What "micro" means (and why lessons are short)

"Micro" means one short recording at a time. Listen, write what you hear and check which words you missed. Replay the recording as often as you need. Start with one lesson and choose a practice plan that fits the time you have.

What one lesson asks of you

1. Press Play and listen to one clip, the whole way through.
2. Type what you heard and choose Check my answer. The words you missed are marked immediately, while the sound is still in your head.
3. Replay, fix the marked words, and check again. Then read the transcript and move to the next clip.

Use the feedback to decide which words to listen for on your next replay. For help with the meaning, open Learn. It explains the topic in short steps, with examples and one check in each step. You can return to it whenever you need an explanation.

Make it fit your day

Choose Account in the header, then Settings, and set Daily practice time to 5, 10 or 15 minutes a day. Today's practice uses that choice to suggest a plan. For example, Your 10-minute plan suggests about six minutes for Listen to one lesson, two for Recall a few phrases and two for Try a difficult phrase again.

These are suggested time allocations; work at your own pace. If you've left a lesson unfinished, choose Continue your lesson to return to it.

Return to words you missed

Use these two pages to decide what to practice again:

• Mistake notebook keeps your latest answer for every clip you scored below 100%, with what you typed and the share of words you matched. Open an entry and try listening for the words you missed. See The Mistakes page.
• Review brings back the phrases you've saved on a schedule. Rate each one Again, Hard, Good or Easy; Again brings it back in ten minutes, the others schedule a later day. See The review queue.

Your Weekly report shows the result over seven days: lessons completed, days with lesson attempts, phrases reviewed and your Average completed score next to the previous week's. See Your weekly report.

A realistic expectation

Choose a daily plan you have time for. You can start with five minutes and use a longer plan when it suits you. Return to difficult recordings on another day and try them again. If you miss a day, open Today's practice and start with the first step.

If a lesson feels too fast, choose an easier level under Lessons in the header, or open Find your starting point on that page (it's under More tools and settings once you're signed in), which plays up to three short samples and suggests a level. Getting most of a clip right is the point; struggling through every word of a hard one isn't.