How spaced repetition works

Spaced repetition is a scheduling trick: instead of studying a word many times in one sitting, you meet it a few times spread across weeks — each time just before you would have forgotten it.

The forgetting curve

Memory for a new word decays quickly and predictably. A day after you learn it, a large part is already gone; a week later, most of it is. Hermann Ebbinghaus described this decay in the 1880s, and every flashcard system since has been built around one consequence of it: a review costs the same effort whenever you do it, but it buys far more retention when it lands late rather than early.

Reviewing a word ten minutes after learning it feels productive and teaches you almost nothing — the answer is still in your short-term memory. Reviewing it three days later, when recall is genuinely difficult, forces your brain to rebuild the memory, and the rebuilt version lasts much longer. Difficulty is the point, not a bug.

Why the gaps grow

Each successful recall flattens the curve, so the next review can wait longer. That is why intervals expand: one day, then three, then a week, then a month. The practical effect is that your daily workload stays roughly constant even as your vocabulary grows, because old words drop out of rotation faster than new ones enter it.

The schedule WordNest uses

WordNest runs a fixed seven-stage ladder. Simple, predictable, and enough for vocabulary:

Stage 1Same dayThe word comes back once more before you sleep.
Stage 2+1 dayThe first real test of overnight memory.
Stage 3+3 daysMost forgetting happens in this window.
Stage 4+7 daysThe word is now in weekly rotation.
Stage 5+14 daysReviews get cheap: a few seconds each.
Stage 6+30 daysMonthly maintenance, almost no effort.
Stage 7+60 daysFinal check, then the word is mastered.

A wrong answer does not wipe your progress. You get a hint and a second attempt first; if that fails too, the card drops back a single stage and returns immediately, so you can repair it in the same session.

Recognition vs. recall

Flipping a card and thinking "yes, I knew that" is recognition, and it overestimates what you actually know. Typing the word from memory is recall — slower, less comfortable, and a far better predictor of whether the word will show up when you need it in conversation. That is why WordNest reviews are typed. Contractions are accepted, so "I'm" and "I am" both count.

How to make it work in practice

Add words you actually met — from a lesson, a book, a series. Words with a personal context stick better than list words.
Keep the daily intake modest. Ten to twenty new words a day is sustainable; a hundred creates a review backlog that kills the habit within a week.
Study every day, briefly. Five minutes daily beats an hour on Sunday, because the schedule assumes you show up when cards are due.
Store one meaning per card. A card asking for four translations at once is four cards wearing a trench coat.
Keep an example sentence. Context is what lets you use the word, not just recognise it.

Start with a ready-made list

If you are not sure which words to add first, pick a topic list and study it:

Put the schedule to work

WordNest tracks the intervals for you and grows a garden while you study. More answers in the FAQ, or see the overview.

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