The spaced repetition app that writes the cards for you
Upload a PDF, slides or notes. QuerySpark turns them into questions and flashcards, then brings each one back just before you would forget it.
- No credit card
- Free plan after the trial
- Cancel anytime
Drop a PDF, slides or notes
or paste a YouTube link
Quick answer
What does a spaced repetition app do, and is there a free one?
A spaced repetition app shows you each flashcard or question again just before you are likely to forget it, pushing the next review further out each time you get it right and bringing it back sooner when you miss. Anki is the best-known free option, but you write every card yourself. QuerySpark generates the cards and questions from your PDFs and notes, then schedules them. It has a free plan after a 3-day trial.
- Cards and questions generated from your PDFs, slides and notes
- SM-2 based scheduling, adjusted by whether you were right and how sure you felt
- Runs in any browser, including on your phone
- Free plan after a 3-day trial; import Anki decks as text
Made for the exams and classes you are studying for
- NCLEX
- MCAT
- AP Biology
- USMLE Step 1
- CPA
- AP US History
- Pharmacology
- Anatomy and Physiology
- LSAT
- CompTIA Security+
- Organic Chemistry
- Microeconomics
- GCSE Science
- AP Psychology
- Bar exam
- Pathophysiology
- Calculus
- IB Biology
- World History
- Physics
- Biochemistry
- Statistics
- PMP
- Intro to Psychology
One upload
Every way to study, made from your notes
Each upload gives you practice questions, flashcards, a study guide and practice tests. Pick whichever suits the day.
The science
How does spaced repetition work?
Memory fades on a curve: steeply at first, then more slowly. Hermann Ebbinghaus measured this in the 1880s and also found the fix, the spacing effect. Reviewing something just as it is starting to slip makes the next drop slower, so each review can come later than the last.
The effect is one of the most reliable in learning research. A 2006 meta-analysis by Nicholas Cepeda and colleagues, covering hundreds of experiments, found spaced practice beat massed practice, and that the longer you need to remember something, the longer the gaps between reviews should be.
A spaced repetition app does the bookkeeping. Instead of you tracking which of 400 cards is due, it keeps a next-review date for each one and shows you only today's. Cramming the night before can get you through tomorrow's exam; spacing is what gets you through the final, and the next course that builds on this one.
- 01
Learn it
Answer the question once. Whatever happens, it is scheduled for review tomorrow.
- 02
Stretch the gap
Each correct recall multiplies the interval: 2 days, then 5, then 12, then a month.
- 03
Reset on a miss
Get it wrong and it comes back tomorrow, then about 6 days after your next correct answer.
Day by day
A spaced repetition schedule, worked through
What happens to one question in QuerySpark if you answer it correctly with medium confidence every time.
| When | You answer | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Day 0 | First time you answer it | Due tomorrow |
| Day 1 | Correct | Next review in 2 days |
| Day 3 | Correct | Next review in 5 days |
| Day 8 | Correct | Next review in 12 days |
| Day 20 | Correct | Next review in 30 days |
Four reviews after the first answer carry one question out to day 50, and the gap after that is 75 days. Answer easily and with high confidence and the gaps grow faster; scrape through and they grow slower. Miss it and it starts again from tomorrow.
No app?A paper schedule works: review new material after 1 day, then 3, 7, 14 and 30 days, and drop back to day 1 for anything you get wrong. A spreadsheet with one row per topic and a "next review" column is enough. An app earns its keep once you have more than a few dozen items to track.
How many flashcards should I study a day?
Budget by minutes, not cards. Every new card you add today creates several reviews over the coming weeks, so the daily load grows for the first month even if you add the same number of new cards. Anki's default of 20 new cards a day is a reasonable starting point; if your reviews start taking longer than you have, cut new cards and keep doing reviews.
Counting back from an exam helps: if you have 300 terms and 20 days, that is 15 new a day, finishing a few days early so the last ones get at least two reviews. In QuerySpark a set is typically 10 to 20 items, so one set per lecture is a natural daily unit.
