, due time, interval, last interval, ease, stability, difficulty, review count, lapse count, good count, first learned time, and last learned time. You do not need to edit these fields directly; settings and answers update them.

Answer Grades

Grade	Meaning	Scheduling effect
Missed	You could not recall the answer.	The card returns sooner, lapse count increases, and successful streak is reset.
Hard	You recalled it with effort or uncertainty.	The card remains on a cautious interval.
Good	Normal successful recall.	The card follows the expected spaced-review path.
Easy	Strong recall.	The card receives the strongest successful signal and may move farther out.

Use the grade for recall quality, not for how much you like the card. Overusing Easy makes cards disappear too long. Overusing Missed makes the queue heavy. If a card is repeatedly Hard or Missed, improve the prompt instead of only pushing it through more reviews.

Standard, Quick, and Quiz Answers

In standard review, Cardary keeps all four grades.

In self-assessment or quiz-style flows, the app can simplify the answer into a conservative two-outcome model:

missed or hard behaves like Missed;
good or easy behaves like Easy.

This is useful for fast workflows where the app only knows “correct” or “incorrect.” It also means quiz and quick flows are less nuanced than standard review. Use standard review when you need fine control between Hard, Good, and Easy.

Daily Queue Construction

The daily queue can include:

due review cards;
learning cards whose short step is due;
relearning cards after a miss;
new cards up to the configured daily limit;
cards filtered by deck, category, tag, or study surface.

Cardary loads each group separately and then orders them according to the study order setting.

Queue part	How it is selected
New cards	Cards still unlearned, limited by Max new cards/day.
Review cards	Review cards due before the current due cutoff, limited by Max review cards/day.
Learning cards	Cards in learning or relearning steps, ordered by due time.

If a limit is set to 0, that part of the queue is effectively paused. For example, Max new cards/day = 0 lets you clear reviews without introducing new material.

Study Order Settings

Studying Cards Order

This setting controls how new, learning, and review cards are arranged once the daily queue is built.

Setting	Behavior	Best for
Mix	Learning/review cards are sorted by due time, then new cards are inserted through the queue.	Balanced daily study.
Reviews first	Reviews, then learning cards, then new cards.	Backlog recovery and exam maintenance.
New cards first	Learning cards, then new cards, then reviews.	Starting a small new deck when review load is low.
Auto	Follow the deck or system default.	Most users.

When in doubt, use Mix or Reviews first. New cards first can feel productive but may delay overdue reviews.

Unlearned Cards Order

This setting controls the order in which new cards are introduced.

Setting	Behavior	Best for
Sequential	New cards follow the deck/card order.	Textbook chapters, ordered courses, curated decks.
Randomized	New cards are selected randomly.	Mixed drills, memorization pools, avoiding positional hints.

Sequential order is usually better for structured courses. Randomized order is useful when card order itself gives away the answer.

Study Strategy Settings

The study plan screen exposes the settings most users need.

Setting	Default	Visible range	What it changes
Max new cards/day	20	0-200	Limits how many unlearned cards enter active study each day.
Max review cards/day	100	0-1000	Limits how many due review cards are added to the daily queue.
Initial study steps	1 10	minutes, two values in the current UI	Controls short learning returns before a new card graduates.
Max review interval	36500 days	shown in days	Caps how far a review can be scheduled into the future.
Studying cards order	Auto/Mix depending on defaults	Mix, Reviews first, New cards first, Auto	Controls how queue groups are arranged.
Unlearned cards order	Sequential unless changed	Sequential or Randomized	Controls how new cards are selected.

Some advanced scheduling fields exist internally, but not every one is exposed in the current app UI. Treat the app screen as the source of truth for settings you can safely change.

How Each Setting Affects Workload

Max New Cards/Day

This is the strongest long-term workload control. New cards create future reviews. If you add too many new cards, the deck may feel fine today but heavy several days later.

Use lower values when:

the deck is difficult;
each card contains images, formulas, or long explanations;
you missed recent review days;
you are importing a large deck;
you are preparing several subjects at once.

Use higher values only when review accuracy is stable and daily review time remains comfortable.

Max Review Cards/Day

This is a daily cap, not a guarantee that overdue cards disappear. If due reviews exceed the limit, remaining reviews stay due for later sessions.

Use a lower review limit to protect time. Use a higher review limit when you are clearing backlog or preparing for a deadline.

Avoid setting review limit too low for long periods. The deck may look manageable because the app hides excess reviews, while overdue work continues to accumulate.

