Dun, dun, duuuuuun! Gird your loins because the biggest new Brainscape feature in years has finally arrived! It’s called ‘Smart Study’ and it heralds a new chapter in the science of learning. How? Because—step aside Anki and Quizlet—we are now the first-ever adaptive study app to combine the science-backed strategy of spaced repetition with interleaving practice.
“Essentially, the ‘Smart Study’ feature allows users to study multiple subjects simultaneously,” explaines founder and CEO, Andrew Cohen.
“All users have to do is tap a single ‘Study’ button, and Brainscape will painlessly feed them a personalized study stream that relentlessly attacks their weaknesses, across all the subjects that they are interested in studying, whether they made those flashcards themselves or sourced them from Brainscape’s library of expert-curated and user-generated content.”
Aside from supercharging learning efficiency—which Brainscape already offers with a smart flashcard algorithm that leverages active recall, metacognition, and spaced repetition—the new ‘Smart Study’ button eliminates perhaps the biggest pain point all learners face: getting started.
‘Smart Study’ feature eliminates the inertia of getting started
We see it across ages, subjects, work tasks, and all other variables: the hardest part of accomplishing any goal is getting started.
Even just the act of sitting down at your desk, blocking out distractions, opening your textbook, notes, courseware app, or laptop to find where you left off, and then having to remember what you covered in a previous study session… the inertia of overcoming all of that can be enough to totally deter you from making decent progress.
“Brainscape’s ‘Smart Study’ feature eliminates all of that,” explains Cohen. “The pain, the struggle, and the inertia of getting started because all you have to do is tap a single button, and the algorithm does the rest. It decides, based on your exact pace of learning and progress in your subjects, what to show you next. In other words, Brainscape allows you to start studying without thinking.”
But it’s not just the elimination of study inertia that makes ‘Smart Study’ such a beneficial feature for Brainscape learners. As mentioned, the new study button introduces a key learning tactic called ‘interleaving practice’ to the study experience.
‘Smart Study’ feature introduces interleaving practice
Interleaving practice is the alternating of concepts across different subjects, instead of focusing exclusively on one subject at a time, and it has been proven to deepen learning and knowledge retention.
“By automating the interspersing of flashcards from various subjects into the same study stream, Brainscape provides just enough constant randomness to maintain an exponentially higher level of learner engagement,” explains Cohen.
(Read more about it here: ‘Interleaving practice makes perfect: “mix it up” to learn faster’)
Brainscape’s ‘Smart Study’ feature also allows you to configure which subjects the app feeds you flashcards from, which is what sets it apart from its historic algorithm, which only drew on flashcards from a single subject, although you could study flashcards from across all the decks within that subject.
Now, you can study flashcards from across ALL your subjects and not just all your decks within ONE specific subject. So, for example, if you’re studying for your medical board exams and you have flashcard collections for Biochemistry, Endocrinology, Immunology, and Microbiology, etc., all you have to do is hit the “Study” button and Brainscape will feed you an unpredictable stream of flashcards from all of these subjects.
This allows you to fine-tune your single feed of flashcards based on your precise current and long-term learning goals. Brainscape's flashcard repetition algorithm takes care of the rest.
A personal AI learning coach in your pocket
“We like to think of it as having a personal AI learning coach in your pocket,” says Cohen. “And combined with Brainscape’s blend of active recall, metacognition, and spaced repetition, we really are offering learners the most scientifically optimized way to ingrain large amounts of knowledge in as short a time as possible.”
So, go on: open the Brainscape app, hit that ‘Smart Study’ button, and study more efficiently and painlessly than ever before.
To experience Brainscape’s new ‘Smart Study’ feature visit www.Brainscape.com or download the app on the App Store or Google Play.