---
title: Study with a notebook
description: Make a study notebook from your course files, then read each chapter's guide, review its cards every day, take practice exams that mark your work, track your progress and share the notebook.
new_in: "3.19"
---

A **notebook** is one course in Learn, made from your course files. Each
chapter gets a guide to read, cards to review and practice exams to take, and
every one of them cites the pages it comes from. This page covers making a
notebook, studying a chapter and sharing a notebook with your workspace.

**Before you start:** have your course files ready: PDFs, slides, notes.
See [Files you can upload](../workspace/files.md).

## Make a notebook

1. Open **Learn** and choose **New notebook**.
2. Fill in **Name**, and optionally **Subject** and **Level** (for example
   *bac*, *master* or *work*). The level sets how the guide and the tutor
   explain things.
3. Under **Course files**, pick files from your Library, or upload new ones
   (or drop them on the dialog). Files you add here are kept in your Library,
   so other notebooks and Ask can use them too.
4. Choose **Make the notebook**.

Ysra reads the files and finds the course's chapters. You can make a notebook
without files and add them later with **Add files** or **Change files**.

## Study a chapter

Open the notebook and pick a chapter. The notebook has a tab for each kind
of study material; hover a button to see roughly what it costs.

| Tab | Button | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| **Guide** | **Write guide** | The chapter's key points and definitions, each cited to its page. **Rewrite guide** makes a new one. |
| **Cards** | **Make cards** | Question-and-answer cards for the chapter, added to your daily review. |
| **Practice** | **Practice exam** | A practice exam on the chapter, with questions in the style of the course. |
| **Progress** | — | Where you stand on each chapter. See [Track your progress](#track-your-progress). |

While Ysra writes, you can keep reading: the chapter updates when it's ready.

## Review your cards

Cards come back on a schedule: a card you remember well returns later, a card
you miss returns soon. **Today's review** on the Learn page shows how many
cards are due across your notebooks; choose **Review now** to start.

1. Read the question and recall the answer.
2. Show the answer: press ++space++, or tap the card.
3. Rate how well you recalled it.

| Rating | Key | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| **Again** | ++1++ | You didn't remember it. |
| **Hard** | ++2++ | You remembered it with effort. |
| **Good** | ++3++ | You remembered it. |
| **Easy** | ++4++ | You knew it at once. |

On a phone or a touch screen, swipe left for **Again** and right for **Good**.

!!! tip "Reviewing is free"
    Reviewing cards uses no credits. In the notebook you can also turn on a
    reminder every day at the hour you choose, by email too; the reminder is
    free as well.

## Take a practice exam

1. Open a practice exam from the chapter.
2. Write your answer under **Your answer, step by step**. For maths or a
   diagram, use **Add a photo of your work** instead of typing it.
3. Choose **Mark my answer**. Marking takes about 10 to 30 seconds.

Ysra marks your answer against the course and shows:

- your score for the question;
- **What a full answer covers**, so you can see what was missing;
- **Look again at**, the pages of your course to reread.

If part of a photo can't be read, Ysra says so: try a clearer photo, or type
that part.

## Ask the tutor

Choose **Ask the tutor** in a notebook to open a tutor chat: a chat linked to
the notebook that guides you through it with hints, using the notebook's
files. Your earlier tutor chats are listed under **Your tutor chats**. Tutor
chats have [Learn mode](topics.md#learn-mode-in-ask) on.

## Track your progress

The notebook's **Progress** tab shows, for each chapter, how many cards you
know, your best practice score, and where you stand:

| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| **Not started** | You haven't studied this chapter yet. |
| **Seen** | You've read or reviewed it. |
| **Practised** | You've practised it. |
| **Solid** | You know it well. |

## Share a notebook

The person who made a notebook can share it with everyone in the workspace.

1. Open the notebook.
2. Tick **Share with this workspace**.
3. Optionally tick **Lock hints first for them**. The people you share with
   then get hints before answers in this notebook, and can't turn that off.
   You keep full control of your own chats.

People you share a notebook with study it with their own cards, review and
progress. If someone leaves the workspace, they lose access to its
notebooks.

## If it doesn't work

| What you see | What to do |
|---|---|
| “No chapters found in these files yet.” | Check that the files have text Ysra can read, or add more course files. |
| “Nothing to review today.” | You're up to date. Come back tomorrow, or make **Cards** for another chapter. |
| “Couldn’t mark this answer. Try again.” | Choose **Mark my answer** again. |

## Related

- [Learn](index.md) — what Learn is and what it costs.
- [Learn a topic](topics.md) — learn something new without course files.
- [Files you can upload](../workspace/files.md) — the file types and sizes Ysra reads.