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72 answers about the daily loop, spaced repetition, flashcards, timed sits, school assessment tasks, the calendar, the tutor, pricing and your account. Search below, or read a guide.

Watch the getting-started series

Five short films of the real app, in the order they build on each other. Each one sits on top of its written guide.

  1. 1Set up: your state, subjects and exam dates1:10Three answers get Captivate Exam Hub working for you: where you are, what you're sitting, and when. Here's the whole setup, start to finish.
  2. 2Your first daily loop1:27One finishable session a day is the whole idea. This is a real one, start to finish — including a question answered wrong and marked honestly.
  3. 3Flashcards, five ways1:20Every knowledge point gets its own deck, and five ways to study it. Only one of them changes when your cards come back — here's which, and why it matters.
  4. 4Timed exam sits1:23Knowing the content and performing in an exam are different skills. Timed sits train the second one — real reading time, a hard stop, and marking against the examiner's own criteria.
  5. 5Your readiness forecast1:26This student is scoring 81% — and their readiness reads 2%. That isn't a bug. Here's how to read the Progress page, and why the number is deliberately unflattering.
Step-by-step guides

Full walkthroughs of the main workflows.

Command terms, state by state

What the verb at the start of an exam question is asking for — the official glossary for your state, the verbs that carry the marks, and the traps.

After revision technique, not app help? Read our evidence-based study guides.

About Captivate Exam Hub

A self-serve exam-revision app for Australian Year 11 and 12 students, with Queensland (QCE) subjects live first. It builds you a daily revision loop from real past-exam questions and flashcards, schedules reviews with spaced repetition so you remember what you study, runs timed practice sits, and tracks your exam readiness subject by subject. Add a school assessment task (a SAC, an IA) and it builds a plan for that date too, from revision packs rather than past papers. When you're stuck, a tutor answers from your syllabus and names the point it used.

Individual students preparing for their end-of-year exams. You own your account — there are no school logins, class codes, or teacher dashboards. You pick your subjects and study at your own pace. New accounts start with a 3-day free trial, no card required. (If you're under 15, a parent or guardian confirms consent at signup — see “I'm under 15 — how does parent/guardian consent work?”.)

You can start with a 3-day free trial — no payment method required and no automatic charge. After the trial, a Premium subscription unlocks full access, including all AI practice, premium content, and advanced analytics, priced per subject. See “How much does it cost?” below.
Getting started

Setting up your account, state and subjects.

Exam content differs by state — past papers, study designs and command terms all come from your local exam authority. Picking your state means you practise on the exams you'll actually sit.

During onboarding (or any time from Subjects → Manage subjects) you select the subjects you're studying this year. Each subject is listed once as Unit 1/2 or Unit 3/4, so pick the band you're sitting. Your selection drives everything: which past exams and flashcards you see, what the daily loop schedules, which subjects appear in your sidebar, and — if you subscribe — what you pay. You can change your subjects at any time (see “Can I change my subjects during the year?”).

Each subject can have an exam date, which powers countdowns and your exam-day readiness projection. We prefill a sensible default and you can edit dates per subject at any time — they're optional, but the forecasts are sharper with real dates.
The daily revision loop

Each day the app composes one finishable session for you, following a research-backed sequence: learn → retrieve → mark the gap → revisit → timed. In practice that means quick flashcard recall first, then the reviews that are due today, then targeted questions on your weakest knowledge points. The session is snapshotted when it's built, so refreshing the page won't shuffle your work.

Finishing your daily loop keeps your streak alive, and the daily-goal ring on the Today page fills with the study time you actually put in. Small, consistent sessions beat occasional marathons — that's the whole point of the loop.

One card, built for the day. The date and a greeting; a countdown chip to whatever is nearest — an exam, or a school task you've added, and the chip names which; a Start button for today's session; the daily-goal ring with a “Plan needs ~N min/day” line from your exam planner; and a ledger of every exam date you've entered with days to go, colour-coded by subject. When a school task is within two weeks, a “Task prep first” card sits above the session with that task's three actions for the day — the same plan as the task's own page, so a tick in either place shows in both. Under the card: a getting-started checklist until you've done the basics, and a Notes link to everything you've saved.
Spaced repetition & reviews

Because forgetting is normal — and reviewing something just before you'd forget it is the most efficient way to make it stick. We schedule every question and flashcard with a modern spaced-repetition algorithm (FSRS), which models how well each item has settled into your memory and brings it back just as your chance of recalling it dips toward 90%. The better you know something, the longer it waits before returning; struggle with it and it comes back sooner.

