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What is the Schedule setting?
What is the Schedule setting?
Updated over a week ago

The schedule setting allows you to pick from Chessable's default spaced repetition, custom, or cyclical schedule.

Cyclical Schedule

With a cyclical schedule, you can set your own date when your exercises should next pop up for review. So for instance, the popular Woodpecker Method's first cycle recommends 4 weeks of solving before you solve the same problems again. Therefore, you would set the cycle end date to 4 weeks from the current date. What will happen then is that the exercises you solve, will not pop up again for review until that date!

If you are following the Woodpecker cycle, after you complete the first cycle and the exercises start popping up for review, you can now go and set a shorter cycle, which you can do, by changing the cycle end date again, to say, two weeks from the date at the end of your first cycle.

Please note: for a cyclical schedule, setting a cyclical date/period, will delay all existing reviews until this date, even if they are ready, so please use it with caution. This happens for all reviews unless they are part of your previous cycle. This exception is there so that if all your cycle 1 exercises are ready, then you are able to set your second cycle, and then get studying. Another very important thing to note is that if you are using cycles, and you study on the same day as the cycle ends (using your timezone), then the cycle is ignored and default spaced repetition takes place. For cycles to work, it must be set to at least the day after the current day.

Example: You set the cycle to end on November 1st. You forget, but you log on on November 4th and study. Since your cycle has now expired, all your reviews will be scheduled with normal spaced repetition. But don't worry, if you simply set your next cycle end date, say December 1st, all current reviews will be automatically scheduled for then!

A second, important example: Today is October 31st. You set the cycle to end tomorrow, November 1st. You don't study your reviews which were ready, and you log on to study on November 1st. Since now it is the same day as your cycle end date, the cycle end date is ignored because it is now expired, otherwise, everything you study would become immediately due for review again. You can now review all your exercises and once done you can set your next cycle! Please set your cycle always to at least the next day. If you'd like to do a one-day cycle, please combine cycles with the FastForward time feature.

A final note is that when transitioning from cycles, you can either set the next cycle date before you begin your reviews (do it only once though!), or after you have concluded all your reviews. Either way works but probably the first way is closer to the original Woodpecker Method recommendation.

Custom Schedule

For your own custom schedules, you can either use a "interval setting", or individually, set the timing delay of every single Chessable level.

Chessable Spaced Repetition

To find out more about our normal spaced repetition please click the link below:

MoveTrainer® implements the concept of spaced repetition, which incrementally increases the amount of time between revisions. If you get things right, the timing between revisions increases. If you get things wrong, you are back to the beginning, and the timing until the next revision reverts to a shorter period of time again. Here are the approximate times Chessable uses:

Level 1: 4 hours - +40 points earned

Level 2: 1 day - +50 points earned

Level 3: 3 days - +60 points earned

Level 4: 1 week - +70 points earned

Level 5: 2 weeks - +80 points earned

Level 6: 1 month - +90 points earned

Level 7: 3 months - +100 points earned

Level 8: 6 months - above 100 points earned

If you get above 100 XP points on a move, it means that you've correctly moved to another Level 8, so in theory, if you get Level 8 right 10 times, you could earn 200 points per correct answer. Each move in a variation has its own timer, so you can be at different levels within the same variation if you have got one move incorrect a number of times.


​It's optimal to study soon after the revision becomes active so that you make the most out of spaced repetition's benefits. However, if you are a bit late, or a few days late, don't worry. At worst, you will get a position wrong, and it will revert back to Level 1. That's okay though. Much better that you get it wrong in your study, than during an actual game!

The spaced repetition method of studying has long been known by scientists to be the optimal way to learn and remember. It might seem a bit repetitive at first, but once you get to Level 8, you will not be bothered by the same quiz again for a long time to come... as long as you solve it right!

As Chessable grows, we look forward to improving our spaced repetition algorithm even more and offering you alternatives where possible.

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