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org-drill.html
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<title>org-drill.el – flashcards and spaced repetition for org-mode</title>
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<body>
<div id="preamble">
</div>
<div id="content">
<h1 class="title">org-drill.el – flashcards and spaced repetition for org-mode</h1>
<div id="table-of-contents">
<h2>Table of Contents</h2>
<div id="text-table-of-contents">
<ul>
<li><a href="#sec-1">General</a></li>
<li><a href="#sec-2">Installation</a></li>
<li><a href="#sec-3">Demonstration</a></li>
<li><a href="#sec-4">Writing the questions</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#sec-4-1">Simple topics</a></li>
<li><a href="#sec-4-2">Cloze deletion</a></li>
<li><a href="#sec-4-3">Clozed text hints</a></li>
<li><a href="#sec-4-4">Two-sided cards</a></li>
<li><a href="#sec-4-5">Multi-sided cards</a></li>
<li><a href="#sec-4-6">Multi-cloze cards</a></li>
<li><a href="#sec-4-7">User-defined card types</a></li>
<li><a href="#sec-4-8">Empty cards</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#sec-5">Running the drill session</a></li>
<li><a href="#sec-6">Multiple sequential drill sessions</a></li>
<li><a href="#sec-7">Cram mode</a></li>
<li><a href="#sec-8">Leeches</a></li>
<li><a href="#sec-9">Customisation</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#sec-9-1">Visual appearance of items during drill sessions</a></li>
<li><a href="#sec-9-2">Duration of drill sessions</a></li>
<li><a href="#sec-9-3">Saving buffers after drill sessions</a></li>
<li><a href="#sec-9-4">Sources of items for drill sessions (scope)</a></li>
<li><a href="#sec-9-5">Definition of old and overdue items</a></li>
<li><a href="#sec-9-6">Spaced repetition algorithm</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#sec-9-6-1">Choice of algorithm</a></li>
<li><a href="#sec-9-6-2">Random variation of repetition intervals</a></li>
<li><a href="#sec-9-6-3">Adjustment for early or late review of items</a></li>
<li><a href="#sec-9-6-4">Adjusting the first interval (SM5 algorithm only)</a></li>
<li><a href="#sec-9-6-5">Adjusting item difficulty globally</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#sec-9-7">Per-file customisation settings</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#sec-10">Coping with large collections</a></li>
<li><a href="#sec-11">Sharing, merging and synchronising item collections</a></li>
<li><a href="#sec-12">Incremental reading</a></li>
<li><a href="#sec-13">Author</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<div id="outline-container-1" class="outline-2">
<h2 id="sec-1">General</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-1">
<p>
Org-Drill is an extension for <a href="http://orgmode.org/">Org mode</a>. Org-Drill uses a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaced_repetition">spaced repetition</a>
algorithm to conduct interactive "drill sessions", using org files as sources
of facts to be memorised. Each topic is treated as a "flash card". The material
to be remembered is presented to the student in random order. The student rates
his or her recall of each item, and this information is used to schedule the
item for later revision.
</p>
<p>
Each drill session can be restricted to topics in the current buffer
(default), one or several files, all agenda files, or a subtree. A single
topic can also be drilled.
</p>
<p>
Different "topic types" can be defined, which present their information to the
student in different ways.
</p>
<p>
For more on the spaced repetition algorithm, and examples of other programs
that use it, see:
</p><ul>
<li><a href="http://supermemo.com/index.htm">SuperMemo</a> (see descriptions of the SM2, SM5 and SM8 algorithms)
</li>
<li><a href="http://ichi2.net/anki/">Anki</a>
</li>
<li><a href="http://mnemosyne-proj.org/index.php">Mnemosyne</a>
</li>
</ul>
<p>
Org-Drill comes bundled with Org mode, in the "contrib" directory. Org-Drill
also has its own repository, which is updated more regularly than the bundled
version. The repository is at:
</p>
<p>
<a href="http://bitbucket.org/eeeickythump/org-drill">http://bitbucket.org/eeeickythump/org-drill</a>
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="outline-container-2" class="outline-2">
<h2 id="sec-2">Installation</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-2">
<p>
The easiest way is to customise the variable 'org-modules' (<code>M-x customize-variables RET org-modules</code>) and make sure 'drill' is
ticked. Org-drill will then be loaded when you restart Emacs or restart
Org-mode.
