Paired with Picmonic Premium, the Picmonic Study Scheduler [Beta] is an adaptive tool that will help you more efficiently learn and review all of the info you need to know by your exam date.

We do this by first collecting a few pieces of information (test date, study days, time availability, topics on the test).

Then you can align the Study Scheduler to what you’re learning in class by rearranging the order of topics covered.

Picmonic’s smart Study Scheduler algorithms automatically serve up the topics you need to know, at a comfortable pace that will enable you to cover all of the material in time for your exam date.

Just complete your Study Scheduler Lessons each day — playing Picmonic Videos, completing the Quiz questions and the Smart Review Quiz. By the time your test rolls around, you’ll have the confidence in knowing that you’ve reviewed all of the material you needed, and that you’re prepped for success.

First, log into Picmonic on a desktop computer (web app) and go to your Home Screen. You will see a Study Scheduler Tile. Click “Create Study Schedule” and a popup window will appear to collect the following information:

Auto-calculated Time Recommendations

From the information you provide, the Study Scheduler can calculate the number of days a week you’ll need to study, and can recommend how much time will be required to complete your study plan by your exam date, including the order of topics to study. The Study Scheduler assumes you are reviewing all of the recommended Picmonic topics an optimal number of times, and correctly answering questions in the Smart Review Quiz, while taking into consideration an appropriate amount of buffer time.

In order to break down the appropriate amount of time required to learn & review content properly, we’ll use these equations:

Time required to memorize a Picmonic = play times for both educational and story audio tracks + time estimate for completing the multiple-choice Quiz.

*You don’t have to listen to the story audio (why wouldn’t you?), but the algorithm will account for the time required regardless.

Time required for review = the optimal number of reviews * the number of questions * 15 seconds/question

Every Picmonic contains a specific number of high yield facts. The optimal number of reviews can be defined as the number of times a high yield fact has to be reviewed in order to memorize and retain it. Keep in mind, this number changes based on the number of days till the exam.

Example: if your exam is 2 weeks away, you might only need to review each fact 1 time, but if the exam is 3 months away, you’ll want to review that information 2-3 times. (Hint: The more you review, the longer you’ll be able to retain that information! 😉)

The Study Scheduler adds in a little “buffer”, or “extra time”, to account for the unexpected. Buffer days will be incorporated into your schedule immediately preceding your exam date depending on the total number of available study days. Buffer time can be used if you fall behind on your Lessons. Of course, we recommend trying your best to stay on track!

The Study Scheduler will generate daily Lessons.

Lessons aren’t assigned to specific days of the week, rather you must complete a given number of Lessons per week (the expectation is 1 lesson per committed study day), based on the number of study days until your exam. Lessons may include multiple Picmonics.

Features of Lessons:

The Learning Queue consists of Picmonic topics for that Lesson. Learning a Picmonic includes playing the Educational audio and taking a Rapid Recall Quiz on all of the facts for that topic.

For each Picmonic in the Learning Queue:

Smart Review Queue:

The Smart Review Quiz has all of the facts that you need to review for a Lesson to be completed.

The Study Scheduler’s Smart Review Quiz consists of previously learned material in that study schedule. The Smart Review Quiz analyzes your quiz question accuracy (questions you’ve answered right or wrong) and when the information was last seen, to create and prioritize an intelligent queue of questions that you must answer correctly in order to complete the Lesson.

The general idea is if you get it wrong, you see it more often and if you get it right, you see it less often.

Each Lesson is divided into a Learning Queue and a Review Queue so that you learn new content and review old content every time you study.

But how does this division and time allocation take place?

The Study Scheduler will auto-generate Lessons, accounting for the time required to Learn and Review content over a period of time (days until exam), by using a mathematical function called exponential decay.

Each Lesson includes the percentage of time spent learning and the percentage of time spent reviewing already learned content. As you can see in the figure below, the Learning time reduces gradually and the Review time increases gradually over time.

The way in which this progression works depends on:

Instead of writing out complex math equations, take a peek at the following example...

Consider this scenario where 10 Lessons are generated, each Lesson has a duration of 60 minutes.

This is how the Lessons would be distributed between Learn and Review over time:\

A Lesson is considered complete when you Play and Quiz on every topic in the Learning Queue and answer every question in the Smart Review Quiz correctly.

The day after your “exam day” the Study Schedule will automatically prompt you to provide some feedback, and then you’ll be able to create a new one for your next big test!

Have additional questions? Just reach out to us at feedback@picmonic.com or click the chat icon at the bottom right of your screen.