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How to Memorize Doctrinal Mastery: A Teacher's Guide to Line upon Line

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Line upon Line fading words from Joshua 24:15 on a classroom screen, and a student phone showing a 12-day streak

"For precept must be upon precept … line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little" (Isaiah 28:10). That verse turns out to be a pretty good summary of how memory works. Line upon Line is a free Doctrinal Mastery practice tool built on that idea and on the best-supported research about memorization. Students practice for about two minutes a day on their phones. Teachers get a 5-minute class mode for introducing each passage together.

This guide explains how it works, how each step follows the research, and the different ways to use it with your class.

Why memorize the key phrases?

One of the official Doctrinal Mastery outcomes is "being able to remember and locate the doctrinal mastery scripture passages and memorize the key scripture phrases." Each of the four seminary courses has 24 Doctrinal Mastery passages, so a student who completes seminary will meet 96 of them.

The hard part is not learning a phrase once. It's still knowing it weeks or months later, when a friend needs it or a missionary companion asks. Without review, memory fades fast. A modern replication of Ebbinghaus's forgetting curve confirmed the original results: most of what we learn slips away within days unless we come back to it.

What Line upon Line is

  • All four courses: Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon, and Doctrine and Covenants, with 24 passages each.
  • About two minutes a day of practice on a phone.
  • Eight steps per passage, from meeting it to saying it from memory and applying it.
  • A built-in review schedule that brings each passage back right before it would fade.
  • A stone memorial that fills in as students master passages, after the stones Israel set up at the Jordan (Joshua 4:7).
  • No login and no email. Progress saves on the student's phone, and a backup code can restore it on a new device. Students can save it to their home screen like an app.
  • Class mode for teachers: introduce, fade it together, play live and take it home, all in about five minutes.

Eight steps, from meeting a passage to mastering it

Each passage climbs a short ladder. Every step asks a little more of the student's memory than the one before:

  1. Meet it. Read the key phrase aloud twice, picture a simple image of it, and read its context and doctrine.
  2. Recognize it. Given the phrase, pick the right reference.
  3. Match the key phrase. Given the reference, pick the right phrase.
  4. Fill in the words. A few important words are missing, and students tap them in order.
  5. Build it. The phrase is cut into pieces, and students put it back together.
  6. First letters. Only the first letter of each word is left. Students say the whole line, then check themselves.
  7. From memory. No hints. Students say the line, reveal it, and mark honestly whether they got it. ("Be honest — it's just you and the Lord here.")
  8. Apply it. A real-life situation, such as a friend who says, "Everyone looks better than me. I hate how I look," and a choice of which scripture to share.
Line upon Line steps one to four on a phone: meet it, recognize it, match the key phrase, fill in the words
Steps 1–4: meet it, recognize it, match the key phrase, and fill in the missing words.
Line upon Line steps five to eight on a phone: build it, first letters, from memory, apply it
Steps 5–8: build the line, first letters, from memory, and apply it.

After the final step, the passage is mastered and a stone is placed in the student's memorial. Each practice also ends with a 30-second "Liken it" question that connects the passage to the student's life.

Line upon Line stone memorial after mastering Genesis 1:26-27, and the home screen with mastered count and day streak
Mastering a passage places a stone in the memorial. The home screen shows passages mastered, the day streak, and how many are ready today.

How it's built on memorization research

We didn't invent these methods. Each part of Line upon Line uses a technique that research has tested again and again.

1. Retrieval practice: recall it, don't just reread it

Almost every step asks students to pull the phrase out of memory instead of reading it again. That's the single most important design choice. In a classic study, students who practiced recalling a passage remembered 61% of it a week later, versus 40% for students who reread it. In a study published in Science, students who kept testing themselves recalled about 80% of what they learned a week later. Students who stopped testing once they had it right recalled only 33–36%.

The same holds in real classrooms. Across 272 effects, practice tests beat rereading, with the largest benefit for students in grades 7–12 (g = 0.83). In 8th-grade science classes, low-stakes quizzing raised unit exam scores by 13% to 25%. Students noticed the difference too: in a survey of 1,408 middle and high school students, 92% said retrieval practice helped them learn, and 72% said it made them less nervous for tests.

