Drill Proficiency

At Drillster, proficiency isn't just about memorizing answers, it's about true mastery. Our smart algorithm dynamically calculates your proficiency based on how well you retain knowledge over time.

Here is a simple breakdown of how proficiency is calculated during a drill:

How It Works in a Nutshell

• Learning Elements: Every drill is broken down into individual "learning elements" (the core concepts you need to learn).
• Mastering Learning Elements: Within a single session, you generally need to answer a question correctly at least twice to master it, though these questions are spaced out and any mistake resets your progress. However, the system may dynamically prompt you to answer questions from the same learning element more than twice. This happens either when time has passed and the forgetting curve kicks in, or when the system needs to create "breathing room" intentionally replaying mastered questions to provide the necessary distance between your final few unmastered learning elements so your brain has time to process them. 
• Rolling Up to 100%: Your overall proficiency score is the average mastery of all these elements combined.

📌Note: The larger the drill (more learning elements), the smaller the percentage jump you will see for mastering each individual element.

Why Did My Score Just Drop?

If you stop practicing, you might notice a sudden drop in your proficiency score. This is a deliberate part of the learning methodology:

• Losing a Streak Hurts More: If you have already answered several (equivalent) questions to a learning element correctly and then get it wrong, your proficiency will drop more significantly. The algorithm does this to ensure you truly understand the material before it considers it mastered.
• New Mistakes are Forgiving: If you get a brand-new concept wrong for the very first time, the percentage drop is much smaller because you are still just introducing the topic to your brain.

Good to Know:

Some learning elements have multiple question variants (different ways of asking the same concept). The number of times you see these variants is not a fixed, rigid rule. Instead, the system estimates and adapts how often and when to repeat these questions based on your current session performance, as well as how much time has passed. If you haven't practiced in a while, the algorithm accounts for the forgetting curve and will bring these elements back sooner to reinforce your memory. 

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