</p>
<p>
For manual installation, put the following in your <code>.emacs</code>. You will also need
to make sure that Org's "contrib/lisp" directory is in the emacs load-path.
</p>
<pre class="example">(require 'org-drill)
</pre>
</div>
</div>
<div id="outline-container-3" class="outline-2">
<h2 id="sec-3">Demonstration</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-3">
<p>
Load the file <a href="spanish.html">spanish.org</a>. Press <code>M-x</code> and run the function <code>org-drill</code>. Follow
the prompts at the bottom of the screen.
</p>
<p>
When the drill finishes, you can look at <code>spanish.org</code> to get some idea of how
drill topics are written.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="outline-container-4" class="outline-2">
<h2 id="sec-4">Writing the questions</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-4">
<p>
Org-Drill uses org mode topics as 'drill items'. To be used as a drill item,
the topic must have a tag that matches the value of
<code>org-drill-question-tag</code>. This is <code>:drill:</code> by default. Any other org topics
will be ignored.
</p>
<p>
Drill items can have other drill items as children. When a drill item is being
tested, the contents of any child drill items will be hidden.
</p>
<p>
You don't need to schedule the topics initially. Unscheduled items are
considered to be 'new' and ready for memorisation.
</p>
<p>
How should 'drill topics' be structured? Any org topic is a legal drill topic
– it will simply be shown with all subheadings collapsed, so that only the
material beneath the main item heading is visible. After pressing a key, any
hidden subheadings will be revealed, and you will be asked to rate your
"recall" of the item.
</p>
<p>
This will be adequate for some items, but usually you will want to write items
where you have more control over what information is hidden from the user for
recall purposes. For this reason, some other card types are defined, including:
</p><ul>
<li><a href="#sec-4-4">Two-sided cards</a>
</li>
<li><a href="#sec-4-5">Multi-sided cards</a>
</li>
<li><a href="#sec-4-6">Multi-cloze cards</a>
</li>
<li><a href="#sec-4-7">User-defined card types</a>
</li>
</ul>
<p>
<b>A note about comments:</b> In org mode, comment lines start with '#'. The rest of
the line is ignored by Org (apart from some special cases). You may sometimes
want to put material in comments which you do not want to see when you are
being tested on the item. For this reason, comments are always rendered
invisible while items are being tested.
</p>
</div>
<div id="outline-container-4-1" class="outline-3">
<h3 id="sec-4-1">Simple topics</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-4-1">
<p>
The simplest drill topic has no special structure. When such a topic is
presented during a drill session, any subheadings are "collapsed" with their
contents hidden. So, you could include the question as text beneath the main
heading, and the answer within a subheading. For example:
</p>
<pre class="example">* Item :drill:
What is the capital city of Estonia?
** The Answer
Tallinn.
</pre>
<p>
When this item is presented for review, the text beneath the main heading will
be visible, but the contents of the subheading ("The Answer") will be hidden.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="outline-container-4-2" class="outline-3">
<h3 id="sec-4-2">Cloze deletion</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-4-2">
<p>
Cloze deletion can be used in any drill topic regardless of whether it is
otherwise 'simple', or is one of the specialised topic types discussed
below. To use cloze deletion, one or more parts of the body of the topic is
marked as <i>cloze text</i> by surrounding it with single square brackets, [like
so]. When the topic is presented for review, the text within square brackets
will be obscured. The text is then revealed after the user presses a key. For
example:
</p>
<pre class="example">* Item :drill:
The capital city of Estonia is [Tallinn].
</pre>
<p>
During review, the user will see:
</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The capital city of Estonia is <font style="background-color: blue;" color="cyan">
<tt>[…]</tt></font>.
</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
When the user presses a key, the text "Tallinn" will become visible.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="outline-container-4-3" class="outline-3">
<h3 id="sec-4-3">Clozed text hints</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-4-3">
<p>
Clozed text can contain a "hint" about the answer. If the text surrounded
by single square brackets contains `||' (two vertical bars), all text
after that character is treated as a hint. During testing, the hint text will
be visible when the rest of the text is hidden, and invisible when the rest of
the text is visible.