An item is due when its scheduled review date has passed. Due reviews are the highest-value work you can do each day, which is why the daily loop puts them near the front and a subject's Flashcards tab surfaces them at the top.

Your marks and ratings are the only signal the scheduler and readiness forecast have. Rate a card “Easy” when it wasn't, and it disappears for weeks while the gap stays; mark a question generously and your readiness score inflates. Being tough on yourself here literally makes the app work better for you.
Readiness & progress

It's an estimate of how prepared you are for each subject's exam, built from how much of the course you've covered, how well you're answering, and how recently you've practised — including a likely-score range and a projection to exam day. Treat it as a compass, not a promise: it guides where to focus, it doesn't guarantee a grade.

Three levers, in order: clear your due reviews (protects what you already know), work your weakest knowledge points (closes gaps), and do timed sits (converts knowledge into exam performance). Consistency moves the score more than volume.

Reading a subject's Progress tab top to bottom: your exam plan spreads weak and uncovered knowledge points across the weeks left; Exam readiness scales your marks-weighted score by how much of the subject you've covered (untried material counts as not ready), with a calibrated likely-score range; Flashcard mastery shows what your card reviews add to that forecast; Momentum counts topics improving or slipping on re-attempts; By question type shows which format costs you marks; Memory & recall projects where your score lands by exam day if you stop reviewing; and the error-pattern cards show why marks were lost. Every card also has a “?” icon explaining how it's calculated, and tapping any chip gives its definition.
Flashcards

Decks are built automatically, one per key knowledge point (KKP) of your subjects — covering the definitions, terms, formulas and concepts in that dot point. If a knowledge point has no cards yet, you can generate them from that subject's Flashcards tab.

Flip — browse cards freely and flip for the answer. Confidence — flip, then rate your recall 1–5; this drives your review schedule. Write — type the answer and check it. Match — a timed game pairing prompts with answers. Test — an auto-generated multiple-choice quiz over the deck.

Only Confidence. Your 1–5 ratings (No idea → Easy) feed the spaced-repetition scheduler and your readiness evidence. Flip, Write, Match and Test are pure practice — play them as much as you like without touching your schedule.

Cards you've rated come back when their review date passes; “Study all due” works through them oldest-first, capped at 20 per sitting so sessions stay finishable. Within a deck, Confidence rounds also study your weakest cards first.
Practice exams & timed sits

Open a subject from the sidebar, go to its Exams tab and pick the topics or knowledge points you want, and the builder assembles a practice exam from past-exam and generated questions. You can save practice exams and sit them whenever you're ready.

A timed sit mirrors real exam conditions: reading time first (no answering), then writing time with a countdown, and the app's sidebar and header drop away so nothing else is on screen. When time's up, a “Now mark your sit” banner walks you through marking — nothing counts until every question is marked. It's the best way to train pacing before the real thing. You can also build a timed sit from a single knowledge point's own questions (see “What are the open-book, closed-book and timed stages?”).

Each knowledge point steps up through three stages, each with its own icon: open book (notes allowed, building familiarity), closed book (a locked book — no notes, testing what you can recall), then timed (a stopwatch — closed book against the clock). The stage chip on the practice page shows where you are, and the Open/Closed book toggle switches between the first two. “Build a timed sit” on a point's practice page assembles a short sit from that point's own questions and saves it under the subject's Exams tab, so the timed stage is one tap away rather than a separate exam build.

Some QCE papers put their stimulus in a separate booklet (Business case studies, for example). Those questions carry a Stimulus book button that opens the pages in a docked panel — one page at a time that stays put while you scroll to the answer box, or on a wide screen a side sheet beside your answer, so it reads like the physically separate book it is in the real exam.

Maths questions carry the technology condition of the paper they came from. Tech-free means that paper allows no calculator or CAS — practise it by hand. Tech-active means a CAS or graphics calculator was allowed. The badge only appears when the paper's condition could be detected confidently.

