Omniscient

Quiz-and-recall study sessions for Obsidian, inspired by the quiz-and-recall method and mega-problem sets from How to Be a Straight-A Student by Cal Newport.

Keep your practice questions in one markdown file (or a folder of them). Omniscient turns them into fast, keyboard-driven sessions: the question is shown, the answer stays hidden until you reveal it, and you grade yourself honestly. Every grade is written back to the file, so your notes are the progress tracker.

If Omniscient is useful to you, please star it on GitHub.

Install

• Community browser: search for Omniscient, or use the plugin page, in Settings → Community plugins → Browse.
• Manual: download omniscient-<version>.zip from the latest release, extract it, copy the omniscient folder into <your vault>/.obsidian/plugins/, then enable the plugin and reload Obsidian.

Requires Obsidian 1.13.0 or later (declarative settings). See CHANGELOG.md for release history.

How it works

Answer from memory (never passively re-read), mark what you missed, review only those, and repeat until a full pass has no mistakes:

1. Run a session on any file with > [!Question] callout blocks.
2. Answer from memory: the answer stays hidden until you ask for it.
3. Reveal the answer, then self-grade: Struggling, Almost, or Mastered.
4. Repeat with only the gaps: the Not mastered yet filter gives you the next pass until everything is exam-ready.

Question format

Any markdown file with blockquote question/answer pairs:

## Calculus

> [!Question] Question | Hard | Mastered(2)

What is the maximum of this function?

> [!Success] Answer

The answer is...

> [!Hint]
> Optional note about what you missed last time.

> [!Question] Question | Medium | Almost

Explain what a derivative is.

> [!Success] Answer

The derivative describes the rate of change...

• A question starts at > [!Question]; everything until the next answer block is the question. > [!Success] (or [!answer]) starts the answer. Plain > Question and > Answer also work, and the title word and metadata are optional.
• LaTeX, code blocks, and nested callouts render normally. Questions without an answer are fine.
• Headings group questions into sections you can filter by, and a folder of files works as one mega-problem set. A complete example lives in examples/calculus-quiz.md.

Status and difficulty

Status is stored on the question line, so progress is visible in the file itself:

Mastered increments the counter, and the counter resets if you grade anything else. A question is exam-ready when the counter reaches the Mastered passes setting (default 2). Undo restores the previous status in the session and in the file.

Difficulty is optional and configurable (defaults to Easy, Medium, Hard): > [!Question] Question | Hard. Metadata is read from the end of the line and rewritten in canonical order (Difficulty | Status); unrecognized prose in the middle is preserved.

Hints

A hint is a note attached to one question, added from the session with Add hint or N and stored as a > [!Hint] callout after the answer. Hints stay hidden until you press H or click Show hint, so they remind you of a past mistake without spoiling a fresh attempt. One hint per question; Edit hint (N) changes or removes it. Hints never interfere with grade writes.

Usage

Run Show usage guide for a tour of the format and commands (it also appears once on first load). The guide and the settings tab can create a sample quiz file with headings, statuses, and hints.

The brain ribbon icon starts a quiz for the active note, or opens the file picker when no file is active.

The setup dialog filters by status (defaults to Not mastered yet), difficulty, and section, from a searchable heading tree with per-section counts. It also toggles shuffling and shows a live question and exam-ready count.

In-session keys

Each question shows its number in the file (Question 7 of 42); numbering is display only. Grades are saved immediately, and questions edited mid-session are skipped and counted instead of corrupted. Ending early is normal: the summary shows what remains, and those questions keep their status. Session history (date, file, counts) is kept in the settings tab.

Settings

Troubleshooting

• Nothing happens when starting a session: reload Obsidian, make sure the active file is a markdown file with a > [!Question] block, and check the developer console for errors starting with Omniscient:.
• A grade did not change the file: the question was edited mid-session, so the write was skipped and counted in the summary. Grade it again next session.
• Questions are missing: check the status, difficulty, and section filters. Lines indented 4+ spaces, and question-like lines inside code fences, are not quiz content.

Suggesting features

Have an idea for Omniscient? Open an issue on GitHub and describe what you would like it to do. Suggestions grounded in a credible source, such as peer-reviewed research or a popular book on studying, memory, or learning, tend to be considered faster: this plugin is itself built on the method from How to Be a Straight-A Student, and a source helps show that a feature genuinely supports the study technique rather than being a gimmick. A source is not required, but it does help.

License

Licensed under the MIT license. See LICENSE.

Disclaimer

This plugin was built with the assistance of an AI coding agent.