---
title: "Study and rate cards"
description: "Run a NeuroCards study session, understand the review queue, and choose ratings that produce useful schedules."
---

> Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.neurocards.net/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Study and rate cards

NeuroCards schedules each card from your review history. Your main job during a session is to recall the answer before revealing it, then rate the quality of that recall honestly.

## Choose what to study

| Starting point | What it includes | Best for |
| --- | --- | --- |
| A deck | Cards from one deck | One focused topic |
| A folder's **Study now** action | Cards in that folder and its nested folders | A subject or unit |
| **Review** | Cards currently due across your library | A daily mixed review |

The queue separates **New**, **Learning**, and **Review** cards. New cards have not been studied, learning cards are still in their early repetition steps, and review cards have reached the longer-term schedule.

## Complete a session

1. **Read the question**

   Try to answer without looking at the back. Say the answer aloud or write it down when recognition would be too easy.
2. **Reveal the answer**

   Click the card or press `Space`. Ratings become available only after the answer is shown.
3. **Compare honestly**

   Check whether you recalled the important details, not just whether the answer looks familiar.
4. **Choose a rating**

   Select **Again**, **Hard**, **Good**, or **Easy**. NeuroCards shows the resulting interval and schedules the next review.
5. **Continue to the summary**

   Work through the queue. At the end, the summary reports the number of reviews and your accuracy.

## Use the four ratings consistently

| Key | Rating | Use it when |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `1` | Again | You did not recall the answer, or your answer was substantially wrong |
| `2` | Hard | You recalled it correctly, but only with serious effort or hesitation |
| `3` | Good | You recalled the important answer correctly with normal effort |
| `4` | Easy | The correct answer was immediate and effortless |

Do not rate a wrong answer **Hard** just because it felt close. **Again** tells the scheduler that the card needs another learning step. Likewise, reserve **Easy** for genuinely effortless recall rather than using it simply to finish sooner.

You can click the controls or use `1`–`4` after revealing the answer. See [Keyboard shortcuts](/keyboard-shortcuts) for the complete study reference.

## Continue after the queue

When the scheduled queue is complete, NeuroCards may offer two optional ways to continue:

- **Review ahead** adds up to 20 cards you have seen before. Because these reviews happen early, they produce less interval growth than reviews completed when due.
- **More new cards** adds up to 10 cards you have not studied before.

These options are useful when you deliberately have extra time. They are not required to complete the day's work. If nothing is due, NeuroCards displays **Nothing due** rather than creating unnecessary reviews.

## Set a sustainable pace

The study settings include three starting presets:

| Preset | New cards per day | Maximum reviews | Suitable when |
| --- | ---: | ---: | --- |
| Steady | 15 | 150 | You want a lighter, consistent habit |
| Balanced | 25 | 250 | You want the default middle ground |
| Intensive | 35 | 350 | You have time for a larger daily workload |

New cards create future reviews, so increasing the daily limit can raise the workload several days later. Start with a pace you can maintain and change it only after observing a week of reviews.

If your connection drops during a session, ratings can wait on the current device and sync later. Read [Install and use NeuroCards offline](/guides/install-and-offline-use) before relying on this away from a connection.

Source: https://docs.neurocards.net/guides/study-and-ratings/index.mdx