Yes. Written and short-answer boxes have an equation button that opens a visual equation editor, plus a row of common symbols, so fractions, powers, integrals and roots are typed as maths rather than approximated in plain text. Chemical equations and formulas are typeset properly too, in questions, solutions and notes.

Pick an area, or a single knowledge point, set a timer and write everything you can recall from memory. When the timer locks the dump, tick your coverage against the knowledge points to find your gaps. Optionally, ask the AI to compare your dump with the syllabus points and list what you missed — it needs at least a couple of sentences to work with, it's a second opinion rather than a mark, and it uses your AI credits.

You self-mark against the provided solutions and examiner guidance when the sit ends. Your marks feed your readiness and review schedule, so mark honestly — see “Why does honest self-marking matter?”.

Captivate Exams are full practice exams written for the current study design. Their questions are deliberately held out of your drills, the exam builder and daily sessions, so when you finally sit one it's a true exam-day rehearsal on questions you've never seen. They unlock per subject once you've done two things: attempted every key knowledge point that has exam questions attached, and held a subject average of 70% or higher. These are the same numbers shown on the subject's Exams tab, its page header, and the readiness card on its Progress tab — and when you're close, a next-step appears on Today. Once a subject's Captivate Exams unlock, they stay unlocked — sit them under timed conditions for the truest read on exam day. Sitting the full exams is part of the paid plan; free and trial accounts can see the goals and their progress toward them, but need a subscription to sit the papers.

Command terms (Queensland calls them cognitive verbs, NSW and WA key words) are the opening verbs examiners use to signal the depth of answer required — “identify” wants a name, “describe” wants features, “analyse” wants components and the relationships between them, “evaluate” wants a judgement backed by evidence. When a question carries a command term, tap the verb chip beside its mark tag for what it asks for — the meaning for your state's board and no other, paraphrased with the official document linked, plus the moves a full answer makes and how many marks that verb usually carries in your subject's past papers. The same verbs come up as cards in your daily session, frame the checklist when you self-mark, and can be tagged as “Misread the verb” when marks go missing. Read the guide for your state under “Command terms, state by state” below; if you are sitting exams in a different state from your account, the free trainer at captivateeducation.com.au/tools/command-terms covers every board. Matching your answer's depth to the command term is one of the fastest ways to stop losing marks you actually know.

The two verbs come from two different texts. The verb beside the syllabus code (e.g. “Interpret”) is the command term in the knowledge point itself — what the syllabus says you must be able to do with that content. The verb chip on a question card (e.g. “Determine”) is detected from the question's own wording — what that specific exam question asks of you. They often differ, and that's normal: a knowledge point written as “interpret data …” can be tested by a question that says “determine …”, because working a value out of the data is one way of interpreting it. Read the pair as “this point targets interpretation skills; this question tests them at the determine level.” The question's verb is the one that matters when you answer and self-mark — tap it for what the board expects. Some syllabus points are noun phrases with no command verb at all; lists of knowledge points don't show verb chips — only question and revision views do, where the verb changes how you should answer.

Yes — many subjects are better practised on paper. During a sit you can scan the QR code with your phone to photograph your handwritten working and attach it to the question, then self-mark as usual.
School assessment tasks (SACs, IAs)

Revising for a task your school sets, not just the external exam.

Yes. Open the subject, go to its School tasks tab and add the task: a name, the date, the areas your teacher named, the conditions (open or closed book, tech-free or tech-active, how long) and a quick shaky / getting there / confident rating for each area. In Victoria that's a SAC, in Queensland an internal assessment (IA1, IA2, IA3), elsewhere an assessment task — the words change with your state, the feature doesn't. From then on the task has its own plan page: a five-minute quick check, three things to do today, a status for every point in scope, a practice version to sit, and a notebook of what you got wrong. Your revision aims at that date instead of the exam, and the countdown chip on Today names the task while it's the nearer date. The task syncs across your devices. Read the full walkthrough: “Preparing for a school assessment task, not just the exam” under Step-by-step guides.

Because your school writes its own task, and no past external-exam paper previews it. Task revision runs from revision packs instead — notes, diagrams, cards and quiz items written for each knowledge point from the syllabus and reviewed before they're published. Past papers stay where they belong: exam revision. Even the practice version of your task is assembled from pack questions, never past papers.