</p>
<p>
Example:
</p>
<pre class="example">Type 1 hypersensitivity reactions are mediated by [immunoglobulin E||molecule]
and [mast cells||cell type].
</pre>
<blockquote>
<p>Type 1 hypersensitivity reactions are mediated by
<font style="background-color: blue;" color="cyan">
<tt>[molecule…]</tt></font>
and <font style="background-color: blue;" color="cyan">
<tt>[cell type…]</tt></font>.
</p>
</blockquote>
</div>
</div>
<div id="outline-container-4-4" class="outline-3">
<h3 id="sec-4-4"><a name="Two-sided-cards" id="Two-sided-cards"></a>Two-sided cards</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-4-4">
<p>
The remaining topic types all use the topic property, <code>DRILL_CARD_TYPE</code>. This
property tells <code>org-drill</code> which function to use to present the topic during
review. If this property has the value <code>twosided</code> then the topic is treated as
a "two sided card". When a two sided card is reviewed, <i>one of the first two</i>
subheadings within the topic will be visible – all other
subheadings will be hidden.
</p>
<p>
Two-sided cards are meant to emulate the type of flipcard where either side is
useful as test material (for example, a card with a word in a foreign language
on one side, and its translation on the other).
</p>
<p>
A two sided card can have more than 2 subheadings, but all subheadings after
the first two are considered as "notes" and will always be hidden during topic
review.
</p>
<pre class="example">* Noun :drill:
:PROPERTIES:
:DRILL_CARD_TYPE: twosided
:END:
Translate this word.
** Spanish
la mujer
** English
the woman
** Example sentence
¿Quién fue esa mujer?
Who was that woman?
</pre>
<p>
In this example, the user will be shown the main text – "Translate this word"
– and either 'la mujer', <i>or</i> 'the woman', at random. The section 'Example
sentence' will never be shown until after the user presses a key, because it is
not one of the first two 'sides' of the topic.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="outline-container-4-5" class="outline-3">
<h3 id="sec-4-5"><a name="Multi-sided-cards" id="Multi-sided-cards"></a>Multi-sided cards</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-4-5">
<p>
The <code>multisided</code> card type is similar to <code>twosided</code>, except that any
subheading has a chance of being presented during the topic review. One
subheading is always shown and all others are always hidden.
</p>
<pre class="example">* Noun :drill:
:PROPERTIES:
:DRILL_CARD_TYPE: multisided
:END:
Translate.
** Spanish
la mesa
** English
the table
** Picture
[[file:table.jpg][PICTURE]]
</pre>
<p>
The user will be shown the main text and either 'la mesa', <i>or</i> 'the table',
<i>or</i> a picture of a table.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="outline-container-4-6" class="outline-3">
<h3 id="sec-4-6"><a name="Multi-cloze-cards" id="Multi-cloze-cards"></a>Multi-cloze cards</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-4-6">
<p>
Often, you will wish to create cards out of sentences that express several
facts, such as the following:
</p>
<pre class="example">The capital city of New Zealand is Wellington, which is located in the
North Island and has a population of about 400,000.
</pre>
<p>
There is more than one fact in this statement – you could create a single
'simple' card with all the facts marked as cloze text, like so:
</p>
<pre class="example">The capital city of [New Zealand] is [Wellington], which is located in
the [North||North/South] Island and has a population of about [400,000].
</pre>
<p>
But this card will be difficult to remember. If you get just one of the 4
hidden facts wrong, you will fail the card. A card like this is likely to
become a <a href="#sec-8">leech</a>.
</p>
<p>
A better way to express all these facts using 'simple' cards is to create
several cards, with one fact per card. You might end up with something
like this:
</p>
<pre class="example">* Fact
The capital city of [New Zealand] is Wellington, which has a population of
about 400,000.
* Fact
The capital city of New Zealand is [Wellington], which has a population of
about 400,000.
* Fact
The capital city of New Zealand is Wellington, which has a population of
about [400,000].
* Fact
The capital city of [New Zealand] is Wellington, which is located in the
the North Island.
* Fact
The capital city of New Zealand is [Wellington], which is located in
the North Island.
* Fact
The capital city of New Zealand is Wellington, which is located in
the [North||North/South] Island.
