Review Sessions
A session is a saved recipe for a review: which cards it draws from, in what order, how many, and how it plays. You might keep a Daily Review that you grade carefully, a Commute session that autoplays with voice commands, and a Background Listening session that never touches your grades.
Sessions live on the Review tab.
Recommended · 25 Cards
- Collection picker — Scopes this tab to All Cards or one folder
- Sync and app menu — iCloud state, account, settings
- Cards due now — Across the session’s collection
- Start now — Straight into hands-free playback
- Saved sessions — Reusable filters, order and limits
- New session — Also imports, new folder, new card
- Tab bar — Review · Library · Shared · Statistics
The Review tab
The large card at the top belongs to the selected session:
- The number is how many cards are due in that session's collection right now.
- The badge above it shows the session's card order.
- The line below its name gives how many cards this sitting will play and roughly how long it will take — 25 cards · about 4 min. It says practice when the session does not record progress, and per loop when it loops.
- Start now begins playing immediately.
Under Sessions is every session you have saved. Tap a session to select it. Long press it to Edit Session, Duplicate it, or Delete it.
The app starts you with Daily Review: all cards, Recommended order, 25 Cards, due cards only, progress recorded. Plenty of people never need another.
Focus on a folder or selection
The collection button at the top of the Review tab, beside the cloud button, shows what the tab is counting — All Cards, or a folder. Tap it to choose another folder; search helps in a large library. Deactivated folders are listed but have nothing to review.
You can also focus the tab from elsewhere:
- long press a folder in the Library and choose Review, or
- tap Review in Flagged Cards or Tagged Cards.
A banner confirms the change — Counts now reflect this folder — and breadcrumbs let you step back up to a parent folder or clear the focus.
Focus is temporary. Each session is saved with its own collection and always reopens on it; choosing another collection on the Review tab lasts only for that visit, and selecting a different session returns to that session's own collection.
Create or edit a session
Tap + > New Review Session, or long press a session and choose Edit Session. Nothing is saved until you tap Save.
- Collection — All Cards, or one folder and its subfolders
- Card order — Recommended, Random, Newest, Oldest, Least/Most reviewed
- Session size — Caps how many cards one sitting queues
- Due cards only — Off turns the session into free study
- Playback — Autoplay, reverse sides, loop, voice control
- Passive scheduler — Spaces cards you only listened to
- Record progress — Off studies without touching scheduling
Session
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Name | What the session is called on the Review tab. |
| Collection | All Cards, or one folder together with its subfolders. |
| Card Order | The order cards are queued in. See below. |
| Maximum Cards | 10, 25, or 50 Cards per sitting, or All Cards. Keeps a session a predictable size however much is due. |
| Due Cards Only | On (the default), only cards the scheduler says are due are queued. Off, the whole collection is available, so you can study ahead. |
Card Order options:
| Order | Queues |
|---|---|
| Recommended | Earliest due date first, so the most overdue cards come first. The right choice for spaced repetition. |
| Random | A shuffle. |
| Newest First / Oldest First | By when the card was created. |
| Least Reviewed / Most Reviewed | By how many times you have reviewed the card. |
Playback
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Autoplay Sides | Plays each side automatically after a pause, and moves on to the next card by itself. This is what makes a session hands-free. Off, each side waits for you to tap Reveal answer or Next side. |
| Reverse Side Order | Plays the answer first. Useful for drilling recall in the other direction — English to Spanish instead of Spanish to English. |
| Loop Session | Starts the queue again after the last card instead of finishing. |
| Use Voice Commands | Listens for spoken commands during this session. See Voice Commands. |
Card timing
With Autoplay Sides on, two more groups of settings control the pace.
Time Between Cards is the pause after a card's last side before the next card starts, from 0 to 60 seconds.
Answer Delay is the pause before each following side of a card — after the question, before the answer plays. It is your thinking time, and by default it scales with the length of the side that is coming, because a long answer takes longer to recall and say:
- Multiple Of Answer Duration — wait this many times as long as the answer clip. At 2.0×, a 3-second answer gives you 6 seconds to think.
- Maximum Wait Limit — a ceiling on that wait, so long answers do not leave you waiting too long. Off removes the ceiling.
- Fixed Wait — ignore the answer's length and always wait the same time. Setting it overrides the two controls above.
A countdown shows how long is left before the next side. Restore Timing Defaults returns to 5 seconds between cards, 2.0× the answer, and a 20-second limit.
Scheduling
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Spaced Repetition | Sets one FSRS retention target and maximum interval for every card in this session. Save the session to recalculate its schedules. See Spaced Repetition settings. |
| Passive Scheduler | Spaces out cards this session only played without you grading them, so autoplay listening does not repeat the same cards endlessly. Off by default. See Passive scheduling. |
| Voice Command Settings | Appears when voice commands are on. Language and phrases are shared by every session. |
| Record Review Progress | On, grades update each card's history and next due date. Off, the session is practice: nothing it does changes your history, due dates, or statistics. |
Recipes
| Goal | Settings |
|---|---|
| Careful daily review | Recommended, 25 Cards, Due Cards Only on, Autoplay off. |
| Commute, hands-free | Autoplay on, Use Voice Commands on, Maximum Wait Limit around 10 s. |
| Background listening | Autoplay on, Loop on, Passive Scheduler on, Record Review Progress on, grade nothing. |
| Cram before an exam | One folder, Due Cards Only off, Random, Record Review Progress off. |
| Reverse drill | Duplicate your language session and turn on Reverse Side Order. |
Related
- During a Review — the player, grading, and hands-free controls.
- Scheduling — how due dates and the passive scheduler work.
- Voice Commands — driving a session by voice.