Getting started

MemGym is a practice app. Before each card you say how sure you are, and afterwards you score how it went. Over time, the Progress page shows where your confidence matches what you can do, and where it doesn't.

Your first session

1. Add some cards. A new account starts with no cards. During setup you can add a starter collection, start blank and write your own, or import a deck you already have from Cards → Import / export.

2. Open Practise. The cards that are due show here. The buttons at the top switch between three ways to practise them:

• Feed: a list you scroll down.
• Reel: one card at a time, full-screen.
• Deck: a stack of cards you swipe to score.

Each one asks for your prediction before it shows the answer. The steps below use Feed.

3. Read the question, then say how sure you are. Before anything is revealed, pick Low, Medium or High. Pick what's true right now, not what you hope.

4. Reveal, and score what happened. Pick Missed, Partial or Nailed. What you're scoring depends on the kind of card: for a question, whether you got the answer; for a plan, whether you carried it out. The Writing cards guide covers each kind.

5. Read the gap. The card tells you how your prediction compared with what happened, for example "Calibrated: you knew what you knew" or "Overconfident a little: you were surer than your score".

6. If you like, turn it into a card. Under the result, Reflect → make this a card lets you write what you'll do differently. Add to backlog saves it as a new card in your backlog.

7. Keep going. When you've done everything due, Practise says "Nothing due." Cards come back later. A card you scored well on waits longer before it comes back than one you missed.

Finding your way around

The menu at the top has:

• Practise: the cards due now.
• Cards: all your cards, in tabs.
  • Collections: your collections and the folders inside them. Switch a whole collection or one folder off to take its cards out of practice, or raise its priority to see them sooner. Deleting a collection asks whether to delete its cards too or keep them in My Cards.
  • Backlog: cards waiting to go into practice. Imported Anki decks and the cards you make from reflections land here. Add to practice moves one card, and Add all … to practice moves a whole folder at once. For a big folder, Add 20 a day (or 10, or 50) moves the first 20 now, then the next 20 the first time you open MemGym each day. Days you miss don't pile up, and switching the folder off pauses it.
  • Import / export: download your cards, or add cards from a CSV, Excel or Anki file. See Importing from Anki.
  • + Add cards: write a card.
• Progress: your calibration, explained below.
• ? these help pages.
• ⚙ settings.

Each card also has its own page. On a card, tap ⓘ details, then open full page →. It shows how your predictions on that one card compare with how it went, and lets you edit the card, retire it (take it out of practice for good, keeping its history), or delete one you wrote.

Reading your Progress page

At the top are three numbers:

• Calibration error: the average gap between how sure you were and how it went, as a percentage. 0% means every prediction matched. Lower is better.
• Confidence bias: which way the gap leans. Overconfident means you were surer than your scores. Underconfident means you did better than you expected.
• Predictions logged: how many predictions you've made.

Under them, a small chart shows how your calibration error has changed.

Where it's worst breaks your calibration error down by context tag, most overconfident first. It shows the situations where your confidence is least reliable, which is where practice is most useful.

Study summary lists everything that has happened to your cards.

With only a few predictions the numbers jump around. They settle as you make more.

Predict honestly

The numbers only mean something if your predictions are real. Two habits spoil them: glancing at the answer before you predict, and picking Medium every time to be safe. If you don't think you know it, Low is an honest answer, not a failure.

Settings

The ⚙ in the menu opens Settings. None of them change the order: you always predict before you look.

• View mode: Feed, Reel or Deck, the same choice as the buttons on Practise.
• Theme: Dark (the default), Light, or Match device, which follows your phone or computer's light or dark setting. Each device keeps its own choice.
• Handedness: in Reel, which bottom corner the arrows sit in.
• Scoring style: words (Missed, Partial, Nailed) or thumbs (👎 👈 👍).
• Celebrations: Off, Subtle (a short message, the default) or Full (the message plus fireworks). They only appear when you've earned one, such as a prediction that matched what happened.

Settings are saved in the browser you set them in, so your phone and your computer can differ.

Signing in and your devices

Accounts are by invitation for now. Join the waitlist on the home page and you'll get an email inviting you when a place opens.

There's no password. Go to Sign in, enter your email, and we email you a 6-digit code. Type the code in, or open the link in the same email. Each works once and expires after 15 minutes. You stay signed in on that device for 30 days, and that renews while you keep using it.

Your cards and practice history are kept on our server, so they're the same on every device you sign in on. Only your account can read them. The "Your data" section of the FAQ says exactly what's stored.

If the email is slow to arrive, give it a few minutes before trying again.