Glossary
The words the app uses for planning, studying and tracking a long exam. Each definition is one the app follows when it counts and records your work. Examples are illustrations.
- Assigned time
The time you have committed to in a period. It comes from the targets you allocate, the length of each task and any work you carry forward.
It is a plan, so it is not studied time.
Related: Studied time, Buffer
- Available time
The study time still open in a period. It depends on your daily time budget, the days that remain and the study you have already done.
Related: Buffer
- Buffer
The room left in a period after the unfinished work is taken out of the time still available.
Example: with 2 hours available and 1 hour unfinished, 1 hour of buffer remains. Unfinished work is worked out for each subject first and then added up, so extra time in one subject does not quietly cover a gap in another.
Related: Available time, Carry forward
- Carry forward
Moving the unfinished part of a task to another day or week. The part you already studied stays on its real date.
The part you move keeps its topic, stage and round. Example: carrying a 35 minute task adds 35 minutes to the receiving week, and the month gains the amount rounded up to a whole hour. Undo prevents the same move from adding its time twice.
Related: Assigned time, Buffer
- Coverage
The share of a topic's stages, or of a subject's, that you have completed for the first time.
Repeated rounds add history and leave coverage unchanged. Marking a stage you finished before you started tracking raises coverage and adds no study time. Example: 2 of 4 stages complete is 50%, and starting a second round of one of them does not make it 75%.
Related: Stage, Round, Studied time
- Flexible task
A task with a length and a day but no fixed start time. A timed task, by contrast, has a specific start time.
Related: Task status
- Manual completion
Marking a stage done for work you finished before you started using the app. It applies only to a stage with no tracked work.
It records a completion date and a canvas for that stage. It creates no session, no duration, no output count and no reward.
Related: Coverage, Ongoing topic
- NoteCanvas
The note that belongs to a record. Each session has its own canvas, which can hold text, photos, PDFs and audio.
A note that holds only a photo, a PDF or audio still counts as a note.
Related: Session
- Ongoing topic
A stage that has saved study but has not yet been marked done. A plan alone does not make a topic ongoing.
The list exists to prompt a decision: study more, or confirm the pass.
- Phase
A preparation area inside an exam that has more than one. Example: Prelims, Mains and Interview for the UPSC Civil Services exam.
Each phase can have its own date and its own subjects.
Related: Subject
- Quick activity
Time you track for something other than a subject you are preparing, using Quick Timer or Quick Stopwatch.
It stays separate from subject progress and from the study streak.
Related: Studied time
- Round
Another pass through the same stage of the same topic. Self Study round 1 is your first time through self study, and round 2 is the next.
Each stage keeps its own count, so round 2 of self study does not turn revision into round 2. The label travels with the task through Week, Today, Focus and History.
- Session
One recorded period of work inside a round. Pausing and resuming keeps the same session.
Ending and coming back later can create another session inside the same unfinished round, so one round can hold several sessions across several days. Each session saves its exam, subject, topic, stage, round, dates, actual duration and its own NoteCanvas.
Related: Round, NoteCanvas
- Stage
The kind of preparation applied to a topic. Stage names differ from exam to exam and from subject to subject, so each package shapes its own.
Example: the UPSC Prelims package offers Foundation, Core Study, PYQ Analysis, MCQ Practice, Revision and Topic Test. Another exam or subject can offer different ones.
- Studied time
Study you actually did, saved from the Study Timer or the Study Stopwatch. Pauses and breaks are left out.
Ending a 45 minute plan after 20 minutes records 20 minutes. Quick activities are not included.
Related: Assigned time, Coverage
- Subject
A body of work within an exam or phase. Example: History within UPSC CSE Prelims.
A subject has a target in hours, a set of topics and its own progress.
Related: Phase, Topic path
- Task status
What happened to a scheduled task: scheduled, active, done or carried.
It is kept separate from the time planned and from the time recorded.
Related: Assigned time, Studied time
- Topic path
A main topic plus the narrower levels under it. You can study at whichever level fits the work.
Example from the UPSC package: Modern India and National Movement, then India in the Eighteenth Century, then Decline of Mughal authority.
Related: Subject
Source: AspirantGoal app behaviour, checked in app version 1.0.0 on 22 October 2026. Stage names follow each exam package, so the names shown in your app can differ from the examples here.
See the words in use.
Install the app, pick your exam, and watch a task move from plan to session to note.