How WSET Adaptive Study Works

WSET is where Sommo goes deepest, because exam study is where a wine app can save you the most money and the most wasted hours. Specialist study apps charge fifty to two hundred dollars per level. Sommo Premium is a fraction of that, and it does more than flip cards. Here is how the studying actually works, level by level, mode by mode.

What Sommo covers

The full ladder, Levels 1 to 4, each with the same toolkit:

• Flashcards, in flip or typed mode.
• Practice quizzes and adaptive practice, in multiple-choice or typed mode.
• Mock exams to rehearse the real thing.
• AI study plans, cheatsheets, wrong-answer review, mastery tracking and insights.

Start at Level 1 for the foundations, or jump to Level 2, Level 3 or Level 4 if that is the paper you are sitting.

Spaced repetition, the SM-2 way

Cramming the night before is how you forget by the exam. Sommo schedules instead. Every flashcard carries an ease factor and an interval. Answer it well and the interval stretches, so the card returns further out. Stumble, and the interval shrinks, so the card comes back sooner and more often. The cards you keep missing show up most; the ones you know stay out of your way. That is the SM-2 algorithm, the same maths behind the best revision tools, applied to a WSET-specific deck. The spaced repetition study guide on the blog explains the idea end to end.

Flashcards: flip or type

Two modes, two difficulties:

• Flip shows the prompt, you recall, then flip to check. Fast, low friction, good for early passes.
• Type asks you to write the answer, which is then graded with examiner-style feedback. Recognition is easy; recall under your own steam is what the exam tests. Typed mode is Premium.

Practice and mock exams

Quizzes come in the same pair. Choice mode is classic multiple choice. Typed mode has you write the answer and grades it as correct, partial or incorrect, with notes on what was missing, the way an examiner marks a script. Mock exams string it together under exam-like conditions so the real paper feels familiar.

Adaptive practice and study plans

Generic practice wastes time on what you already know. Adaptive practice builds each session around your weak areas, pulling more questions from the topics you keep getting wrong and easing off the ones you have mastered. On top of that, Sommo can generate an AI study plan from your mastery data, and surface insights: your streak, your accuracy trend, and the mix of modes you have been drilling. None of it is about engagement for its own sake; it is about getting you to the pass mark.

Cheatsheets and wrong answers

Two more pieces close the loop. Cheatsheets give you the dense, examinable facts to review on the train. Wrong-answer review gathers everything you have missed so you can attack your gaps directly rather than hoping they come round again. Tasting structure runs through all of it; the glossary on tasting notes covers the systematic approach the higher levels lean on.

Free versus Premium

The fundamentals are free, so you can study seriously before paying anything. The full level content and the typed, AI-graded mode are Premium, across all four levels. Given specialist WSET apps charge per level, Premium covering every level at the price of one cheap bottle a year is the whole positioning.

Where it stops

• It is a study aid, not an awarding body. Sommo does not certify you or register you for an exam. You still need the official course and the official sitting.
• Exam syllabi change. WSET updates its specifications, and content follows rather than predicts those changes.
• It rewards honest practice. Typed mode only helps if you write real answers; gaming the flip cards just delays the reckoning.

The broader account of what Sommo can and cannot do is on the limitations page.

In the app

All of this lives in the WSET exam prep feature and across the WSET hub. It is built for people working towards a real qualification, so see Sommo for WSET students. If you have been studying out of a discovery app like Vivino, this is the part it was never built to do.

Frequently asked.