GA — the genetic algorithm
Planning months of study
by hand is where it falls apart.
GA stands for genetic algorithm — the part of this product that decides which topic you study on which day, from today to your exam. This page is about why that job is harder than it looks, and how it gets done.
Your free hours never line up with the days you meant to study.
You re-read the subject you're already good at, because it feels productive.
The one you're worst at keeps sliding to next week.
By the time the exam is close, half the syllabus has had no time at all.
What if something drafted 50 versions of your whole plan and handed you the best one?
In plain terms
That's all this does.
- 1
It drafts 50 rough plans at once — every day up to your exam — all different.
- 2
It scores every one of them against what a good plan looks like.
- 3
It throws out the weak ones and combines the strong ones.
- 4
It does that 100 times, and keeps the best plan that survives.
- 5
It runs once, when you start. After that the plan is yours to change; nothing reshuffles it.
Watch it happen
One week of a plan, sorting itself out.
Press Run, or Step through a round at a time. This is the planner's own code running in your browser: each draft is an order of topics, laid onto the learner's free days — long topics cut into parts — and scored on the six goals.
Press Run it. The planner's own code runs in your browser: 50 draft orders of topics, each laid onto this learner's free days, scored and bred round after round.
Best draft
—Scored by the same function that makes every learner's plan.
Six goals, best draft
The planner and its scoring are the real ones; the learner is an example — Math, Language Arts and Science, made-up test scores, one week of free time (a real plan covers every day to the exam). Topics are the real curriculum, with each topic's videos and articles taken at their average length.
What counts as good
Six goals, pulling against each other.
This is why one plain rule can't do the job. Spend every hour on your weakest subject and you stop rotating; rotate perfectly and you neglect the weak spot; do both and you may book a day you're not free. Each draft is scored on all six at once, and the weights decide which compromise wins.
Covers your weak spots
Anything under 60 out of 100
Weighted highest because a plan that skips a whole topic can't be fixed by doing the others well.
Most time where you're weakest
The lower the score, the more time
Exam time is finite, so hours are worth more spent on a topic you're failing than one you've already passed.
Fits your free hours
Never books a day you're busy
A session booked when you're at work is a session that doesn't happen — an unrealistic plan scores nothing in practice.
Basics before the hard stuff
Expressions before quadratics
Studying a topic before its groundwork wastes the session, so order carries the same weight as fitting your calendar.
Rotates your subjects
Not one subject all week
Mixing subjects across a week is harder in the moment but retains better than blocking one subject solid.
Spreads the hard days out
No two heavy days in a row
Lowest weight — it protects against burnout, but it matters less than studying the right things in the right order.
Is the algorithm worth it
The same week, two ways.
The plan a simple rule gives — weakest topics first, basics before — next to the one the algorithm settles on. Same learner, same week, same scoring.