Study Mode and Flashcards

Now we'll move to studying. Everything you marked with a card-making pen is already a card: the term, blanked out inside its own sentence. Cocoa offers two ways to use that — a quick Study… session over a whole pen's cards, and a study window per folder with four modes: Flashcards, Recall, Quiz and Exam.

Where cards come from

Only named pens that make cards produce cards (chapter 6). A card's question is the sentence with the marked term blanked; the answer is the term. The plain yellow Highlight pen never makes cards. Progress and scheduling are kept in a state file that travels with your notes.

Quick study: Marks › Study…

Choose Marks › Study… (⌃⌘Y) or the palette entry Study…. A sheet lists one deck per card-making pen, with a color dot, the pen's name and 3 due of 18. Pick a deck and the recall session starts. Empty, the sheet reads Nothing to Study — Highlight something with a pen and it will appear here.

The recall session

• Reveal ② (or Space) shows the term.
• Then grade yourself: Again, Hard, Good, Easy ③ — keys 1 to 4. Cocoa schedules the card in boxes of 1, 3, 7, 16, 35 and 90 days depending on your grade.
• Skip (S) sets the card aside for now; Open the Note (Return) jumps to the sentence in its note.
• Done (Escape) closes the sheet. When you finish it reads Done for now — 12 of 15 recalled (Good and Easy count as recalled), or Nothing due.

The study window: four modes per folder

In the Library, inside a folder, the Study shelf has four tiles — Flashcards, Recall, Quiz, Exam — each with the number of sets it holds. Click one to open the study window in that mode. The window's header has a back chevron (reading the mode's or the set's name), New Set (a plus; hover: "Make a new set") on the set list, and Done (Escape).

Every mode starts with a list of sets. Right-click a set for Rename… (an alert with a Name field) and Delete Set… — the confirmation's red button is titled with the set's own name, such as Delete Week 3. With no sets yet: No Sets Yet — New Set makes one — name it, then fill it in.

Flashcards

Hand-made cards: the front is a term you already highlighted, the back is text you select in the note.

1. Click New Set. The New Flashcard Set form asks for a name ("Name this set — Terminology, Dates, Formulas…") and shows a checkbox per collecting pen in the folder: "The fronts come from what you have already highlighted. Pick which highlighters this set draws from." Click Choose Terms.
2. The Choose a term for “Week 3” sheet lists every term marked with those pens. Filter with Search terms or the All Notes pop-up (when the folder has several notes). A grey checkmark means the term already has a card. Click a term.
3. The note opens at that term and a bar appears above the page: Select the meaning of “stockholders' equity” — Drag across the words in this note that define it. Drag across the definition; the bar now says "That selection becomes the back of the card." Click Use Selection (⌘↩) to make the card and pick another term, or Done to make it and stop; the × stops without a card. The header confirms Card made — 3 in “Week 3”.

Inside a set: Study (a play icon) offers In Order or Shuffle; Add Cards offers From a Highlight… and Write One… (a form with Front, Swap, Back, and Add). Each card row shows the term over its back with a pencil to Edit this card.

The flashcard run shows one card at a time: click it or press Space to flip; Previous (←) and Next / Finish (→ or Return) move along; at the end, Done — You went through all 12 cards. with Study Again and Back to Cards.

Recall

A named set that draws on chosen card-making pens — every highlight becomes a blanked sentence — plus cards you write yourself.

• New Set: a name and Highlighters checkboxes; Create. If no pen makes cards: "No highlighter in this folder makes cards yet — you can still add cards by hand."
• Inside: Review / Review 5 Due (runs the recall session over this set), the All Notes filter, Search terms, and Add Card (hover: "Write a sentence of your own and choose the word to hide") — type a sentence, then click the word to hide.
• Swipe a card row left for Edit, Set Aside (or Restore), and — for hand-written cards — Delete. Set-aside cards dim and carry a "· set aside" tag; edited and added cards are tagged too.
• Edit on a generated card opens a sheet with Question and Answer fields and Reset to the Note, so you can fix a card without touching the note.
• A term with no sentence around it shows the warning No sentence to blank — this card would be empty.

Quiz and Exam

Cocoa writes a paper from the folder's card-making highlights and flashcards, plus questions you add.

• New Set with a name; Create. Opening a set shows an intro: how many questions, a Draw from note filter, Add & Edit Questions, and Begin. With nothing to draw from: Nothing to Ask About — Highlight terms with a card-making pen, write a flashcard set, or add your own questions below.
• Add & Edit Questions lists Yours (with New Question) above the generated pool.
• Begin: one question at a time. Multiple choice shows option buttons; written questions show a Your answer field (Return submits). A Quiz marks each answer at once — Correct, or The answer is “…” — then Next / Finish. An Exam records answers, offers Skip, and marks at the end; closing early asks Leave this exam? with Leave — Answers Are Lost or Keep Going.
• Results show the mark and the missed questions ("These are the ones to go back to."), with New Paper and Retry the 4 Missed.

Maya studies for the midterm

Two weeks out, Maya opens Accounting II in the Library and clicks Recall on the Study shelf, then New Set, names it "Midterm", ticks Definitions and Formulas, and clicks Create. Review 23 Due starts a session: a sentence appears with a blank; she presses Space, then 3 for Good. The night before, she clicks Exam, makes a set, presses Begin, and works through twenty questions marked at the end — then Retry the 4 Missed.

Summary

• Cards come from named pens that make cards; the term is blanked inside its sentence.
• Marks › Study… (⌃⌘Y) runs a recall session over a pen's cards; grade with 1–4, Space reveals, S skips.
• A folder's Study shelf opens the study window: Flashcards (hand-made from highlights), Recall (sets with review), Quiz and Exam (papers written by the app).

Common mistakes

• Making cards with the plain Highlight pen — it never makes cards; use a named pen.
• Expecting cards to appear before you highlight anything — every mode draws on your marks.
• Closing an exam mid-way — answers are lost; use Keep Going.

Best practices

• Review daily with Study…; the boxes spread cards out so due counts stay small.
• One Recall set per exam, drawing on the pens for that exam.
• Write a few questions of your own in Quiz — they always appear.

Keyboard shortcuts used

Related features to learn next

• Chapter 6, Highlighters and Pens — which pens make cards.
• Chapter 8, Collections.
• Chapter 14, Settings and Customization — the pens' study settings.