Spaced repetition without flashcards
Spacing works for any kind of retrieval, not just front-and-back cards. QuerySpark schedules multiple-choice, true/false and short-answer questions too, which suits subjects where exams ask you to apply ideas rather than define them.
For essay subjects, space the outline instead: write the key arguments for a likely question from memory, check against your notes, and repeat a few days later. The schedule above works just as well for that.
The system
How QuerySpark schedules your reviews
Cards made for you
Questions and flashcards come from your own material, so the hours of card writing disappear
SM-2 scheduling
The same family of algorithm Anki started with: intervals multiply each time you recall correctly
Confidence counts
Rate how sure you were. A confident wrong answer is treated as the worst case and comes back first
Misses come back
A wrong answer returns later in the same session and again tomorrow
Anki alternative
Spaced repetition app vs Anki: which should you use?
Anki is excellent, free on most platforms, and endlessly customisable. The difference is who writes the cards.
Stay with Anki if you enjoy building cards, rely on shared decks, or want add-ons and fine control. Use QuerySpark if you have 40 pages of notes and making cards is the step you never get to. Many students use both: generate here, export CSV, study in Anki.
Full comparison: QuerySpark vs Anki.
| Anki | QuerySpark | |
|---|---|---|
| Who writes the cards | You do (or you download shared decks) | Generated from your PDFs, slides and notes |
| Card types | Front/back, cloze and custom templates | Multiple choice, true/false, short answer, essay, flashcards |
| Scheduling | SM-2 based by default; newer versions also offer FSRS | SM-2 based, with confidence ratings |
| Price | Free on desktop, web and Android; paid iPhone app | Free plan; Student $9/month |
| Customisation | Very deep, with add-ons | Kept simple |
| Moving between them | Imports CSV | Imports Anki text; exports CSV |
What you get
Reviewing in QuerySpark
Each card asks you to rate it, and each question asks how sure you were. Those answers set the schedule.
Start from your PDFs with the PDF to flashcards tool or the AI flashcard generator, and set an exam date to see a countdown on the set. When reviews come due, QuerySpark can email you a reminder.
The method behind it, testing yourself rather than rereading, is covered in the active recall guide.
Popular study sets
Made with QuerySpark from real course material. Open one and start studying, no account needed.
Frequently asked questions
You review each item just as you are starting to forget it, and each successful recall pushes the next review further out. It relies on the spacing effect, first documented by Hermann Ebbinghaus in the 1880s: reviews spread over time produce memories that last far longer than the same amount of study crammed into one sitting.
If you are happy to write your own cards, Anki is free on desktop, web and Android and is the most capable option. If writing the cards is what stops you, QuerySpark generates them from your material and has a free plan after a 3-day trial, with 20 questions and 20 flashcards a month.
Plan by time, not count. Anki's default of 20 new cards a day is a sensible start, but reviews from earlier days pile up, so your daily total grows well beyond the new cards. If reviews take longer than the time you have, add fewer new cards rather than skipping reviews.
The first review is the next day. After that, each correct answer multiplies the interval by an ease factor that starts at 2.5, so a steady run goes 1, 2, 5, 12 and 30 days. Easy, confident recalls raise the ease factor; shaky ones lower it; a miss sends the item back to tomorrow.
Yes. QuerySpark schedules multiple-choice, true/false and short-answer questions as well as flashcards, so you can space out practice questions instead of front-and-back cards.
You can import Anki decks exported as text, and Quizlet sets as text. Going the other way, QuerySpark exports flashcards as CSV, which Anki and Quizlet can both import.
No. You upload a PDF, paste notes or add a URL, and the questions and flashcards are generated from that source. You can edit or delete any of them afterwards.
It is strongest for material with a large factual base you need on recall: anatomy, pharmacology, languages, law and professional certifications. It helps less with skills you learn by doing, like writing proofs or debugging code, where practice matters more. Most courses are a mix, and the factual half is worth scheduling.
Yes, to start. New accounts get 3 days of full Pro access with no credit card, and the free plan afterwards keeps everything you created plus 20 new questions and 20 flashcards a month. Paid plans start at $9/month.
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