Self-study
I've heard from roughly everybody who has ever used the study scheduler that they want more customization—but how, and why? Start with the problem you are trying to solve—e.g., "I get behind schedule," or "I don't want to do the PT that the study scheduler picked for me because…" If possible, explain why the current functionality (e.g. changing your plan type or end date in study plan settings) doesn't cut it. Then suggest a solution.
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i think it would be great to have the scheduler schedule things based on your PTs, drills, etc and focus on the things that you are having the most trouble with. this is mainly for users who use 7sage. so instead of having to do everything through, you work through mostly the things that a you are struggling with.
also the ability to set breaks or be able to schedule a study break. for example, i'm going on a roadtrip from the april 14-18, and i don't really plan to study all that much since its a time for me to de-stress. or for people who are still in uni to have them take breaks while they study for midterms/finals. i think this would be useful for those situations.
From my experience, I think one important improvement would be making the plan more flexible. For example, if you’re supposed to start on Monday but miss that day for some reason, the plan still shows Monday as the starting point instead of adjusting to Tuesday. I believe the plan should be adaptive so users can follow it based on their actual progress and schedule.
Another issue is that the plan should account for how well you are performing. It should not only tell you what to do, but also track whether you are actually improving and moving toward your goal. For instance, if I am aiming for a 165+ score and the plan is designed for that, how do I know if I am improving enough to reach it? If you are following the plan but not seeing the expected progress, then simply completing the plan won’t be effective. There needs to be ongoing analysis of performance, along with adjustments and improvements to the plan as you go. I think adding flexibility and performance-based adjustments like this would help students a lot.
Honestly just more customizable... suggestions for the day but allow us to customize goals based on end of week targets... in case we miss a day or I dont have the time to do an entire RC section in one sitting but I can drill more here and there. Also, I am not wanting to preptest every week. I am focusing more on sections vs tests at the moment. The ability to shuffle more options for the day would be nice but still meet end of week goals to stay on track.
I agree that an automatic fluid update would be awesome. If I fell behind for whatever reason, it would be great if my schedule could adjust to my actual speed, so I don't have to restructure the whole program each time. Or is there an easy way to do that I am not aware of?
I think a really good point is that if we miss a day (because of a sickness or otherwise unavoidable reason) or want to do the next day in advance, the entire rest of the program will be off by one day.
I think an option where you can customize the hours per day for different days of the week would be great. For example I work full time during the week, so can only do 1 or 2 hours max on the weekdays but would like to do 6 on the weekends. If there was a way to customize that so I don't always fall behind of the 4-6hr/day plan that would be really helpful!
This comes across as lazy polling instead of a direct ask with a survey, but I’ll bite.
Shuffle remaining nodes that consider actual progress: I‘ll sometimes dive into different lessons that make sense to me but aren’t suggested as next steps. I’d like to adjust the study plan on the fly with both what I’ve skipped and what I’ve reviewed to redistribute the suggested nodes. Maybe even a button to shuffle the remaining nodes (if applicable).
Might be an opportunity for an occasional point of feedback (e.g., A thumbs up/down for new shuffles, or a feedback text entry on redistributions that included more updates than a “basic” shuffle). But of course, respecting the attention and not repeatedly beating them over the head with prompts.
Add a timer toggle: I wouldn’t think that it’s intentional, but this service and supporting platforms don’t appear to be designed with neurodivergent users in mind. The steps provided by the study scheduler are excellent milestones, but adding a time factor without a toggle to remove it can be considered structural/systemic ableism. As a tangent: It’s astounding that there’s still a timer ticking away even when a drill is created with unlimited time.
That said, I appreciate the ability to pop open a chat window and ask a question.
Quasi-related (not really), but can you guys implement a method of hiding the answer choices so that when say prefiguring an answer for PSA, SA or NA questions I could come up with what I think the answer is without being able to see the answer choices?
Echoing what some others have said - I wish I could customize the number of hours I study each day. Since I am working full-time, I try to take advantage of the weekends to study more versus on weeknights I study less. I also take at least 1-2 days off from studying a week, so it would be nice to have an option to customize which days you are not studying.
I recognize it is difficult to estimate the amount of time lessons can take for everyone, but sometimes I spend far more time on a lesson then the estimated amount of time stated. Then it makes me feel like I'm falling behind on my lesson plan when I know it's better for me to take the time to fully grasp a lesson rather than speeding through half understanding.
Thanks for listening.
If I miss a day or am behind I want it to automatically “catch me up”. A switch in dates or content per day may suffice to solve this as changing the dates myself took me a min to figure out when I was just a few days behind.
The study schedule tends to over-recommend LR exercises as opposed to RC exercises. There doesn't seem to be any particular reason why this should be the case. Often when I've wanted to balance it out I've had to generate additional weeks before finishing the current week to get more RC drills.
