A study session takes over the screen and shows one exercise at a time. A thin layer of controls sits around it: where you are, how long you have, and how to pause, adjust, or stop. Quick Study on a collection or a kana chart opens one at once.
Choosing what to study
Before a session you choose a quick pick, or Custom for your own settings. Nothing here is a commitment.
Quick picks
| Light | Romaji only. Listening and Recall, with Vocabulary as Exposure. No typing. |
| Standard | Japanese script with reading help. Every skill except Typing. Writing covers kana and kanji, not words. |
| Full | Every skill and every exercise type. Every item aims for Proficient. Writing covers kana and kanji, not words. |
| Custom | Set your own settings. Choosing it opens every setting. |
- A pick sets what you practice, never how long you study. Your session settings stay as you set them.
- Change a goal, an exercise type or how Japanese is shown, and Custom is selected. Choose a pick again to go back to it.
- With nothing saved yet, you start on Standard, and Start is ready.
- Quick Study uses your default pick and shows the picks every time.
- Each collection you're enrolled in keeps its own pick. After your first session it shows the pick by name, with Edit settings under it.
Settings tabs
| Presets | The quick picks. Collections only. |
| Session | Format and length, Sort, Item mix, Timer, then Study reminders and Make these my defaults. |
| Goals | Collections only. On Quick Study, Enroll here to set goals. |
| Practice | Skills (Quick Study and Card Review), exercise types, Introduce new items. Kana, Kanji, Words, Words up to and Write what you hear sit under Handwriting while it is on. |
| Display | Font, background, how Japanese is shown. |
| Media | Word audio, voice and sounds. |
Each kind of study shows the same tabs before and during a session.
Sort
| List order | The order the collection lists its items. |
| Random | Shuffled. |
| Gojūon | Traditional kana order: あ か さ た な… |
Item mix
| Due reviews | An item's skills | |
|---|---|---|
| Auto | Woven in | Spaced apart |
| Reviews first | Due today first | Spaced apart |
| Focused | First | All together, one item at a time |
When your session has a set length, the mix also decides how many different items it covers. With more than one skill picked, Auto and Reviews first cover about twice as many items, a couple of skills of each. Focused covers fewer items, and takes each one through all of its skills.
Auto and Reviews first hold items longer, so they are the usual shapes. Focused works one item through in a go. Sort sets the order items enter the session, whichever mix you choose.
How answer choices grow with you
The first times you meet an item, its wrong answers are the easiest ones to rule out. As you get better at that item they tighten toward the right answer, and other kinds of near miss join them.
Which kinds depends on what the question asks. A meaning question moves toward choices that are genuinely close in meaning. One that asks you to pick the right kana starts mixing in look-alikes from the other script (カ beside か), and at the highest levels kanji that resemble them (力 beside カ). A listening question leans on words that sound alike. It is intentional, not a mix-up.
Harder never means unfair. A choice that would actually be correct is never offered at any level: nothing that sounds exactly like the answer, and nothing that means the same thing.
Studying kanji
Kanji in your collections are studied on three skills. Vocabulary shows a character and asks for its meaning. Recall shows a meaning and asks for the character. Writing has you write it by hand. Recall and Writing open up once that character's Vocabulary reaches Novice. A first traced write may also come later in the session that introduces the character.
Readings are not quizzed on a lone character, because most kanji have several correct readings and which one applies depends on the word (生 reads differently in 学生 and 生きる). You meet readings in the words you study instead.
On the self-rated flip cards, the answer side is a small kanji reference: the character, its meanings, its on'yomi and kun'yomi (tap a reading to hear it where a recording exists), and a few common words that use it. The words vary between visits, so each reveal shows a little more of how the character is used.
Controls
The control pill holds a compact row of buttons. Toggles here last for the session.
The pill is also the progress indicator: its background fills from the left as the session goes on, by items answered when you set a number, by time when the session is timed.
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Skip
Move past the item. Not graded, and no change to your review schedule.
