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First: what numbers does a session produce?
In Prefrontal Gym, a Schulte lesson is made up of several rounds. In each round you tap every number in the grid in ascending order: 1, 2, 3 and so on. The app records how long each round takes and converts that into points on a simple rule: on the same grid size, a faster round earns more points, and a very slow round earns very few. If you tap the wrong number, the grid gives a small shake and that round is marked as a mistake, but you simply continue from the next correct number. You never have to restart the grid.
So the results screen really contains three kinds of information. Speed is the time per round and the points that come from it. Accuracy is how many rounds you finished without a wrong tap. Consistency shows up as your combo, meaning how many clean rounds you strung together. You need to look at all three together. Any one of them on its own can easily mislead you.
Time: watch the trend, not a single round
Schulte times naturally move around. The same person on the same day can easily be several seconds apart between two rounds. Sometimes the numbers happen to be laid out in a friendly way; sometimes you lose a moment hunting for one stubborn number. Sleep, mood, what you were doing just before, even the angle of your phone, all play a part.
A more useful approach is to look at the trend over a week or two. For example, on one fixed grid size, write down the time of your first round each day and see whether it is roughly flat, slowly improving, or bouncing around. Recording only the first round has an advantage: it is closest to your real "just sat down" state and is not inflated by the warm-up effect of several rounds in a row.
If one day is clearly slower, do not jump to conclusions. Ask a few questions first. How did you sleep? Were you scrolling short videos for a long time just before? Were you practicing while walking? Often a slow day simply tells you that your attention is not fully online today. That is useful information in itself: it suggests your real work should start with a smaller, more concrete first step.
Accuracy: steady it before you chase speed
Many people instinctively tap as fast as possible to get a better time. The result is often wrong taps, shakes and more searching, which ends up slower. The Schulte task trains a loop of scan, locate and confirm. Every wrong tap means one step of that loop was skipped.
We suggest a simple order: make accuracy steady first, then work on speed. A practical standard is that over several days most of your rounds are mistake-free before you deliberately push the pace. If you notice that you keep tapping wrong numbers in a rush, slow down by half a beat. Let your eyes land on the number first, and only then let your finger follow.
Points and combos: tools for feedback
Points turn speed into a number that is easy to compare with your past results and easy to send to a friend as a challenge. Be careful, though: points from different grid sizes cannot be compared directly. A high score on a 4×4 grid and a medium score on a 6×6 grid describe completely different tasks. When you compare, keep the grid size and mode fixed.
Combos reflect consistency. Several clean rounds in a row mean you kept your rhythm and did not let a single slip throw you off. Many people notice that right after a combo breaks, the next round feels rushed. The best response is one slow breath and treating the next round as a brand-new start.
How to set your own baseline
If you want to follow your progress seriously, a light baseline is enough:
- Pick one setting, such as the classic grid at one size, as your long-term reference.
- Each session, record only the first round's time and whether it had a mistake, in a note or spreadsheet.
- Review once a week rather than every day. Week-to-week changes say more than day-to-day noise.
- When you change settings, such as a larger grid or a dynamic mode, start a new line of records instead of mixing it with the old data.
When to level up and when to step back
When your times on the current grid are fairly stable, mistakes are rare, and the rounds start to feel a little easy, try the next level, for example moving from 4×4 to 5×5. Being slower and making more mistakes for the first few days after a level-up is completely normal. It is not a sign that you have stopped improving.
On the other hand, if several days in a row feel like a struggle, mistakes clearly increase, and you finish more irritated than when you started, step back one level or switch to another simple task. The point of practice is to help you get into a working state, not to manufacture frustration. For a full route through the levels, see the Schulte progression plan.
What your results cannot tell you
Finally, it is worth being clear. A Schulte result reflects how you did on this particular task. It is not an intelligence score or a "total focus rating", and it cannot be used to judge any health condition. Researchers still debate how far gains on tasks like this carry over into everyday activities, and the findings are mixed. A sensible view is to treat it as a small exercise with a clear start and finish, useful for switching state and building rhythm. What matters most is whether you return to the real task right after the round.
Quick checklist
- Compare results only within the same grid size and mode.
- Track the first round of each day, and review weekly.
- Fix accuracy first, then speed.
- Treat a slow day as information, not as failure.
- After the round, go straight to your next real task.