How the SM-2 review schedule compresses to your departure
Phrazl schedules your practice with an SM-2 spaced repetition scheduler, and it compresses the intervals against one fixed point: the departure date you gave the trip. This article explains what that means for the phrases that come due each day, and what you do at each stage.
What this covers, and when you need it
Phrazl uses an SM-2 spaced repetition scheduler with interval compression calibrated to your trip's departure date as a hard deadline. In plain terms: every phrase carries its own next review time, and no phrase is allowed to drift past the day you fly.
Read this when you are wondering why a particular phrase came back today, why the daily load grows as the flight gets closer, or why a phrase you said cleanly last week has gone quiet. There is nothing to configure. The schedule starts the moment the trip exists and runs off two things only: the departure date on the trip and how each review went.
Using the schedule, step by step
- Give the trip a real departure date
Trip setup is three steps: destination, departure date, then up to three scenarios from restaurant, transport, hotel, emergency and shopping. The date is not decoration. It is the deadline the whole schedule works backwards from, so put in the actual flight date rather than a rough guess. If emergency is one of your three, read the disclaimer shown on that selection screen: those phrases are for general communication practice, not a substitute for contacting local emergency services or an interpreter.
- Open the trip and take what is due
The scheduler decides which phrases are due and hands them to you in trip-relevance order. You choose how to meet them: flashcard, listen and repeat with audio playback, or fill in the blank. The mode changes how the phrase is put to you, not which phrases come up.
- Say it out loud before you grade it
Your grade is the only signal the scheduler gets from you. Say the phrase aloud first, then mark how it actually went, not how it looked once you had read it. A phrase you half-recognised on paper is not a phrase you can say at a counter.
- Let the interval stretch or snap back
SM-2 keeps a per-phrase record: the result, the current interval and the next review time. Recall it cleanly and the gap lengthens, so you stop spending days on phrases you already own. Stumble and the interval collapses and the phrase returns soon.
- Expect the gaps to tighten near the date
That is the compression. As the departure countdown shortens, intervals that would have landed after your flight are squeezed to fit before it, so the last stretch is denser than the first. A phrase that would sit three weeks out when you have ten days left comes back inside those ten days instead.
- Read the readiness bar as coverage
The single trip readiness bar is labelled as curriculum coverage completed, and there are no streaks and no XP to chase. It tells you how much of the set you have worked through, not how a conversation will go.
If the pacing looks wrong
Three things to check before anything else.
- The departure date on the trip. Every interval is calibrated to the date the trip holds, so a date typed a month out is a schedule paced a month out. It is the one number worth getting right while you are setting the trip up, before you start reviewing.
- Whether your grades saved. Offline use is not included with the trip pack or the full bundle, so practise where you have a connection, and check that the readiness bar moved after a session.
- Which trip you are looking at. Each trip carries its own departure date, its own phrase set and its own schedule, so pacing that reads as wrong is sometimes the other trip's countdown you are remembering.
If you are still setting the trip up rather than tuning one that already exists, the article on three-step onboarding covers the destination, date and scenario steps. If you want to know why the phrases arrive in the order they do, the article on pre-curated phrase sets per language and scenario covers trip-relevance ranking. Anything the schedule does that you cannot account for, write to support@phrazl.com with the trip and what you are seeing.
Questions
What is SM-2, in one sentence?
It is a spaced repetition algorithm that keeps an interval per item and lengthens it when you recall the item and shortens it when you do not, so your practice concentrates on the phrases you have not got yet.
Why am I seeing more phrases per day than I was last month?
Because the intervals are compressed against your departure date. Anything that would otherwise come due after you fly is pulled forward into the days you have left, so the load rises as the date approaches.
Does the schedule run on the free preview?
Yes. The free preview includes the departure countdown and review schedule across the first 20 phrases of your trip. The trip pack at £6.99 once applies the same departure-calibrated schedule across the full set, and the full bundle at £16.99 once applies it on every destination covered.
What happens if I skip several days?
The due phrases stack up and wait for you. The departure date does not move, so the time left for the remaining intervals is shorter, and the sessions after a gap will be heavier than the ones before it.
Can I choose my own intervals or review pace?
No. The scheduler sets the next review time per phrase from your grade and the trip's departure date. What you control is how often you sit down and how honestly you grade.
Does a high readiness percentage mean I will be understood?
It measures curriculum coverage completed, which is how much of your trip's set you have worked through. It is not a prediction about any particular conversation.
My flight date changed. What should I do?
The departure date on the trip is the deadline every interval is calibrated to, so it needs to match the flight you are actually taking. If yours has moved, write to support@phrazl.com with the trip and the new date, and in the meantime work on the assumption that you have fewer days than the current pacing implies.
Is my review history stored?
Yes: the result, interval and next review time for each phrase, which is what the scheduler needs to decide what you practise next and to show curriculum coverage. It is kept while your account exists and removed when the account is deleted.