Since 1991, the goal of SuperMemo was to create a revision schedule that could guarantee its users to remember 90% of anything they learned. The only catch was that users needed to follow the schedule closely in order to reap the benefits. Naturally, no one did. Some people took time off from SuperMemo, while others struggled to finish all their questions every day. The more users deviated from the schedule, the less SuperMemo was able to make accurate predictions.
Over time, these problems were largely solved through many small improvements. Users were then able to act a bit more like humans – sometimes skipping questions when they were lazy, or doing other questions extra early to prepare for a school test – and SuperMemo was able to deal with it. However, it was still only partially flexible. Users had to follow the schedule most of the time for the program to work as promised. At that point Piotr Woźniak, the creator of SuperMemo spaced repetition, asked himself: could SuperMemo ever become as flexible as the humans that use it?
The exciting news is that after years of experimentation and hard work, he has found the solution! It is called Stabilization Curve, because it describes how the stability (i.e. strength) of memories improves with repetition. This formula allows SuperMemo to make far more accurate memory predictions and great schedules for you, no matter how good you are at sticking to them. Moreover, the simplicity and universal applicability of this formula means that we now have a much deeper understanding of how human memory works.
Flexibility also matters in exam preparation. In Deckumi, choose a study set that fits the time available today, review a few important cards and adjust the workload according to your understanding.
If you cannot finish today, do not rely on one very long session to catch up. Reduce new cards, select material that needs reinforcement and restore a routine you can sustain. You currently choose what to review in Deckumi; the SuperMemo memory predictions and automatic scheduling described above are not existing Deckumi capabilities.
Georgios Zonnios