Before generation
Use while planning a sequence of short practice opportunities or reviewing whether an existing calendar distributes retrieval across time. The workbench distinguishes simple repetition from a plan that includes retrieval and interleaving. It can expose a crowded gap or a readiness label that conflicts with the schedule. It does not predict long-term retention, choose content, individualize a learner interval, measure effort, or establish that a session was instructionally effective.
Worked example
Fractions appears on days 1, 3, and 7. Every gap reaches the two-day minimum, retrieval occurs, and one session is interleaved, so ready is supported. Forces has three sessions but its first gap is only one day, so review is supported. Review topic has adequate days and retrieval but no interleaving; its repeated ready label is therefore flagged.
Formula or methodology
Group rows by normalized topic, sort unique day numbers, and subtract every adjacent pair to obtain consecutive gaps. A topic is ready only when session count reaches the declared minimum, every gap reaches the minimum days, at least one row records retrieval, and at least one records interleaving. Every repeated learner or planner claim must equal that model result.
How to interpret the result
Supported means the supplied readiness label follows all four disclosed conditions. A review result points to the missing condition in the evidence table; it does not mean the topic or learner has failed. Confirm the definition of retrieval, the purpose of interleaving, spacing across weekends, prerequisite knowledge, workload, accessibility, fatigue, feedback timing, and later performance before revising instruction.
Common mistakes
Do not count rereading automatically as retrieval, treat different topics on one day as a time gap, check only the first and last date, add interleaving as an unrelated distraction, duplicate a day to inflate session count, or label a topic ready from session count alone. Inspect every adjacent gap and connect each scheduled activity to the intended learning evidence.
