What happens when I press Again?
The card returns in about one minute and the repetition count resets.
WortGo
How WortGo decides when a German word comes back
Review timing follows your rating. Difficult words return sooner. Stable words wait. This page states the intervals the scheduler actually uses.
Unreviewed vocabulary decays. Hermann Ebbinghaus described that curve in the 1880s: without a retrieval, the memory fades, fast at first and then more slowly. Spaced repetition is the practical response — review just before the loss, not on a fixed daily dump of every card.
WortGo uses a SuperMemo SM-2 style scheduler. Each card has an ease factor, starting at 2.5, an interval, and a repetition count. Your button changes those values.
Intervals for a new card
| Rating | Next review | What changes |
|---|---|---|
| Again | 1 minute | Repetitions reset, ease −0.2 |
| Hard | 10 minutes | Learning step, repetitions unchanged, ease −0.15 |
| Good | 1 day | Repetitions +1, ease +0.1 |
| Easy | 4 days | Repetitions +1, ease +0.15 |
After the first successful review
A Good after the Hard learning step is 1 day, because the Hard step does not advance the repetition count. The next Hard, once repetitions is 1, schedules 6 days. Later intervals grow by the ease factor. Easy later uses interval × ease × 1.5, with a minimum of 1 day.
A card is treated as mastered when repetitions reach 5 and ease is at least 2.5.
The review card asks you to produce the answer before it is revealed. That is active recall. Multiple-choice recognition is a different task and is not the default review.
Context
Examples, images, and stories are retrieval cues, not decoration. A word tied to a sentence or a scene has more than one way back. CEFR level affects which words and prompts you see, including story prompts. It does not replace the rating you give on the card.
References
- Hermann Ebbinghaus, Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology (1885).
- Piotr Woźniak, SuperMemo SM-2.
- Henry L. Roediger III and Jeffrey D. Karpicke, Test-Enhanced Learning (2006).
- Allan Paivio, dual coding.
Related
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is Hard 10 minutes on a new card?
It is a short learning step, not a failed card and not a one-day interval. The next Good after that step is one day.
Is this official SM-2?
It is SM-2 style, with WortGo-specific ease adjustments and a 10-minute Hard learning step for new cards.