Features
Everything it does
28 things Smart Aleck does to get facts into your head and keep them there. All of them are free for now.
Decks for anything
If you can put it on a card, you can learn it here.
Your own fields
Every deck has the fields you give it: text, dates, numbers, choices and photos. A Birthdays deck and a Wine regions deck don't have to look alike.
Templates to start from
Birthdays, Capitals, Vocabulary and Faces are ready to go. Pick one, rename what you like, and start adding cards.
Paste a whole list
Got it in a spreadsheet or a note? Paste the lot and Smart Aleck turns each line into a card, dates included.
The World pack
All 195 countries with their flags, capitals and continents, ready-made, with a memory trick for every capital.
Hints that don't give it away
Mark a field as a hint, like where you met someone, and it's shown as a clue but never asked.
Photos, kept private
Put a face to a name. Pictures are shrunk on your device before they're sent, and stored where only your account can see them.
Ten games, plus your own
Asking the same thing ten ways is how it stops being a guess.
Games in your words
Recall, Pick the picture, Roundup, Line them up, Flip cards, Surprise me and more, each named and worded from your deck's own fields.
Both directions
Country to Capital and Capital to Country are different skills. Smart Aleck asks both, and tracks each on its own.
Pick or type
Choose from four when you're starting out, type the answer when you want it to count. Small typos and missing accents are let off, unless you turn on spelling practice.
Games for dates
What's next? asks whose birthday is coming up. Turning what? asks how old they'll be. You'll never be caught out by a card shop again.
Make your own game
Choose which fields are shown and which are asked, say whether answers are typed, and it joins the deck's games.
Set up each game
Every game on every deck keeps its own settings, and you can drag the games into the order you like.
More than one right answer
Give a card other accepted answers, so “US” counts for United States. The World pack comes with its own.
Best scores
Each game on each deck remembers your best round, so there's always something to beat.
Learning that sticks
A little at a time, asked again at the right time.
Learning paths
Big decks are learnt 5 cards at a time (or whatever size you set), in the order you choose: by group, by date, by number, or as added.
Look before you play
Review a new batch face up, one card at a time, memory tricks and all, before any game asks you about it.
Learnt means learnt
A card is learnt after 3 right answers in a row, with every way of asking it last answered right. Miss it and it drops back to being learnt.
Spaced review
After a right answer a card comes back in 1, 3, 7, 21, 60, 120 days, by its streak. After a miss, straight away. One tap plays everything that's due.
Focus on the ones you miss
Turn on focus and the cards you get wrong come up more often, until a run of right answers settles them down.
Every combination, tracked
See every way of asking every card, with how often you've got it right and when it's next due.
Choose what to learn
Tick the cards you want next, or put a batch back if it was too much. Your practice is kept either way.
Memory tricks
“Peru: a llama in Lima.” The World pack has a trick for every capital, shown as a blanked hint in a game or in full after a miss.
A habit you'll keep
Open the app and it tells you what to do. Then it's two minutes.
Home knows what's next
The first thing you see is what most needs doing: reviews that are due, cards you're still learning, or a path that's ready for more.
A daily goal
Answer 20 cards a day, or set a number that suits you. A ring fills as you go.
Streaks
Every day you meet your goal adds to your streak, and it stays alive until today is over.
Aleck
A mascot with opinions. He reacts to every answer, puts his sunglasses on at five in a row, and saves his best face for a perfect round.
Phone, tablet, laptop
It runs in the browser on anything, and your decks follow your account. Add it to your phone's home screen and it opens like an app.
Light and dark
Follows your device, or pick one. Aleck stays hot pink either way.
Free for now.
Smart Aleck is going to be a paid app. While it's being built, every feature is free and there's no card to enter. Start today and what you learn is yours to keep.