How does one use rocket languages correctly?

I'm new to Rocket Languages and I'm unsure how to use it to optimize my learning. 

Should one keep repeating the Flashcards, Know It, etc. until one gets 100%, or just move on?

If I do just move on will Rocket bring these things back to my attention?

Is there a purpose to selecting Easy, Good or Hard? If so, what is it?

Thanks, Paul

Hi Paul-mB,

Welcome to Rocket Languages! 

We recommend completing one lesson a day (depending on how much time you have to learn a language). Of the seven days in the week, we recommend using six of these days for a new lesson, and then the final day as a review of content you have previously learned (of course you can scale this down to your schedule). Having a day of review is a great way to go over grammar concepts or vocabulary that you have not fully understood. 

Regardless of whether you move on past concepts you haven't learned fully, it will be bought up again in later lessons. You will also be able to review any previous lessons at any time. 

Regarding selecting “Easy," “Good" or “Hard," This is how we generally recommend using these ratings:
 
Easy: you know the phrase and get it correct without any errors,
Good: you know the phrase but might get a part of it wrong, e.g. pronunciation, an article, etc. 
Hard: you do not know the phrase at all.

Marking a phrase as “Good” or “Hard” allows you to redo the phrase at the end of the activity and excludes all the phrases you marked as “Easy.” This can be a good way to practice words or phrases you may have trouble with. 
 
We also recommend supplementing your learning with other forms of Italian media (music, tv shows, books, etc.) so that you can expose yourself to real life Spanish used in a variety of different contexts. 
 
I hope this helps!

I used Rocket to learn Italian, and I'm now on to Spanish. During the 18 months or so that I studied Italian, this was my method:

1. In the evening, listen to the audio lesson or read the language and culture lesson. Complete all the activities EXCEPT Know It. 
2. The next morning, write out the conversation or take notes on the grammar. Always listen to each word/phrase while you write it down. Then complete the Know It activity.
3. While walking my dog, I tried to think of real life conversations I could have and see if I could navigate them in Italian. If I found myself struggling with words I should already know, I would go back and review them.

This means completing one full lesson every day, or getting through the whole course in about 9 months. Then I went back through every lesson to see how well it stuck. Most of it stuck really well, but I was able to identify key concepts and vocabulary that I needed to study more. The custom flash cards help a lot.

After going through the course a second time (about 4 months, since I didn't re-listen to the audio lessons) I did it a third time, and wrote out all the dialogues and made myself a dictionary of vocab from the course. This final exercise really cemented everything I learned!

When I went to Italy at the end of that 18 months, I was able to have conversations with my hosts who spoke no english. It was hard, but we got through it. When I went back a year later, it was much easier even though I didn't do any additional studying.

For Spanish, I'm finding it MUCH harder to do one lesson a day. Level 2's audio lessons are ridiculously long and the 60+ sentences in every activity are a lot to complete in one day. I know a lot of work went into these, but going through that much at once is definitely burning me out!

Hi NicholasL23, 

We're so glad to hear that you are getting lots out of the Rocket Italian course and that it is really helping you with your Italian language skills. 

Regarding the Spanish course, thank you so much for your feedback on this. We always appreciate suggestions from our users as we are always trying to improve the course. We are aware that some of the Level 2 Spanish lessons are quite long and we do plan on reviewing these one day. For now, I would recommend taking the lesson in pieces. The program will always remember your progress and you will be able to pick up where you left off without issue the next day. 

We wish you all the best with your Spanish learning!