</pre>
<p>
However, this is really cumbersome. Multicloze card types exist for this
situation. Multicloze cards behave like 'simple' cards, except that when there
is more than one area marked as cloze text, some but not all of the areas
can be hidden. There are several types of predefined multicloze card:
</p>
<ol>
<li><code>hide1cloze</code> – one of the marked areas is hidden during review; the others
all remain visible. The hidden text area is chosen randomly at each review.
(Note: this type used to be called 'multicloze', and that card type is
retained as a synonym for 'hide1cloze'.)
</li>
<li><code>show1cloze</code> – only one of the marked areas is visible during review; all
the others are hidden. The hidden text area is chosen randomly at each
review.
</li>
<li><code>hide2cloze</code> – like hide1cloze, but 2 marked pieces of text will be hidden,
and the rest will be visible.
</li>
<li><code>show2cloze</code> – like show1cloze, but 2 marked pieces of text will be visible,
the rest are hidden.
</li>
</ol>
<p>
There are also some types of multicloze card where some pieces have an
increased or decreased chance of being hidden. These are intended for use when
studying languages: generally it is easy to translate a foreign-language
sentence into your own language if you have met it before, but it is much
harder to translate in the other direction. Therefore, you will want to test
the harder direction more often.
</p><ol>
<li><code>hide1_firstmore</code> – only one of the marked pieces of text will be
hidden. 75% of the time (guaranteed), the <i>first</i> piece is hidden; the rest
of the time, one of the other pieces is randomly hidden.
</li>
<li><code>show1_firstless</code> – only one of the marked pieces of text will be
visible. Only 25% of the time (guaranteed) will the <i>first</i> piece will be
visible; the rest of the time, one of the other pieces is randomly visible.
</li>
<li><code>show1_lastmore</code> – only one of the marked pieces of text will be
visible. 75% of the time (guaranteed), the <i>last</i> piece will be visible;
the rest of the time, one of the other pieces is randomly visible.
</li>
</ol>
<p>
So, for the above example, we can actually use the original 'bad' simple card,
but change its card type to 'hide1cloze'. Each time the card is presented for
review, one of 'New Zealand', 'Wellington', 'the South Island' or '400,000'
will be hidden.
</p>
<pre class="example">* Fact
:PROPERTIES:
:DRILL_CARD_TYPE: hide1cloze
:END:
The capital city of [New Zealand] is [Wellington], which is located in
the [North||North/South] Island and has a population of about [400,000].
</pre>
</div>
</div>
<div id="outline-container-4-7" class="outline-3">
<h3 id="sec-4-7"><a name="User-defined-card-types" id="User-defined-card-types"></a>User-defined card types</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-4-7">
<p>
Finally, you can write your own emacs lisp functions to define new kinds of
topics. Any new topic type will need to be added to
<code>org-drill-card-type-alist</code>, and cards using that topic type will need to have
it as the value of their <code>DRILL_CARD_TYPE</code> property. For examples, see the
functions at the end of org-drill.el – these include:
</p><ul>
<li><code>org-drill-present-verb-conjugation</code>, which implements the 'conjugate'
card type. This asks the user to conjugate a verb in a particular tense. It
demonstrates how the appearance of an entry can be completely altered during
a drill session, both during testing and during the display of the answer.
</li>
<li><code>org-drill-present-translate-number</code>, which uses a third-party emacs lisp
library (<a href="http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/spell-number.el">spell-number.el</a>) to prompt the user to translate random numbers
to and from any language recognised by that library.
</li>
<li><code>org-drill-present-spanish-verb</code>, which defines the new topic type
<code>spanish_verb</code>. This illustrates how a function can control which of an
item's subheadings are visible during the drill session.
</li>
</ul>
<p>
See the file <a href="spanish.html">spanish.org</a> for a full set of example material, including examples
of all the card types discussed above.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="outline-container-4-8" class="outline-3">
<h3 id="sec-4-8">Empty cards</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-4-8">
<p>
If the body of a drill item is completely empty (ignoring properties and child
items), then the item will be skipped during drill sessions. The purpose of
this behaviour is to allow you to paste in 'skeletons' of complex items, then
fill in missing information later. For example, you may wish to include an
empty drill item for each tense of a newly learned verb, then paste in the
actual conjugation later as you learn each tense.
