Cognitive - Help & Docs

🚀 Getting Started

Cognitive helps students study, earn progress, and build a Study City. The main idea is simple: plan your revision, focus for a session, practise what you know, then use your rewards to grow your city.

Start on the Dashboard to see your progress and choose a tool.
Use the Study Timer when you want a focused study session.
Build your Study City as a reward for consistent learning.
Build a Research Centre in Study City to unlock quizzes.

Tip: if you are new, try a short timer session first, then visit Study City to see your progress turn into rewards.

🏠 Dashboard

The Dashboard is your home base. It shows your recent study progress, streak information, Study City summary, and quick links to the main tools.

Use it when you are not sure what to do next. You can jump into the timer, planner, quiz, flashcards, mind map, or Study City from one place.

🏛️ Study City

Study City is the reward and progression area of Cognitive. As you study and practise, you earn coins and XP. You can spend coins on buildings and upgrades to make your city grow.

The Research Centre is especially important because it unlocks quizzes. If quizzes are locked, go to Study City and check whether you have built the Research Centre.

📚 Quiz

Quizzes help you practise exam-style questions. They are useful for checking what you remember and spotting topics that need more revision.

Choose your subject and exam board in Settings.
Free accounts can practise with curated questions.
Premium users can use AI question generation for more practice.
If an answer seems wrong, report it with the question text and what you think the answer should be.

⏱️ Study Timer

The Study Timer helps you track focused work. Pick a realistic time, remove distractions, and study until the timer ends.

Short, honest sessions are better than long sessions where you lose focus. Timer activity can help build your overall progress and rewards.

📅 Planner

The Planner helps organise revision across days and subjects. Use it to decide what you will study, when you will study it, and what needs attention next.

A good plan is small and clear: one or two focused tasks per session is often enough.

🃏 Flashcards

Flashcards help practise quick recall. Put a question or prompt on one side and the answer on the other. They work best for definitions, formulas, dates, vocabulary, and key facts.

Try saying the answer before you reveal it. If you miss it, revisit that card later.

🧠 Mind Map

Mind Map helps organise ideas visually. Start with a central topic, then add branches for subtopics, examples, causes, effects, or evidence.

This is helpful before writing essays, revising a big topic, or seeing how different ideas connect.

⚙️ Settings

Settings controls your Cognitive preferences. Most importantly, it sets the quiz subject and exam board, so quiz practice matches what you are studying.

Settings also includes support links, bug reporting, appearance options such as dark mode, account controls, and build version information.

🐛 Reporting Bugs

If something does not work, use the internal bug reporting page. A helpful report should include:

What happenedDescribe the issue clearly, including any message you saw.

What you expectedExplain what should have happened instead.

Page and severityTell us which page you were on and how serious the problem is.

Can it be recreated?List the steps you took so the team can try the same thing.

For quiz answer issues, include the exact question, the shown answer, and why you think it is incorrect.

🛠️ Troubleshooting

I cannot access quizzesQuizzes unlock after you build the Research Centre in Study City. Also check that you are logged in or using guest mode.

My coins look wrongRefresh the page first. If they still look wrong, report a bug and include what you expected your coin total to be.

My city did not saveCheck your connection, refresh once, and avoid closing the tab immediately after placing buildings. Report the page and steps if it repeats.

The app feels slowClose unused tabs, refresh the page, and try again. Study City can be heavier than text pages on older devices.

The screen went blankRefresh the page. If it happens again, report the exact page and what you clicked just before it happened.

A question answer seems wrongUse bug reporting and include the question, answer shown, expected answer, subject, and exam board.

👨‍👩‍👧 Parents & Teachers

Cognitive is designed to make study routines easier to understand and more motivating. The app combines planning, focused study, recall practice, and a reward city so students can see progress over time.

Encourage students to use it as a support tool, not as a replacement for lessons, feedback, sleep, or breaks. Small consistent sessions are usually better than last-minute cramming.

🔒 Privacy and Safety

Use a password you do not share with other people. Do not put private information into flashcards, mind maps, planner notes, or bug reports unless it is needed for support.

Guest mode is useful for trying the app, but guest progress may be less permanent than a normal account. For long-term study progress, use a registered account.

📖 Glossary

Coins: In-app rewards you can spend on Study City buildings and upgrades.
XP: Experience points that show learning progress and growth over time.
Study City: The reward area where your study progress becomes a growing city.
Research Centre: A Study City building that unlocks quiz practice.
Dashboard: The home page where you can see progress and jump into tools.
Build ID: A version label that helps the team know which app build you are using.
Guest mode: A way to try Cognitive without a full account. It is best for exploring, not long-term progress.

Free, Premium and school features

Free: 15 generic questions per subject, fixed Meadow Study City terrain, Town Hall up to level 2, up to 12 citizens, custom flashcards and top-level analytics.

Premium Individual (£5/month): exam-board-specific quizzes, larger premium question bank, prebuilt flashcards, bigger Study City progression, terrain choice and detailed subject/topic/exam-board analytics.

Schools: for licensing, onboarding and pricing, contact us. School plans include scoped users, classes and protected analytics.

Study City tips

The Buildings menu is open by default. Use Move Road to select an existing road or bridge, then click a valid empty tile; moving roads is free and persists on save.

Question bank admin commands

python scripts/validate_curated_questions.py validates data/curated_questions.json and prints counts.
python scripts/generate_curated_questions.py --all --count-per-topic 100 generates missing curated questions using API keys when available.
python scripts/rebuild_question_bank.py safely rebuilds curated rows in SQLite while preserving users, cities, attempts and custom flashcards.

Bug reports and feedback

Use Settings to rate the app or Report Bug to send structured reports. Admin can review ratings, bug counts, school usage and question-bank coverage.