For "study plan types" I really wish it would offer a "mixed" option with core curriculum lessons recommended simultaneously with drills and sections. Ideally the lessons would be recommended for your weaknesses (e.g. if your highest priority is on conditional reasoning, you get recommended a few lessons for each week for CR along with drills etc). In my opinion it doesn't really make sense to do 5+ weeks of lessons all together and only then move on to practice. These things might work better in conjunction.
The only other thing I'll add is that I agree with @mrickett, and to a certain extent prefer it if the system doesn't have too many adjustable bells and whistles. Because at the end of the day if you are the kind of person who generates the study plan in the first place then you want to be guided; having to make too many decisions myself would stress me out a bit.
A search button - I want to go back to a certain topic to refresh my memory and I have to look through every week just to find it.
If I get behind schedule, or the rare chance that I am ahead of schedule, I would like the schedule to be adjusted to meet the timeframe that is left. It would also be nice if we can adjust the hours we want to study. For instance if I study 5 hours during the week, but want to do 2 hours on Saturday and/or Sunday, the schedule should be able to adjust to that variation day by day instead of a blanket 5 hours for each day you study.
It would be nice to allot the percentage of time I want to devote the LR vs. RC per week (or at least customize based on recommendations from scores). Currently, the scheduler automatically allocates way more time to LR than RC, but sometimes I find that I would like to devote more time to the latter.
In my opinion, the study schedule you had before you fell behind should remain the same. Then, when you regenerate the plan, it takes what you have left and re-disperses it to your new time frame while keeping the completed work where it was. this way, you can see when you completed which sections and it is easier to review, as well as see which weeks you took off. or, in the case of spring break or other vacations, i'd like to generate my plan with planned vacations implemented into the study schedule. so that I don't come home to 5 missed days and have to re-generate entirely.
I think it would also be nice to remove or adapt the percentage feature of the practice plan - right now it feels like it doesn't really serve a purpose and only stresses me out if anything. I feel the practice plan should be more about what I can do in the time leading up to the test and what serves my study plan, instead of trying to fit in as many practice blocks as I can perhaps to reach "100%."
I wish I could move or delete blocks from the scheduler based on how my week is unfolding and how I do on certain drills. Like I fund myself needing to stop and do a solid couple hours of content review and then I can't delete or remove drills from the scheduler and it stresses me out.
I wish it would recommend scheduled live classes so that I could work those into my timing
I want to be able to input how much time the drills actually take me... because I spend a lot of time doing WAJ stuff and so what the scheduler predicts as 30 minutes can sometimes take 3 times that.
I would like the scheduler to set aside time we need to review the things that we missed and link back to the in the CC.
I think it would be nice if it there was a feature to allot more free days, or like allot different levels of studying based on how busy the following week is, day wise.
I think it would be helpful to be able to change the number of hours you want to study day by day to adjust for work schedules that aren't set M-F 9-5 or in case something comes up where you need your plan to recalculate. It would help people get a better sense of what should get done on days they have less time because of changing work schedules or other obligations. With the settings now, I try to get as much done for the general day I have set using the less-flexible customizations now, but then I still didn't complete it all so every day feels like rushed catch-up rather than quality understanding. I understand that the study plan only works if you put in the effort, but life happens and not every day is the same for everyone.
When I got behind, I became very stressed out. My new study schedule doesn't rely on doing the study plan every day. I like the way that everything is organized, and I am working through it as planned but on my own time. I wish there was just a way to turn off the days and weeks if they don't serve you.
@smcat @pamelajkok Any thoughts on how recalculate would work? E.g., should the schedule stay unchanged for everything up to the present day (the day you push "Recalculate") or should we only "keep" the stuff you've completed in the past? And what should we do about the the fact that you have less time to do complete all your work—push your study plan end date back or throw out lessons that seem less important?
Like Pamelajok said, I wish it would recalculate days when you get behind. Maybe a feature like the “catch me up” one on the bible app reading plans.
I agree with @mrickett - I trust you guys as the experts to "guide" my study experience. That said, I do wish that the schedule would "recalculate" when life happens and you inevitably get behind. Like a GPS when you take a wrong turn and it automatically recalculates your route and helps you get back on track, it would be really nice if the schedule "recalculated," so to speak, and adjusted the schedule accordingly. That would be the only change I would recommend.
I may be the minority here but I find the lack of customization of the study scheduler to be a feature, not a bug. You are the experts and I am committing wholly to your process. Guide me to the goal. If anything I would recommend more language somewhere about whether it’s okay to skip around or to miss days, maybe an acknowledgement that life gets in the way sometimes and that’s fine. But as far as me picking out what’s what and what I do when, that’s nothing I’m interested in. That’s why I’m paying you.