History of phase-6

Merely 19 years of age at the time, German college student Daniel Gorin, developed the vocabulary practice tool “ phase-6” in 2002, based on his own study needs and the observation that no matching computer application was to be found. During his high school years, he had come to value the “ 5-compartment cardboard box” with paper-based index cards. A great system in theory, the cardboard box has obvious disadvantages in real life applications which led Daniel to envision what his ideal personal vocabulary practice tool would look like.

Unaware of what the future would bring, Daniel set out to develop a tool that combined the strong scientific theory behind the index card box with modern computer technology, rendering it much more convenient and time efficient for him to lock vocabulary into long-term memory. He soon realized that he could easily increase the overall amount of content he was able to study and retain throughout the semester.

Encouraged by friends, family members, German as well as U.S. educators, Daniel started a company that defined its primary mission as becoming the global standard platform for the memorization of quality vocabulary contents. Only four years after this defining moment, phase-6 has grown to be an international company serving markets in Germany, the U.S., Switzerland, and Spain.

The secret behind phase-6´s success as a product lies in the impact of phased repetition on knowledge retention and recall. Alongside its proven effectiveness, customers all over the world have also praised phase-6´s elegant simplicity and intuitive design.
If used correctly and on a regular basis, phase-6 guarantees a long-term effect in vocabulary knowledge thus providing the basis which allows learners to fully concentrate on and efficiently process complex, higher level learning objectives.

Recommended by more than 3,200 German schools

Since its foundation in 2002, phase-6 has helped almost half a million learners with the long-term memorization of vocabulary, facts, and definitions, and it is currently being recommended by over 3,200 schools in Germany alone. Almost all major German bookstores as well as several corporate clients have discovered phase-6 and demand keeps rising. phase-6 is currently expanding to new markets and is now also available in Spain and the United States, with pilot projects running in South Africa and Australia.

Suitable for children and computer-illiterates

In order to increase customer satisfaction, phase-6 deliberately avoids complex navigation and structures: “Keeping it simple yet effective” has been our most valuable mantra. Using phase-6 is very intuitive and does not require reading any type of manual. Children as well as adults, even those with very basic computer literacy, have enthusiastically commented on phase-6´s clear layout and design.

The principle and methodology of phase-6 is fairly simple, yet unique and extremely effective: Every flashcard goes on its “own” journey to long-term memory by passing from phase-1 through to phase-6. After each repetition the amount of time that elapses until the next repetition is due increases exponentially. phase-6 automatically organizes the flashcards and quizzes the learner just before she forgets the correct answer. Once an item has reached the last phase – phase-6, the content of this flashcard will be locked into long-term memory.

Brain research and differentiated instruction

Our claim that vocabulary content will be locked into long-term memory after reaching the 6th phase of the study process is not only based on anecdotal and experiential evidence: phase-6 has drawn on conclusions from scientific studies of the German brain researcher Hermann Ebbinghaus as a foundation for the program´s methodology and system of repetition. His studies have since been backed by numerous scholars.

As a result, phase-6 is a perfect tool to support differentiated instruction because the program adapts to students´ individual strengths and weaknesses. Every vocabulary item will get the right amount of exposure: Easier items will move through the phases towards phase-6 relatively quickly, while items that are more difficult for the learner recycle and go back to the first phase more frequently. Thus, students even save time since their study automatically focuses on those items requiring more repetition.

Continuous improvements and product development

Since 2002, phase-6 has gone through multiple stages of development. It has been and will remain our explicit goal to serve our customers as best we can and to evaluate and integrate constructive consumer feedback. Without the valuable insights and ideas of our several hundred thousand users, phase-6 would not be effective tool it is today. Thank you for any feedback you may have already provided or will give us in the future. Your comments are helping us making phase-6 even better!

We are continuously working on future generations of phase-6. The current downloadable version features:

- Integrated spell check

- Unicode (all languages possible, e.g. Chinese, Arabic, Russian, Greek, Hebrew etc.)

- Integration of multimedia files (audio, picture, video)