In an age of AI-generated content and endless question banks, Smart Revise takes a different path—one grounded in cognitive science and the best classroom practice. Designed to help students retain knowledge long-term, Smart Revise uses three distinct modes—Quiz, Terms and Advance—to deliver an experience that is both focused and effective.
Rather than overwhelming students with novelty, Smart Revise embraces repetition of high-quality, human-written questions to strengthen memory. This approach is not only intentional—it’s backed by decades of research.
The science behind Smart Revise
Smart Revise is built on two of the most powerful, evidence-based learning strategies:
- Retrieval Practice: Research by Roediger & Karpicke (2006) shows that actively recalling information improves retention.
- Spaced Repetition: First described by Ebbinghaus in the 19th century and refined in modern cognitive science, this technique involves reviewing material at increasing intervals to combat the forgetting curve. Studies (Cepeda et al., 2006) confirm that spacing out revision leads to better long-term retention.
Smart Revise integrates both strategies into its core design, helping students move knowledge from short-term to long-term memory—a critical factor for exam success.
Why fewer questions work
Unlike many platforms that use AI to generate thousands of questions, Smart Revise uses carefully curated content written by experienced teachers and examiners. This ensures alignment with specifications and avoids the pitfalls of poorly constructed, irrelevant or even inaccurate questions.
While this means the number of questions is finite, it’s a deliberate strength. Repeated exposure to the same questions helps students build familiarity, reinforce neural pathways, and ultimately master the material.
The three modes of Smart Revise
Quiz Mode: Targeted Retrieval Practice
Quiz mode presents a fixed set of multiple-choice questions, typically three or more per specification point. These questions are designed to:
- Assess understanding of key concepts.
- Highlight misconceptions.
- Reinforce distinctions between similar ideas.
Smart Revise uses algorithms to prioritise questions students get wrong and deprioritise those they’ve mastered. This ensures that revision is always focused on the student’s current needs. Being low-stakes aligns with the principle of desirable difficulty—the idea that learning is most effective when it’s effortful but achievable.
Terms Mode: Vocabulary Mastery
Terms mode focuses on subject-specific terminology drawn directly from the course specification. Using the built-in Leitner system, students rate their confidence using a red-amber-green system, which feeds into a spaced repetition cycle.
This mode supports semantic memory development, helping students internalise the language of the subject—essential for understanding exam questions and constructing accurate responses.
Advance Mode: Exam Technique and Application
Advance mode offers written-answer style questions. Unlike Quiz and Terms, this library grows over time, offering increasing variety while still allowing for repetition.
Advance questions help students:
- Practice applying knowledge in context.
- Develop familiarity with command words and mark schemes.
- Build confidence in structuring extended responses.
All the modes support interleaving—the practice of mixing topics—which has been shown to improve transfer of learning and adaptability in exam scenarios (Rohrer, 2012).
Tasks: integrated, intentional practice
Teachers can assign Tasks giving the same questions to all students that draw from all three modes. Repetition is expected—and desirable—in Quiz and Terms. In Advance, repetition will decrease as the library grows, but it remains a valuable part of the learning process.
Marking from Tasks writes back and over-rides data from Quiz, Terms and Advance. Updating each student's Quiz question stream priorty, RAG ratings in Terms and marks awarded in self-assessed Advance questions.
Challenging the “more is better” myth
Many tools pride themselves on offering tens of thousands of questions or AI generation to avoid repetition, but repetition of well-designed questions is far more effective.
Smart Revise helps students practice, improve and eventually master a defined set of questions—an approach that builds confidence and leads to better exam outcomes.
Conclusion: Smart Revise, smarter learning
Smart Revise is more than an assessment and revision tool—it’s a research-informed system that values quality over quantity, mastery over coverage and memory over cramming. By combining expert-written content with proven cognitive strategies, it offers students and teachers a smarter way to prepare for exams.