Why students forget new words within a week — and how to fix it

You gave a student fifteen new words at the end of a lesson. A week later you check — they confidently remember three. That's not laziness or a bad memory: a word shown once is forgotten by the nature of memory itself, not because anyone slacked off.

The fix isn't "hand out more lists" — it's showing each word again right when it's about to slip away. That's spaced repetition, and it's exactly how Lektobox's dictionary works.

Why seeing a word once doesn't work

The brain conserves resources: anything that isn't reinforced gets treated as unnecessary and dropped first. The problem with a word list in a notebook or a chat isn't that it's a bad idea — it's that afterward, nobody (not you, not the student) remembers which word needs reviewing, or when. Reviews end up happening at random — or not at all.

Its own schedule every word gets its own review interval — harder words come back more often

3 ways to add words: one by one, as a pasted list for several students at once, or imported from a flashcard game

The student themselves reviews in their own portal — you don't have to remind or check manually every time

A word list vs. a dictionary with spaced repetition

Criterion	A list in a notebook or chat	A dictionary with spaced repetition
Who reminds them to review	No one — you rely on the student's memory	The system shows the word at the right moment on its own
Can you see what's already learned	No, every word looks the same	Each word has its own mastery level
How long setup takes	Rewrite or print the list by hand	Paste a list — seconds, even for several students at once
What happens if a student forgets old words	Start over, wasting time re-searching	The word simply re-enters the review queue
Where review happens	Only during the lesson, if there's time	The student reviews on their own, at home, whenever suits them

What the teacher actually sees

The dictionary table shows the word, its translation, who added it ("Student" or "Teacher"), and what review level it's currently at — no need to keep any of that in your head or in a separate file.

A student's dictionary table in Lektobox: word, translation, who added it, mastery level, and a review-queue toggle for each word — Every word comes with a mastery level and a "in review queue" status — no manual tracking needed.

Try it with your own student — adding the first words takes about a minute, and the free plan supports it.

How to add words: three ways

1. One at a time, by hand

In a student's card → "Dictionary" tab → "Add word": word and translation, done.

2. As a list — several words or students at once

The "Paste a list" button accepts plain text: one line per word, word and translation separated by a dash or colon. You can apply it to a whole group at once instead of a single student — handy when a lesson covers a dozen new words and typing them in one by one isn't appealing.

3. Import from an existing flashcard game

If words are already gathered into a game on the "Games" page, the "From flashcard set" button turns each card into its own dictionary word — no need to type the same thing twice.

4. From there, it's the student's job, not yours

The student reviews words on their own, in their own portal: a short exercise — "type the translation → see the result → next word." The system decides which words to show today, based on how well each one is already learned.

Your part comes down to one thing: adding a word once. Everything after that — when it gets reviewed, how often — is the system's job.