Frequently asked questions

Yes. The first draft of every article, knowledge check, flashcard, and practice question is generated by AI (Anthropic's Claude models, mostly). It's then reviewed and corrected — by a teacher in the case of school-bespoke content, and iteratively in the case of free-tier content as students flag problems through the bug button.

We don't think hiding this would build trust. Most modern revision tools use AI somewhere in the pipeline — most don't say so. We'd rather you know exactly how the sausage is made and decide what you think.

StudyVault aims to cover roughly 1,990 lessons across every GCSE subject and every major exam board. A single teacher cannot write that volume of content from scratch in any reasonable timeframe. Without AI, a site like this would either need a paid team of dozens of subject specialists (and would charge accordingly) or would never exist.

Used carefully, AI is a tool — like a calculator or a spell-checker. The decisions about what to teach, how to structure a unit, what counts as a misconception worth flagging, and how to mark a 30-mark essay are still made by people. AI handles the typing.

Sometimes. AI models can hallucinate — invent a fact, misremember a date, mix up two similar concepts. We mitigate this by grounding every lesson in the official exam-board specification, by spot-checking, and by treating the bug button as a real feedback channel rather than a black hole.

Treat StudyVault as you would any single revision source: a starting point, not the last word. If something looks wrong, cross-check with your textbook, your teacher, or the official spec. And please report it — the next student who reads that lesson will thank you.

No, and we don't want it to. Your teacher knows you, knows your class, marks your individual work, has difficult conversations when you're not on track, and writes your reference. StudyVault doesn't do any of that. It gives you something to read, something to practise, and something to listen to on the bus.

StudyVault is built by a teacher who still teaches. It's designed to give teachers more time for the things only they can do — not less.

It's a fair question. The honest answer: text generation uses meaningfully less energy than image or video generation, and we use the smallest model that does the job (e.g. Anthropic's Haiku for short, on-the-fly marking; bigger models only for full essay marking).

We don't currently offset emissions. We do limit unnecessary regeneration — once a lesson is good, we don't re-run the AI on it.

For some question types, yes — extended writing, translations, role plays, "improve this sentence" tasks. The AI gives you a band, a sentence or two of feedback, and (where helpful) a suggested rewrite. For shorter or more structured questions, marking is rule-based: it checks your answer against expected ones with sensible tolerance.

Important caveat: AI marking is formative. It's there to help you practise, not to predict your real grade. Don't write off a band you're unhappy with — show your work to your teacher.

Yes. The free tier covers most subjects across all major exam boards with no sign-up, no email, and no card. There's no premium tier you'll be nudged towards. Schools can subscribe for content tailored to their specific text choices and teaching priorities, but that's a separate thing — students at non-subscribing schools still get the full free tier.

No. Pick your subjects and exam boards on the homepage, and your choices are saved in your browser. If you want StudyVault on multiple devices, you'll need to re-pick on each one. Schools that subscribe give students a code that unlocks their bespoke content.

Schools choose which exam board to enter their students for, and the four major boards (AQA, Edexcel, OCR, Eduqas/WJEC) cover slightly different content. We build a separate version of each subject for each board it's taught on — so your Geography lessons should match what your school is actually teaching for the exam you'll sit. If you're unsure of your board, ask your teacher.

Article lessons are read-then-quiz. You read the explanation, check yourself with knowledge checks and flashcards, then attempt practice questions. Best for content-heavy subjects: History, RE, Business, much of Geography.

Practice lessons are question-by-question drills graded Bronze, Silver, Gold. There's a method card you can refer to but no long article — the learning happens through doing. Used for Maths, English Language, Languages (French/German/Spanish), Geography Skills, and Science calculation units, where the skill is procedural rather than encyclopaedic.

Use the "Can't find your subject?" panel on the homepage to request it. You can include the topic or unit (helpful for History) and your email if you'd like a heads-up when it's added. Coverage grows steadily — the more requests we get for the same subject and board, the higher up the queue it moves.

Click the small bug-shaped button in the bottom-right corner. It opens a short form with a textbox, an optional email, and a screenshot toggle (on by default). The screenshot helps us see exactly what you saw. Reports are read — many lessons on the site exist in their current form because students reported earlier versions.

As little as possible. No account means no name, no email, no anything tied to you personally. Your subject picks and lesson progress are stored in your own browser, not on our servers. We use Vercel's privacy-friendly analytics for aggregate visit counts (no cookies, no personal IDs). Full details on the privacy page.

It's stored against that one record so we can email you back about the specific subject or bug you flagged. We don't add it to any mailing list, and we don't share it. If you'd rather not give an email, leave it blank — both forms work fine without one.

No. StudyVault isn't affiliated with, endorsed by, or partnered with AQA, Pearson Edexcel, OCR, Eduqas, or WJEC. We use their public specifications to shape lessons (which is allowed), and we don't reproduce their past papers, mark schemes, or copyrighted text. Mark schemes on the site are StudyVault's own rubric.