Initial Study Steps

Initial study steps are short intervals in minutes for brand-new cards. The default pattern 1 10 means a new card can return after roughly one minute, then again after roughly ten minutes before it graduates into longer review scheduling.

Shorter steps help with hard material but make sessions longer. Longer steps reduce repetition but may graduate weak cards too early.

Good patterns:

Use short steps for formulas, anatomy, vocabulary, or exact recall.
Use fewer/longer steps for easy recognition cards.
Do not use long steps to compensate for unclear card prompts; fix the card instead.

Max Review Interval

This caps the largest interval. A high cap allows very easy cards to move far into the future. A lower cap forces periodic resurfacing.

Lower it when:

the material is high stakes;
you want periodic maintenance even after mastery;
the deck contains facts that decay quickly.

Raise or leave it high when the deck contains durable knowledge and you trust the scheduler.

What Happens After You Answer

After each answer, Cardary:

records the review time;
maps the answer to the scheduler rating;
updates stability and difficulty;
updates the next due time;
updates the queue state and learning step;
stores interval and last interval;
updates review count, lapse count, and good count;
records learning statistics for the day;
removes the card from today’s queue if its next due time is beyond the learning-day cutoff.

If the card is new, Cardary records the first learned time. If the card is missed during review, it can enter relearning. If a completion rule is configured and the card reaches the required successful count, it can be marked completed.

Learning Day and Cutoff

Cardary groups review activity by learning day. The learning day is not only a calendar label; it affects whether a card still belongs in today’s queue after it is answered.

If a card’s next due time is beyond the current learning-day cutoff, it leaves today’s queue. If it is still due within the current day or short learning step, it can return during the same session.

This is why short learning steps can bring a card back quickly, while graduated review cards leave the session until a later day.

Statistics and Forecasts

Cardary can show learning history, daily activity, review load, stage distribution, and forecast-style information.

Use statistics for decisions:

rising review load means new cards are too high;
many missed cards means prompts may be unclear or study sessions are too rushed;
many hard cards means the deck may need splitting, examples, or media cleanup;
long study duration with low progress means cards are overloaded;
forecast spikes mean you should lower new cards before the spike arrives.

Statistics are feedback, not a score. Use them to keep the system sustainable.

Reset, Suspend, and Complete

Action	What it means	When to use
Reset learning	Clears scheduling progress for selected cards or a deck.	Bad import, wrong settings, or intentional restart.
Suspend	Removes cards from normal study without deleting them.	Temporarily irrelevant, duplicate, or low-priority cards.
Complete	Marks cards as finished.	Material no longer needs ordinary review.

Do not reset a deck only because you missed days. Backlog should normally be handled by lowering new cards, using reviews first, and clearing due work gradually.

Recommended Tuning Patterns

New Deck

Max new cards/day: low, often 5-20.
Max review cards/day: enough to clear all due reviews.
Initial study steps: default is usually fine.
Order: Mix.
New-card order: Sequential for structured material.

Backlog Recovery

Set Max new cards/day to 0 temporarily.
Use Reviews first.
Increase review limit only to a sustainable number.
Rewrite cards that repeatedly fail.
Resume new cards only after daily reviews stabilize.

Exam Sprint

Keep review limit high enough for due work.
Use shorter initial steps for exact recall.
Use categories or tags to focus on exam scope.
Avoid flooding the deck with unreviewed new cards near the deadline.

Long-Term Maintenance

Keep new cards modest.
Use Mix or Reviews first.
Leave max interval high unless the material requires periodic refresh.
Suspend obsolete cards instead of letting them consume attention.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Likely cause	Fix
Too many reviews every day	New cards were too high several days earlier.	Lower new cards, use reviews first, clear backlog gradually.
New cards never appear	Max new cards/day is 0, filters exclude them, or reviews dominate.	Raise new limit, check filters, or change order.
Reviews never seem to end	Review limit is too low or many cards are overdue.	Temporarily raise review limit and pause new cards.
Cards return too soon	Many Missed/Hard answers or short learning steps.	Check whether answers are honest and prompts are clear.
Cards disappear too long	Overuse of Easy or max interval too high for the material.	Use Good when recall is normal; lower max interval if needed.
Quiz mode feels too aggressive	Quiz answers are simplified into correct/incorrect.	Use standard review for nuanced grading.
A card is always hard	The card likely tests too much or is ambiguous.	Split, rewrite, add context, or add useful media.

Related: Make Cards, Account & Sync, and Import Cards.