One pack per knowledge point, where one has been published. A note keyed to the command verb — what the verb wants, the content, what to watch for — with a cue question beside each section so you can try to answer before you read, and Got it / Partly / Missed chips to rate yourself. Some packs add a spot-the-error card, a stepped worked example and retrieve-first cards. Then a diagram to redraw from memory (labels replaced by numbers, a word bank of the labels, and a hint ladder that reveals one label at a time), flashcards, and a short quiz marked one line per mark. Packs are published point by point, so a plan row may say “no pack yet”. Until then you can still ask the tutor, use your own cards and do a brain dump on the point. Note reads and redraws are remembered on the device you did them on; quiz attempts and card reviews follow you everywhere.

They're the five statuses a knowledge point can hold on a task plan, each earned by evidence rather than by a single right answer. Not assessed — no evidence yet; reading alone does not count. Emerging — you have met it: a quiz go, a redraw or a few cards. Developing — you succeed on familiar questions with some support. Secure — independent, closed-book, on more than one day. Transfer-ready — you applied it to an unfamiliar, higher-order question and it stuck. Tap a status to see the evidence behind it and what would move it up. The plan also shows how mastery moved since last week. The same ladder colours the rows on the subject's Topics tab.

A five-minute diagnostic right after you add a task: one or two low-rung pack questions from each area in scope, answered on the ordinary quiz page so they count as real evidence. When every item is marked, the card sets the result beside the shaky / getting there / confident rating you gave and offers to use it instead — so the plan starts from what you can actually do, not what you guessed.

The task page picks three numbered actions for the day — read this note, redraw that diagram, take this closed-book quiz — and you tick them off as you go. Ticks stay until the date rolls over, so coming back later in the day doesn't reset them. In the final days before the task the card changes mode: “Consolidate — nothing new” (retry your misses, clear due cards, redraw what you've seen) and, the night before, “One warm-up, then stop”. When the task is within two weeks, the same three actions appear on Today above your daily session as “Task prep first”. It's one plan in two places: a tick on either shows on both.

Two ways, both on the task page. “Sit a practice version” is free: it assembles a timed sit in the shape of your task from the pack quiz items in scope — a data test gets data-reading items, an extended response gets one substantial prompt per point — and applies the task's timing. Or ask AI to generate a practice assessment with solutions and a marking guide; that uses AI credits (the cost is shown before you confirm), is written from your syllabus and the pack notes, never past papers, and only you can see it. You may add what your teacher gave you to prepare with — a task sheet, criteria, class notes — pasted or photographed; it shapes the questions once and isn't stored.

Every pack question you last got wrong for the task, one line each under its knowledge point, with the reason pattern behind your misses. Retry a single item from its line, or “Retry all, closed book” to queue every miss and work through them one save at a time. Misses also come back on their own schedule for relearning.
Calendar & planning

Set an exam date on a subject's Progress tab and the app builds a week-by-week plan to it. Every key knowledge point is costed by how far it is from exam-ready — your mastery estimate plus the open-book → closed-book → timed ladder — the most at-risk work is scheduled first, spaced reviews are projected so nothing fades before exam day, and the final week is kept for reviews and timed practice. It rebuilds itself as you improve; there's nothing to maintain. The plan turns into a “~N min/day to be ready” figure. You'll see it on the Progress tab's plan card (this week's points, then the full plan by week) and beside the goal ring on Today as “Plan needs ~N min/day”. The Calendar shows the same dates with the next deadline first, plus any sessions you've planned yourself.

The nearest deadline first. A “Next up” card names it — an exam or a school task — with its countdown, one action to prepare for it, and the sessions you've planned between now and then. Missed sessions sit underneath so you can tick them off or move them. Below that, the month: exam and task dates, the sessions you've planned, and dots for the practice you actually did, colour-coded by subject. Exam dates come from each subject's Progress tab and task dates from its School tasks tab — the Calendar reads them, it doesn't own them.

Press “Plan a session” on the Calendar (or the calendar-plus button on a day) and pick the subject, an optional topic, the day and how long. Planned sessions show on the month and on the Next up card — three rows, then a count. Tick a session done, move it, or delete it from its row. Study that subject on that day and the session is ticked for you. Sessions are what you intend to do; the dots are what you did. Planned sessions are kept on the device you planned them on. Recorded practice and study minutes sync across devices.

