Four actions, one after another: S·O·A·R
SOAR is a learning model with empirical support, proposed by educational psychologist Kenneth Kiewra (University of Nebraska–Lincoln). This page breaks it into the actions you actually take in a day.
The method itself
Four steps, each one a concrete action.
On the left, Kiewra's definition; on the right, what it becomes in Soar, learn the method, and you're already using the software.
Select
First, obtain complete and accurate study materials, more complete notes correlate with better grades, a repeatedly verified finding.
Transcription starts the moment class does; a lecture in another language is translated as it is spoken — the teacher pauses, and that stretch comes back in a language you understand.
With the textbook open in class, mark the line you didn't catch on the floating subtitle window; after class, that list is what you read closely.
Organize
Turn linear notes into charts and relationship networks, structure has to become visible before memory can hook onto it.
The teacher moves to a new topic and the notes start a new section; every point keeps a record of the sentence it came from.
One click turns it into a document, slides, or a table. Same content, three forms.
Associate
Link ideas to each other and to what you already know, isolated facts are the first to be forgotten.
encoding ⇄ 编码, both directions, so either language is safe in an exam.
An answer names the material behind it — an attachment gets a numbered superscript you can tap; class content points to which lecture, and which stretch of it. Ask about something of your own that it hasn't seen, and it says plainly that it doesn't have it.
Regulate · Self-testing
Use self-testing to steer your learning, knowing what you don't know beats re-reading.
FSRS scheduling, word cards and lecture questions mixed, a small batch a day.
Get one wrong and the AI pins down what's wrong with the option you picked, quoting the teacher's own words from class; two more right answers and it graduates out.
How it lands in a day
One day, four moments.
The effort goes in at the right moments — before class, in class, after class, at night, each with its own job.
The textbook pages for today's class: ahead of time, the AI lists the core concepts, the new words, and one line on “why it's worth listening” — in your own language.
Translated sentence by sentence, terms following your own glossary; tap once to mark any sentence you didn't catch; the textbook turns pages along with the teacher.
The class summary writes itself; replay the sentences you marked; new terms and key points enter the review queue automatically, no manual tidying.
FSRS-scheduled word cards mixed in with question cards from class; get one wrong, and the AI explains it using the lecture you actually sat through.
We didn't invent the method. We did build the software.
The serious part
Academic source
Kiewra, K., the SOAR learning model, University of Nebraska–Lincoln (kiewra.unl.edu/soar-success).
FSRS review algorithm
Open-source spaced-repetition scheduling, trained on hundreds of millions of real reviews. The 3 / 14 / 57 / 196 days in the chart above are what it works out from how you perform.
Data & privacy
Data and AI run server-side; keys never enter the client. For live captions in class, microphone audio is turned into text in memory and never written to disk. When you import a class you already recorded, the audio sits briefly on our servers for the recognition service, and is deleted the moment it has been transcribed.
Three things it doesn't do
It doesn't nag you
Nothing is sent when a review comes due. Push notifications go only to the things you put on your own calendar — leave it closed, and it stays quiet.
It doesn't score you
No points, no leaderboard. It keeps your streak, but never ranks it; when the streak breaks, it says nothing.
Peek at the answer and that round doesn't count
The wrong-answer book keeps the answer hidden at first. Turn it over before you answer and that round still gives you a line of explanation, but it moves you no closer to graduating — the recall has to happen before you see it.
A paper on the left, a button on the right
The definition on the left comes from Kiewra's paper; the two lines on the right are places you actually tap. There is no third thing in between.