Eleven short skills. Each one teaches you something you'll need before we start Unit 1, Situation 1 in class. Do them in any order within each lane — the lanes themselves go from most fundamental to most advanced.
The XP and streak system isn't here for its own sake. Each mechanic is designed to reinforce a specific learning principle the preface refers to: retrieval before exposure, spaced practice, and consolidation through retakes. Here's what each one is doing.
XP for every attempt — including wrong ones
You earn +10 XP per item, whether you get it right or wrong. This is deliberate. The pretesting research (Pan & Chua, NUS 2026) shows that the act of attempting an answer — even an unsuccessful one — strengthens later memory. Rewarding correctness only would push you toward avoiding hard items; rewarding the attempt encourages you to engage with everything, which is what produces the memory benefit.
+50 XP for completing a skill
A small bonus for finishing all items in a skill. The structure of finishing matters: it's the moment your brain commits the corrective feedback, after several attempts, into a more durable form.
+20 XP per improvement point on retake
This is the most important XP source for your learning. When you retake a skill and beat your previous best, you earn extra XP per point improved. Retaking a skill spaces out your encounters with the material — and spaced retrieval is one of the best-evidenced memory consolidation strategies we have. The improvement bonus is the system's way of saying "this is the work that counts."
Streak multiplier — for showing up regularly
Submit at least one item on consecutive days to build a streak. Your daily XP is multiplied:
×1.0×1.1×1.25×1.5×2.0Daily contact, even brief, is more effective than long sessions clustered together. The multiplier rewards the rhythm, not the volume.
Freeze tokens — for the days life happens
Earn ❄️ one freeze token at every 7-day milestone (max 3 stockpiled). If you miss a single day, a freeze is automatically used to keep your streak alive. The freeze exists because the goal is sustained engagement over six weeks, not punishment for missing a day. Streak anxiety undermines the very thing the streak is designed to encourage.
The leaderboard (coming later in the semester)
Will rank by long-term engagement and retake-improvement, not first-try perfection. The students who do best aren't the ones who got everything right immediately — they're the ones who kept coming back and improving. That's the trajectory this system is built to reward.
In short: XP rewards attempts, streaks reward spacing, and improvement bonuses reward consolidation. Each one is a piece of the cognitive science the preface points to.
7 days, plus matin / après-midi / soir / nuit.
0812 colour words. Match the swatch to the name.
09Six conjugated forms — for saying anyone's name.
10Saying hello, asking and answering "what's your name?". The first real conversation.