On a phone a seven-column grid is too small to read, so the month becomes a dated list: today onward first, with past days folded under “What you did”. Tap a day and its detail expands right under the row, where your thumb is.

The app times the study you actually do — practice, sits, the daily loop, flashcards — while the tab is active, and pauses when you leave. That time fills the daily-goal ring on Today and the week's activity on the Calendar, and it syncs across your devices.
Subjects & states

All Australian states and territories will be supported. Queensland (QCE) is rolling out first, followed by the others in sequence. Until your state is fully live, you'll still see VCE-aligned baseline content so you can start practising right away.

Yes — there's no lock-in. Open Subjects → Manage subjects to drop a subject or add another whenever you like; you pay for the subjects you hold, and your monthly price updates straight away (pro-rated by Stripe, so a mid-month change is charged or credited for the days remaining). A subscription always covers at least one subject, so to stop paying altogether, cancel from Manage billing on your Account page. Your progress in a dropped subject is kept — add it back later and everything is still there.

Senior subjects run in two bands: Units 1 and 2 (usually Year 11) and Units 3 and 4 (usually Year 12, the ones with the external exam). Manage subjects lists each subject once per band, so “Biology Unit 1/2” and “Biology Unit 3/4” are separate choices with their own syllabus points, questions and cards. Pick the band you're actually studying this year.

The sidebar is short on purpose: Today, Calendar, Subjects, then each of your subjects by name, and Account. Everything about a subject lives on that subject's page, across six tabs — Topics (the syllabus as units, areas and points, with a Guide pill where a reviewed note exists), Exams (past papers, the practice-exam builder, Captivate Exams and any timed sits you've built), Flashcards, Progress (readiness, the plan, analytics, exam date), Notes (what you've saved in that subject) and School tasks (your SACs, IAs and assessment tasks). Cross-subject pages — the daily loop, brain dump, My notes, flashcards due — open from cards on Today and from those tabs.
Pricing & billing

Premium is $7 per subject per month, automatically capped at $17.99/month when you have 3–6 subjects, then +$7 per subject beyond 6. All prices AUD. You always pay the cheaper of per-subject vs the cap — most students with 5–6 subjects pay $17.99.

Full access to past exams and premium content for your chosen subjects, AI-generated questions, feedback and summaries, the syllabus-grounded tutor, revision packs and plans for your school assessment tasks (SACs, IAs), and advanced analytics. All access requires an active subscription or a live free trial.

3 days of full Premium access to your chosen subjects, no card required. Nothing is charged automatically when it ends — if you don't subscribe, your full access ends and you can subscribe any time to pick up where you left off.

Account → Manage subscription opens the secure Stripe billing portal, where you can update payment details or cancel. Cancelling stops billing at the end of the current period, and you keep Premium access until then.

The marginal price: while you're inside the 3–6 subject cap it costs $0 extra (you're already at $17.99), otherwise $7/month, prorated by Stripe from the day you add it.
AI features & credits

Generating questions, feedback and flashcards with AI has a real compute cost, so your subscription includes a monthly credit allowance sized to your subjects: 150 credits for one subject, 300 for two, 500 for 3–6, then +150 for each subject beyond 6 — resetting on the 1st of each month. A daily usage cap keeps the service fair for everyone. You can also buy credit packs any time (they last 3 years). See your balance in the sidebar, on the Today page, or on the Account page.

Yes. The Ask the tutor panel sits on your subject's page, on its syllabus guides, on each key knowledge point while you drill it, on a school task's plan and its pack notes, and inside the daily loop. It only answers from your subject's syllabus: every answer names the key knowledge point it used, and tapping that chip opens the point. Ask about something outside the syllabus and it says so instead of answering, pointing you at the nearest points it does cover. If it can't check its own answer against the point it cited, it tells you rather than guessing. While you're on a question it switches to hint mode and won't give you that question's answer. Answers use your plan's AI credits, and like any AI they can be wrong, so check important points against your official course materials.

