Yes. You can shorten any phase, skip the warm-up if nothing's due, or jump straight to assessment. The arc is the default because it outperforms shuffles — but you're in control.

How does weakness targeting work?

After each session, Revu ranks your gaps by recall confidence, lapse rate, and section coverage. The next session's assessment is generated specifically from your bottom quartile — so you're practicing where it matters.

Does it integrate with FSRS?

Tightly. Active Recall is the phase that actually runs FSRS — your grades per card update stability, difficulty, and retention. The other phases are scaffolding around that core.

How long is a session?

Default is 25–35 minutes, but Revu adapts based on content density and your available window. A 45-minute gap in your calendar becomes a 40-minute session; a 20-minute gap becomes a tight 18-minute sprint.

What's the difference between this and Anki?

Anki is a card engine. Adaptive Sessions wrap an engine with pedagogy: warm-up, priming, interleaved recall, and adaptive assessment. You still hit your due cards — but they're embedded in a lesson, not dropped on you in a queue.

Adaptive Sessions·All features

Every session is a
lesson, not a card dump.

Revu doesn't just shuffle flashcards at you. Every session follows a four-phase pedagogical arc — warm-up recap, topic introduction, active recall, weakness-targeted assessment — so you build understanding, not just recognition.

4-phase arcWeak-spot targetingInterleaved recallFSRS-grounded

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today · biology 101 · session #42

35 min total

03

04

6 min

Phase 01

Warm-up Recap

· Missed card · Mendel's laws
· Due review · Gene expression
· Due review · Codon table

4 min

Phase 02

Topic Introduction

· AI summary: Transcription & translation
· 3 source citations
· Visual preview

18 min

Phase 03

Active Recall

· Q: RNA polymerase binds where?
· Cloze: _____ codes for methionine.
· MCQ · 8 cards interleaved

7 min

Phase 04

Assessment

· 12 Q's · targets your weak spots
· Breakdown by section
· Feeds tomorrow's warm-up

Session economics

Designed for retention, not time-on-task.

0 min

Typical session length

Adapts to your available window.

0 phases

Warm-up → Recall → Assessment

Priming + active recall + weakness-targeted quiz.

0%

Lift over pure shuffle

Internal A/B on session completion & next-day recall.

0

Weakness Q's per session

Generated live from your lowest-confidence topics.

Phase 01 — Warm-up recap

Start with what almost slipped.

Every session opens with 6 minutes of spaced recall — cards you struggled with last time, plus items FSRS flagged as due. You start hot, not cold. Wake up the neural pathways before adding new load.

Prior-struggle cards
Cards you rated 'Hard' or 'Again' return for a second look.
Due reviews
FSRS-scheduled items within the next 24h.
Micro-lapses
Cards trending toward forgetting get caught before they lapse.

Warm-up

6 min · 12 cards

01

Mendel's first law

Missed 2d ago

02

Codon table — methionine

Hard · last review

03

Transcription direction

Due today

04

RNA polymerase role

Hard · 3 times

05

Punnett square 2×2

Due today

Phase 02 — Topic introduction

Prime your brain before you test it.

When a session introduces new material, Revu starts with a 4-minute AI-written summary drawn from your sources — outline, key terms, one worked example. You build the mental scaffold before the cards show up to stress-test it.

Structured outline
Headings, sub-topics, key definitions — not wall of text.
Source-linked
Every paragraph cites the slide or lecture minute.
One worked example
A single step-through so you see the shape before recall.

Topic Intro · 4 min

Transcription & Translation

Transcription. DNA → mRNA, catalyzed by RNA polymerase in the nucleus.

Translation. mRNA → polypeptide, catalyzed by ribosomes using tRNA.

Worked example: ATG-GCA-TCC → Met-Ala-Ser.

Phase 03 — Active recall

Interleaved. Effortful. FSRS-scored.

The engine room. New content cards mix with due FSRS reviews, cloze deletions, and short-answer prompts. Each grade updates the per-card stability and difficulty — the same scoring that drives tomorrow's schedule.

Interleaved practice
New and due cards shuffle together — effortful, not blocked.
Mixed formats
Q/A, cloze, MCQ, and free-response — calibrated per concept.
FSRS grading
Your grade updates stability, difficulty, and the next review interval.

Active recall · 14 of 22

FSRS live

Question

What enzyme reads mRNA during translation?

S 16.4d → 22d

D 4.2 → 4.0

R 0.92

Phase 04 — Assessment

Ends with a quiz generated from your gaps.

The final 7 minutes: a 12-question quiz built live from your weakest confidence topics. Results break down by section. Anything you miss becomes tomorrow's warm-up.

Weak-spot targeting
Questions generated from your lowest-confidence topics.
Section breakdown
See exactly where recall is strong, shaky, or dead.
Feedback loop
Missed items feed tomorrow's warm-up. No gap stays hidden.

Assessment results

9 / 12

Great session — 3 weak spots identified

1.2 Membrane transport100%

2.1 DNA structure75%

2.2 Gene expression33%

→ 3 Q’s queued for tomorrow’s warm-up

The philosophy

Built on learning science, not engagement tricks.

No streaks, no XP, no gamified slop. Just the structure cognitive science has validated for 40 years.

Desirable difficulty

Interleaved practice feels harder in the moment and produces better long-term retention. We lean into it.

Spaced retrieval

Every phase surfaces prior material. Nothing gets fully 'finished' — you meet it again at the forgetting threshold.

Generative testing

New questions are generated from your weak topics, not pulled from a static bank. You can't rote-memorize the quiz.

Priming before practice

Research shows a brief outline before recall reduces cognitive load and improves accuracy. The arc builds this in.

Formative feedback

Assessment feeds tomorrow. Nothing is a dead-end 'grade' — everything becomes input to the next session.

Your pacing

Session length flexes to your available window. A 20-minute gap is a real session, not a placeholder.

Frequently asked

Adaptive Sessions, answered.

Cognitive load research is clear: learning works best when recall is preceded by a short priming step and followed by targeted retrieval on weak spots. Pure card-shuffling gives you recognition, not understanding. The arc is our attempt to respect how you actually learn.

Keep exploring

More of Revu.

All features

Coverage Map

See every gap before the exam.

Practice Exams

Timed simulations pulled from your materials.

Course Studio

AI generation from your lectures, slides, and notes.

Start a session. Feel the difference.

Not a card shuffle. A lesson, with intent, every time.

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Every session is a lesson, not a card dump.