Study Zone

Spaced retrieval practice for the cards you already write in your notes, tuned to keep you in the zone where learning is fastest.

Most flashcard tools stop at "show the answer, rate it". Study Zone adds the parts that research says make memory last: you type an attempt before you can reveal, you commit to a confidence level, new material unlocks one step at a time (n+1), every session aims at ~85% correct, and every few answers you're asked to go deeper: why is it true, when is it wrong, how does it apply to your work.

XP and levels reward effort, not ease: a hard-won correct answer pays more than an easy one.

Quick start

1. In any note, add a deck tag and some cards:

   ## Recall
   #flashcards/kafka
   Why do Kafka topics have partitions?::So consumers in a group can read in parallel.
   Where is message order guaranteed?::Only within a single partition.
   

2. Click 🎓 in the ribbon. Tick a topic (up to 3), then press ▶ Study.

3. That's it. Cards come back in days, then weeks, then months. New notes join automatically.

The card syntax is the same question::answer line format used by the Spaced Repetition plugin, so existing cards work as-is. #flashcards without a topic uses the note's folder name as the topic. A :: inside inline code (`String::valueOf`) is ignored.

What a session asks of you, and why

How it picks what comes next

• n+1 unlocking. If a topic has a map-of-content note (frontmatter type: moc, or a name ending in MOC), the links under its ## Learning path heading set the order. A note's cards unlock only after every card of the previous note was answered correctly once. The dashboard shows Next step: … or 🔒 Finish … first. Without a MOC, notes unlock in path order.
• The 85% zone. The session tracks your last 8 answers. Above 90% it adds the next step (🔵); below 70% it stops adding and repeats misses (🟠); in between you're in the zone (🟢). Based on Wilson et al. 2019, "The Eighty Five Percent Rule for optimal learning".
• Smaller step on repeated failure. Miss a card twice and the retry shows one key idea from the note as a hint.
• Interleaving. Due cards from your selected topics are mixed round-robin (Rohrer & Taylor 2007).
• Max 3 topics at once (configurable). Depth beats breadth.

XP and levels

Levels follow Shu-Ha-Ri: Shu (1–9, follow the basics) → Ha (10–19, adapt) → Ri (20+, it's natural). Every topic also has its own level, plus a daily goal and a streak.

Optional note conventions

These unlock extra features, and none of them is required:

> [!summary]
> One-sentence claim in your own words.

## Key ideas
- Each bullet is a claim with a reason. These drive "explain from memory" and hints.

## Connections
- [[Another note]] — used by the "connect it" prompt.

Settings

• My context: a sentence about your work or goals, used by the "adapt it to your context" prompt.
• Watched folders: empty means the whole vault.
• Friction: minimum answer length, confidence step on/off, deep prompt frequency, minimum deep answer length.
• Session: answers per session, new notes (n+1 steps) per session, max topics, daily XP goal.
• Writing to frontmatter (off by default): sync status: active/paused into a topic's MOC, and status: growing/evergreen into notes as their cards mature.

Privacy

Everything stays in your vault. Review history is stored in the plugin's data.json. The plugin makes no network requests. It writes to your notes only when you save a deep answer or explanation (toggleable), or when the optional frontmatter settings are on.

Install

• Community plugins: search for "Study Zone" (once listed).
• Manual: download main.js, manifest.json and styles.css from the latest release into <vault>/.obsidian/plugins/study-zone/, then enable it in Community plugins.

Development

Plain JavaScript, no build step. npm test runs the logic tests (parser, scheduler, zone controller, n+1 gate) against a stubbed Obsidian API.

License

MIT © Gabriel Nunes Medeiros