</p>
<p>
Note that if an item is empty, any child drill items will <b>not</b> be ignored,
unless they are empty as well.
</p>
<p>
If you have an item with an empty body, but still want it to be included in a
drill session, you can either:
</p><ol>
<li>Put a brief comment ('# …') in the item body.
</li>
<li>Change the entry for its card type in <code>org-drill-card-type-alist</code> so that
items of this type will always be tested, even if they have an empty body.
See the documentation for <code>org-drill-card-type-alist</code> for details.
</li>
</ol>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div id="outline-container-5" class="outline-2">
<h2 id="sec-5">Running the drill session</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-5">
<p>
Start a drill session with <code>M-x org-drill</code>. By default, this tests all
non-hidden topics in the current buffer. <code>org-drill</code> takes an optional
argument, SCOPE, which allows it to take drill items from other
sources. See <a href="#sec-9-4">below</a> for details.
</p>
<p>
During a drill session, you will be presented with each item, then asked to
rate your recall of it by pressing a key between 0 and 5. The meaning of these
numbers is (taken from <code>org-learn</code>):
</p>
<table border="2" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" rules="groups" frame="hsides">
<caption></caption>
<colgroup><col class="right" /><col class="left" /><col class="left" /><col class="left" />
</colgroup>
<thead>
<tr><th scope="col" class="right">Quality</th><th scope="col" class="left">SuperMemo label</th><th scope="col" class="left">Fail?</th><th scope="col" class="left">Meaning</th></tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr><td class="right">0</td><td class="left">NULL</td><td class="left">Yes</td><td class="left">Wrong, and the answer is unfamiliar when you see it.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="right">1</td><td class="left">BAD</td><td class="left">Yes</td><td class="left">Wrong answer.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="right">2</td><td class="left">FAIL</td><td class="left">Yes</td><td class="left">Almost, but not quite correct.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="right">3</td><td class="left">PASS</td><td class="left">No</td><td class="left">Correct answer, but with much effort.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="right">4</td><td class="left">GOOD</td><td class="left">No</td><td class="left">Correct answer, with a little thought.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="right">5</td><td class="left">BRIGHT</td><td class="left">No</td><td class="left">Correct answer, effortless.</td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>
You can press '?' at the prompt if you have trouble remembering what the
numbers 0–5 signify.
</p>
<p>
At any time you can press 'q' to finish the drill early (your progress up to
that point will be saved), 's' to skip the current item without viewing the
answer, or 'e' to escape from the drill and jump to the current topic for
editing (again, your progress up to that point will be saved).
</p>
<p>
After exiting the drill session with 'e' or 'q', you can resume where you left
off, using the command <code>org-drill-resume</code>. This will return you to the item
that you were viewing when you left the session. For example, if you are shown
an item and realise that it is poorly formulated, or contains an error, you can
press 'e' to leave the drill, then correct the item, then press
<code>M-x org-drill-resume</code> and continue where you left off.
</p>
<p>
Note that 'drastic' edits, such as deleting or moving items, can sometimes
cause Org-Drill to "lose its place" in the file, preventing it from
successfully resuming the session. In that case you will need to start a new
session.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="outline-container-6" class="outline-2">
<h2 id="sec-6">Multiple sequential drill sessions</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-6">
<p>
Org-Drill has to scan your entire item database each time you start a new drill
session. This can be slow if you have a large item collection. If you have a
large number of 'due' items and want to run a second drill session after
finishing one session, you can use the command <code>org-drill-again</code> to run a new
drill session that draws from the pool of remaining due items that were not
tested during the previous session, without re-scanning the item collection.
</p>
<p>
Also note that if you run <code>org-drill-resume</code> and you have actually finished the
drill session, you will be asked whether you want to start another drill
session without re-scanning (as if you had run <code>org-drill-again</code>).
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="outline-container-7" class="outline-2">
<h2 id="sec-7">Cram mode</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-7">
<p>
There are some situations, such as before an exam, where you will want to
revise all of your cards regardless of when they are next due for review.
