Can I Practise Just One Format? The Earliest of Three Due Dates Wins, and the Ones You Skip Never Move
Yes, VocaX will not stop you — you can pick a single practice format and only ever do dictation. But there is a consequence you should know first. A word carries three independent due lines, and the next review takes the earliest of the three. Push the dictation clock forward and the other two stay where they were, so the word's due date keeps being dragged back by them. It will not go away because your dictation is good. This article covers how the three lines hold each other back, why there is no switch for "schedule on one format only", and what you are actually choosing when time only allows one. If you want a tool where one format is the whole job, this is not it.
1. The definition: three formats are not three flavours, they are three clocks
VocaX has three practice formats. They are not the same thing wrapped three ways; they ask you to do three different things.
| Format | What you actually do | Produce, or recognise |
|---|---|---|
| Translation | See the word, tap the right meaning out of four | Recognise |
| Dictation | Hear it, type the letters out | Produce |
| Speaking | Read it aloud; on-device transcription tells you what it heard | Produce |
There is also a consolidation entry point: you see the word, a short gloss and its current resilience, and you tap "secure" or "uncertain". That is not a fourth format. It is your own judgement call, and it does not advance any of the clocks. That detail bites later on.
Each clock tracks two things: when this format was last practised, and how long it should be before you see it again. Those two decide the due date. A word has three due dates, and the next review takes the earliest.
A word carries three independent due lines. The next review takes the earliest of the three — so what decides when it comes back is always the shortest plank.
Why they are modelled separately rather than merged is set out in One Word, Three Due Dates.
2. What happens if you only do one: the other two clocks never move
Each of the three formats keeps its own pace. Get a word solid in one of them and only that one moves forward — the other two do not get better along with it.
The most common case: after a word's first practice, all three clocks come due at roughly the same time, the next day. The next day you do dictation only, and you get it right. The dictation clock is pushed forward and its next due date moves back. So far so good.
The problem is the other two. Translation and speaking still show their last practice as the first day, because that session never touched them. Their due time is still the next day, which means that once that moment has passed, they are already overdue.
So on the third day the word is in your queue again. It is not dictation that put it there — that clock is sitting comfortably further out. It is translation and speaking, two clocks nobody has touched since the first day. You do dictation again, and again only dictation moves. The loop continues.
This is not a penalty and it is not extra practice for not having done enough. It is what "take the earliest" means: the line you push keeps moving away, the two you skip stay at the start, and the queue looks at the shortest one.
However good your dictation gets, the translation and speaking clocks do not move a single notch because of it. They only move when they are actually practised.
How the schedule works — what happens after a correct answer, what happens after a miss — is in How Review Timing Is Calculated.
3. What we cannot do about it
- There is no "schedule on one format only" switch. Three formats, tracked separately, earliest wins. You can select a single format within a session, but you cannot make the scheduler accept "I have given up on this word's translation".
- Being strong in one format will not make you see it less. Earliest wins, so the shortest plank has the only vote. A long plank has no say at all.
- "Secure" does not make a word leave sooner. That judgement is recorded at the presentation layer, separate from the scheduler: it changes none of the three tracks' progress, and no due date.
- A miss never brings a word back instantly. No amount of answering wrong buys you an immediate re-ask, and neither does answering wrong repeatedly. Trying to shove a word back in front of you by failing it on purpose is a dead end.
- The scheduler does not decide what you study today. Due only answers "does this need reviewing". How many you get and which batch they come from is another layer entirely.
One more thing that is often bundled in but has nothing to do with it: cards handled in a day is not words learned in a day. Recognising, catching by ear and producing are three different jobs — see Active Recall vs Recognition.
4. Why there is no switch
The obvious objection: if you let me do dictation only, let me switch the other two lines off so they stop dragging words back.
We do not, and the reason is concrete. Such a switch would let you park two lines permanently at the starting point. Under "earliest wins", a line parked at the start pins that word's due date to right after the one practice you did — it comes back more often than it does now, not less. The switch would not solve the problem; it would change it from "I know I have a weak side" into "I switched it off and it is still here".
The second reason is that we genuinely believe these three do not stand in for one another. Recognising a word, catching it by ear and producing it are three abilities you can independently have or not have. Collapsing them into one number assumes that learning one means learning all three — and that assumption is exactly where the "four options made me feel I knew it" illusion comes from.
We accept the cost: someone working specifically on listening will find words coming back for reasons that have nothing to do with listening. We did not silence that signal to make practice feel smoother.
A switch that hides your weak side is easier today and leaves that plank parked at the starting point forever. We chose to let you see it.
5. Who this is not for
- You want one format only and you want the rest to stop appearing. There is no switch. You can pick one format in a session, but the scheduler still reads three lines.
- You want a pronunciation score. Speaking does not score your pronunciation. Transcription runs on-device through Apple's speech framework, and what it returns is how certain that transcription is, not how good your accent is. When an app tells you "your pronunciation is 87", it is worth asking what that number was measured against.
- You want to decide how much and which batch. That stays yours: seven practice sources, a daily target of 10–1000 (50 by default), and which format you drill.
- You need to cram tonight. A missed word always takes a while to come back. It is no use the night before an exam.
- You are not on iPhone. VocaX is an iOS app.
To go over the genuinely hard words separately, use Flags: words you get wrong in practice land in that list automatically, and you can run it as a practice source.
FAQ
Can I practise dictation only?
Yes, the app will not stop you and you can select dictation alone. But you only advance the dictation clock: translation and speaking keep their original practice time and progress, and a word has three due dates with the earliest one winning. So the word keeps being pulled back by the two lines you are not practising.
Does tapping "secure" make a word go away sooner?
No. Consolidation is your own judgement, recorded at the presentation layer and separate from the scheduler. It changes none of the three tracks' progress, and no due date. The only way to make a word leave is to actually practise it.
Can dictation be the only thing that drives the schedule?
No, there is no switch for that. The three formats each keep their own progress and due date, and the next review takes the earliest. Such a switch would only park the other two lines at the starting point, making the word return more often.
Does speaking score my pronunciation?
No. Transcription runs on-device through Apple's speech framework, and it reports how confident that transcription is, not a verdict on your accent. We do not score pronunciation in speaking practice.
I only have time for one format. What should I do?
Then accept that you are advancing one line: the other two will keep the word in your queue, and your progress will not speed up because you specialised. If the goal is clearing a batch of hard words, running your flagged items as a practice source is faster than repeating one format.
Axiom One LLC — VocaX. Figures current as of 15 September 2026.