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Sound
Mutes word audio, interface sounds and the timer sound for this session. Vibration and your settings stay as they are, and a replay tap still plays.
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Pause and resume
Stop the clock and open the pause screen. The same button resumes.
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Study settings
Open the settings sheet. Opening it pauses the countdown.
The countdown
A ring in the top corner has three states. It holds the same spot in all of them, so nothing shifts underneath you.
Running
Solid ring, seconds left in the middle. At zero it stays full and the exercise decides what's next: some reveal the answer, some wait for you.
No clock on this item
Dashed, dimmed ring. Applies to items you are still learning and long-option multiple choice while the length is Auto, and every graded item while the timer is off. A time you set yourself applies to every timed exercise.
Not shown
Absent entirely on a knowledge card or when you work at your own pace.
Pausing
Use the pause control or Esc. A session also pauses itself when you switch apps or take a call, so stepping away costs nothing.
The pause screen shows your progress and these actions:
- Settings: open the settings sheet.
- Exclude from study: asks you to confirm, then the item stops showing up in any study until you restore it.
- Restart: start the session over from the top.
- Quit session: leave.
- Resume: pick the countdown up where it stopped.
Adjusting settings mid-session
| Applies on Apply | Exercise types, Introduce new items, font, text density, how Japanese is shown, audio |
| Locked once started | Presets, Goals (enrolled collections), Skills, Format, Sort, Item mix (shown with the reason) |
| Still editable | Timer switch, Session end, Study reminders |
- On a learning path, or a collection you are enrolled in, Apply always saves your changes for it only. Elsewhere, Save as default keeps them for that kind of study: collections and card review each have their own. Unchecked, changes last for this session. Sound is the exception: one set covers all study.
- Enroll from Quick Study mid-session and the session keeps going. You can still edit the goals; they apply from your next session.
Sound
- Study follows your Preferences for word audio, voice, volume, background sound and interface sounds. Turn on Override Preferences on the Media tab to set them for study.
How Japanese is shown
- Each row says who decided it: you, your Preferences, the learning path author, or eevy. A row the author locked shows a lock and can't be changed in that waypoint.
- Romaji as the main display shows no Japanese characters. Reading and typing practice are skipped while it's on.
- Studying in romaji and know your kana? The start screen offers kana once. Choose Try kana or Not now.
Format options
- Timed
- A fixed number of items
- New items plus your reviews
- Your due reviews, including any coming due within the day
A fixed number is a promise: when fresh material runs out, items come around again to fill it. Raise New items for more first encounters instead of repeats.
Keyboard
Anywhere in a session
- Esc pauses the session, or closes whatever is open.
- i opens word details for the item you are on.
- ? hides or shows the hint strips. Your choice is remembered, and nothing moves when they hide: the row keeps its space.
In the exercises
- 1 to 4 pick a multiple-choice answer, or a rating in free recall.
- Enter checks your answer, and reveals it in free recall.
- Space replays the audio in a listening exercise.
The hint strip is desktop-only; a phone has no keys to hint at.
If something goes wrong
One screen covers every failure. It always offers Retry and End session, and waits for you rather than disappearing.
| Trouble loading exercises | The next item could not build. Answered work is saved. |
| Audio is required | A listening session with sound off. Turn sound on and retry. |
| Trouble saving your results | Retry sends them; End discards them. |
Offline
A banner appears when the connection drops. The current exercise keeps working from what is already loaded, the session stops fetching more, and any unsaved results are held for Retry.
When the session ends
The end screen reports:
- Right out of total, and accuracy
- A per-skill breakdown
- Total time and average time per item
- How many items rose a mastery level, with the per-item list under View details
- Done takes you back to the page you started from. So do Close on the start screen and the back button.
- Try again goes back to the start screen. Change settings if you like, and a fresh session is built, never the same questions.
Signed out gives accuracy and counts, but nothing joins a review schedule.
Signed in, every saved answer also lands in your study history, with the session's study time and each source's share of it.
Study History