</p>
<p>
To do this, run a <i>cram session</i> with the <code>org-drill-cram</code> command (<code>M-x org-drill-cram</code>). This works the same as a normal drill session, except
that all items are considered due for review unless you reviewed them within
the last 12 hours (you can change the number of hours by customising the
variable <code>org-drill-cram-hours</code>).
</p>
<p>
Cram sessions are not considered to be part of the normal learning process for
the tested items. Cramming will not affect when items are next due for
revision.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="outline-container-8" class="outline-2">
<h2 id="sec-8"><a name="leeches" id="leeches"></a>Leeches</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-8">
<p>
From the Anki website, <a href="http://ichi2.net/anki/wiki/Leeches">http://ichi2.net/anki/wiki/Leeches</a>:
</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Leeches are cards that you keep on forgetting. Because they require so many
reviews, they take up a lot more of your time than other cards.
</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
Like Anki, Org-Drill defines leeches as cards that you have "failed" many
times. The number of times an item must be failed before it is considered a
leech is set by the variable <code>org-drill-leech-failure-threshold</code> (15 by
default). When you fail to remember an item more than this many times, the item
will be given the <code>:leech:</code> tag.
</p>
<p>
Leech items can be handled in one of three ways. You can choose how Org-Drill
handles leeches by setting the variable <code>org-drill-leech-method</code> to one of the
following values:
</p><dl>
<dt>nil</dt><dd>Leech items are tagged with the <code>leech</code> tag, but otherwise treated the
same as normal items.
</dd>
<dt>skip</dt><dd>Leech items are not included in drill sessions.
</dd>
<dt>warn</dt><dd>Leech items are still included in drill sessions, but a warning
message is printed when each leech item is presented.
</dd>
</dl>
<p>
The best way to deal with a leech is either to delete it, or reformulate it so
that it is easier to remember, for example by splitting it into more than one
card.
</p>
<p>
See <a href="http://www.supermemo.com/help/leech.htm">the SuperMemo website</a> for more on leeches.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="outline-container-9" class="outline-2">
<h2 id="sec-9">Customisation</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-9">
<p>
Org-Drill has several settings which you change using
<code>M-x customize-group org-drill <RET></code>. Alternatively you can change these
settings by adding elisp code to your configuration file (<code>.emacs</code>).
</p>
</div>
<div id="outline-container-9-1" class="outline-3">
<h3 id="sec-9-1">Visual appearance of items during drill sessions</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-9-1">
<p>
If you want cloze-deleted text to show up in a special font within Org mode
buffers, add this to your .emacs:
</p>
<pre class="example">(setq org-drill-use-visible-cloze-face-p t)
</pre>
<p>
Item headings may contain information that "gives away" the answer to the item,
either in the heading text or in tags. If you want item headings to be made
invisible while each item is being tested, add:
</p>
<pre class="example">(setq org-drill-hide-item-headings-p t)
</pre>
</div>
</div>
<div id="outline-container-9-2" class="outline-3">
<h3 id="sec-9-2">Duration of drill sessions</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-9-2">
<p>
By default, a drill session will end when either 30 items have been
successfully reviewed, or 20 minutes have passed. To change this behaviour, use
the following settings.
</p>
<pre class="example">(setq org-drill-maximum-items-per-session 40)
(setq org-drill-maximum-duration 30) ; 30 minutes
</pre>
<p>
If either of these variables is set to nil, then item count or elapsed time
will not count as reasons to end the session. If both variables are nil, the
session will not end until <i>all</i> outstanding items have been reviewed.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="outline-container-9-3" class="outline-3">
<h3 id="sec-9-3">Saving buffers after drill sessions</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-9-3">
<p>
By default, you will be prompted to save all unsaved buffers at the end of a
drill session. If you don't like this behaviour, use the following setting:
</p>
<pre class="example">(setq org-drill-save-buffers-after-drill-sessions-p nil)
</pre>
</div>
</div>
<div id="outline-container-9-4" class="outline-3">
<h3 id="sec-9-4"><a name="scope" id="scope"></a>Sources of items for drill sessions (scope)</h3>
<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-9-4">
<p>
By default, Org-Drill gathers drill items from the current buffer only,
ignoring any non-visible items. There may be times when you want Org-Drill to
gather drill items from other sources. You can do this by changing the value of
the variable <code>org-drill-scope</code>. Possible values are: