Frequently asked
Questions, Answered Plainly.
Grouped rather than ranked, so you can read the group that applies to you and skip the rest. If something here is unclear or missing, write to us and we will answer it and add it to this page.
Section 01
Studying on NotesCafe
The tree, the notes, the questions, and what happens when you mark a topic done.
- How does Smart Revision decide what I revise today?
- Every topic carries a memory-strength score. It falls the longer a topic goes untouched, falls faster when a question on it goes wrong, and recovers when you revise. Today's queue is that list, weakest first. It never asks you to rate how well you remembered something — self-rating under exam pressure is unreliable and turns revision into one more decision.
- Are notes tied to a particular exam?
- No. Notes attach to topics, not to exams. If you start with UPPCS and later add UPSC, every overlapping topic carries your existing notes and revision history across.
- Can I write my own notes, or only read yours?
- Both, and your own notes are the point. Our notes are a starting point you can edit freely — change a line, drop a paragraph, add the example your teacher used. You can also import notes you already have.
- Can I read offline?
- Yes. Topics cache to the device for offline reading, which matters more than it sounds when the study session is at 6am on a weak connection.
- How are previous-year questions represented?
- Each question carries its year, paper, stage and marks, and repeats are de-duplicated — a question asked in four cycles is one entry with four years on it rather than four near-identical rows. Every question links back to the topic it tests.
- Is Hindi a translation layer?
- No. Hindi is a medium you choose at the start, and the syllabus, notes and questions follow. Devanagari is set in Noto Sans Devanagari throughout rather than left to whatever font your device falls back to.
Section 02
Tests and Practice
What the test engine does while you are sitting the paper, and what it does afterwards.
- Are the answers sitting in the page during a test?
- No. Correct options, explanations and model answers are stripped on the server before the paper is sent to the browser. There is nothing in the page source or the network tab to read ahead from.
- What happens if my internet drops mid-test?
- Question order is fixed for the attempt, so you come back to the same paper in the same order with your saved answers intact. The clock is the server's, with a 15-second grace window on submission.
- How is the leaderboard calculated?
- On your best run — higher score first, then faster time. Retakes are unlimited. A late submission is still scored on whatever was saved before time; it simply sits out of the leaderboard.
- What is the marking scheme?
- +2 for a correct answer, −0.66 for a wrong one, 0 for unattempted, with partial credit on passage-based sets — so a mock score means what a real score would mean.
- What happens to the mistakes I make?
- Each wrong answer is marked against its topic in the syllabus tree, which lowers that topic's memory strength and pushes it up the revision queue. A bad paper turns into a plan rather than a mood.
Section 03
Plans, Payment and Your Account
What you pay, what you do not, and what happens to your notes either way.
- Is the free trial really free?
- Yes — seven days of full Study OS access with no card required, so nothing can be charged at the end of it. The Test Series plan does not carry a trial, because a mock test cannot be un-seen.
- Does my plan renew automatically?
- No. Both plans are one-time payments for the stated period. Nothing renews on its own and no card is stored for a future charge.
- Which payment methods work?
- Payments are processed through Razorpay — UPI, net banking, debit and credit cards, and wallets. NotesCafe does not store complete card numbers, CVV or banking passwords.
- How do refunds work?
- Duplicate charges, double payments, billing errors and payments where access did not activate are refundable within 7 days of the transaction. Digital content that has been accessed is ordinarily not. The full position is in the Refund Policy. Read the Refund Policy
- Can I get my notes out again, or delete my account?
- Yes to both. Any topic packet exports to PDF or Excel at any time, including after a subscription ends. To delete your account, write to support@notes-cafe.com — some records are retained for legal, payment and fraud-prevention purposes, as set out in the Privacy Policy. Read the Privacy Policy
- Do you use AI, and can I rely on it?
- Some features are AI-assisted. AI outputs can contain inaccuracies, so verify educational information independently before relying on it for the exam. We would rather say that here than in small print.
Still Not Answered?
Write to us and we will reply within a working day — and add the answer to this page if others are likely to ask it too.