Tap “Save to my notes” under any answer. The note keeps a link back to the syllabus point the answer was grounded in, so it's a way back into revision rather than a dead end. Each subject has a Notes tab showing that subject's notes with a search box, and the Notes link on Today shows every note across your subjects, grouped by subject. From any saved note you can open its syllabus point, edit it, copy it, delete it, or turn it into practice questions (see “Can I turn my own notes into practice questions?”).

Yes. Press “Turn into questions” on any saved note, or “Turn my notes into questions” on My notes, and paste, pick or photograph the notes you want to be questioned on. Choose how many questions (3–10) and a style — quick recall or exam-style — and AI writes them with model answers. Each answer stays hidden until you've had a go, and you can save the whole set back to your notes. The questions come from your notes only, never from past papers, and only you can see them. This one feature runs on an OpenAI model rather than Gemini; nothing you send is stored by the gateway or used for training. Like any AI it can be wrong, so check anything that looks off against your syllabus, and don't paste personal details.

In Write mode you type the answer before revealing it. An exact match is marked for you, free. When your wording differs, you can mark yourself with “I was right”, or switch on the AI check in the session and have your typed answer judged against the card's back. The switch is off until you turn it on, and each AI check uses one credit.

For the QCE English and EAL External Assessment you can sit a past essay task, write in the app or photograph your handwritten pages (you check the transcript before anything is marked), then reveal the official QCAA marking guide and pick a band for every criterion yourself. Once every criterion is marked, you can compare with an AI examiner. It suggests its own band and a short comment per criterion, shows where it differs from you, and lists improvements, sometimes drawing on that year's QCAA subject report. Nothing is applied automatically — you adopt a band only if you agree, and you can record that a teacher reviewed the mark. Each AI comparison uses credits from your monthly allowance (see “How do AI credits work?”).

Yes. AI-generated questions, feedback and summaries can contain errors, so always check important points against your official study design and course materials. See our AI Use & Accuracy notice at /legal/ai-disclaimer for the full picture.

Either you've used this month's included credits (they reset on the 1st) or you've hit the daily usage cap (more of your credits unlock tomorrow). You can buy a one-off credit pack on the Account page — purchased credits last 3 years and are used after your included ones. Everything already generated stays available regardless.
Account & data

With your email and password. If you don't have an account yet, you can create one on the sign-in page. If you've set up two-factor protection, you'll be asked for your passkey or authenticator code as well (see “How do I add a passkey or two-factor code?”).

Account → Two-factor authentication. Add a passkey (Windows Hello, Touch ID, a security key — works on a school laptop with no phone) or scan a QR code into an authenticator app for six-digit codes. It's optional, and once a factor is set up you'll be asked for it at every sign-in. There are no recovery codes, so add a second factor as a backup — if you lose your only one, email us from the address on your account.

Yes. The sun/moon toggle in the sidebar (and in the header on the public pages) switches between the light palette and the dark “electric ink” one. Your choice is remembered on that device.

Only to work out whether a parent or guardian needs to consent to your account. Students aged 15 and over manage their own accounts; if you're under 15, we ask for a parent or guardian email at signup so they can confirm their consent — see the next question.

Parents and guardians can ask to access or correct a student's information, or ask how it's handled, using the request form at /guardian/request — no login needed. Requests from a verified guardian email (the address that confirmed consent) are treated as already verified; requests from other addresses may need extra verification. You can also email contact@captivateexamhub.com.au. See /legal/minors for details.

Account emails (verification, password resets, billing receipts) always come through — they're part of running your account. Study emails — a weekly progress summary and revision reminders — are optional and off by default. You choose at signup and can change your mind any time in your Account settings; every study email also carries its own unsubscribe link.

Use the “Forgot password?” link on the sign-in page. We'll email you a secure link to set a new one.

Your account details, subject selections and study activity (attempts, ratings, progress) — that's what powers your schedule and readiness. For the full picture, including how we handle students under 18, see our Privacy Policy at /legal/privacy and /legal/minors.

Email contact@captivateexamhub.com.au from the address on your account and ask us to delete it. We'll confirm and remove your account and study data. If you have an active subscription, cancel it first via Account → Manage subscription.

Fastest: the “Send feedback” button (on this page when signed in, or under Account → Help & support) — it's tracked in-app and we reply right there. Otherwise email contact@captivateexamhub.com.au; include a screenshot and the page URL so we can help faster.

Still stuck?

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