2. Spaced review: come back right before it fades

Line upon Line doesn't drill a passage 20 times in one night. Early steps come back the same day or the next. Later steps wait two, three, four and then seven days. After a passage is mastered, it comes back after 14 days, then 30, 60 and 90. If a student misses, the passage drops back one step and returns that day.

That widening schedule follows the research on spacing. A meta-analysis of 839 tests of spaced practice found that the best gap between reviews grows as the goal gets longer. A study of more than 1,350 people put numbers on it: for a test one week away, the best review gap was about 20–40% of that time. For a test a year away, it was about 5–10% (Cepeda et al., 2008). A major review of study techniques rated only two as "high utility": practice testing and distributed practice. Rereading and highlighting were rated low. Line upon Line is built on those two high-utility techniques.

Because it isn't helpful to cram, Line upon Line introduces at most one new passage a day, and only while a student has fewer than three passages still in progress.

3. Fading cues: take the words away a few at a time

Steps 4 through 7, and the class "fade it together" step, gradually remove help until nothing is left. Researchers call this the method of vanishing cues. It was first used to help memory-impaired patients learn and keep new words over six weeks. With healthy learners, removing cues across practice trials gave better final recall (.40) than adding cues (.25) or studying alone (.29). With feedback, it reached .58.

A fair note: the evidence that first-letter hints help on their own is mixed. That's why first letters are only a temporary step in Line upon Line. The very next step removes them, and students say the line from memory.

4. Say it out loud

Line upon Line asks students to say the key phrase aloud, and in class the whole room says it together. Saying words aloud makes them more distinctive in memory than reading silently. That effect showed up across eight experiments, and part of it comes from hearing your own voice. The benefit is modest, and it's most reliable for recognizing a phrase rather than recalling it cold (Fawcett et al.). That's why we use it alongside retrieval and spacing rather than on its own.

5. Picture it, understand it, apply it

Each passage comes with a simple picture prompt, its context and its doctrine. The final step asks students to choose a scripture for a real-life situation. Memorizing words is not the goal by itself. The Doctrinal Mastery outcomes also include understanding the doctrine and applying it, so the last step practices what students will actually do with the passage.

6. Small daily habits

Two minutes is short enough to do every day. In a study of everyday habits, repeating a behavior in the same setting made it more automatic over time, taking 66 days on average. Missing a single day didn't derail the habit. Line upon Line shows a day streak and a "ready today" count, so students can see the habit forming. The best time to practice is the same time each day, such as right after seminary or before bed.

Class mode: Doctrinal Mastery together in five minutes

Open Line upon Line class mode on your projector, choose a course, and pick this week's passage or any of the 24. You'll see four steps:

Line upon Line class mode for Joshua 24:15 with four steps: introduce, fade it together, play live, take it home
Class mode for Joshua 24:15: introduce, fade it together, play live, and take it home.

Step 1: Introduce (about 1 minute)

Show the passage with its picture prompt, context and doctrine. Read the whole passage if you like, then say the key phrase together twice.

Line upon Line class introduction for Joshua 24:15 with a picture prompt, context and doctrine
Introduce the passage with a picture prompt, its context and its doctrine. Then say the key phrase together twice.

Step 2: Fade it together (about 1 minute)

The class reads the key phrase aloud. Press the space bar or tap Remove words, and a few more words disappear, leaving only first letters. Read it together again. After a few rounds the screen says "From memory — together," and the class says it with no words showing. If they get it, tap We said it from memory and your class places a stone. If they stumble, tap Show more to bring words back.

Four stages of Line upon Line fade it together, from the full key phrase of Joshua 24:15 to saying it from memory
Fade it together: each time the class reads it, more words disappear, until everyone says Joshua 24:15 from memory.

Step 3: Play live (about 2 minutes)

Students scan a QR code to join, then play seven quick questions of 20 seconds each on their phones. A score of 70% or higher also places a stone for your class. Phones aren't allowed? Skip this step. The fade-together step alone is strong retrieval practice.

Line upon Line live Doctrinal Mastery round lobby with a QR code and room code
The live round lobby: students scan the QR code or use the room code to join a seven-question round.

Step 4: Take it home (30 seconds)

Show a QR code that opens home practice for the passage. Copy the parent message, which is ready to paste into your class group chat, a text or an email. It suggests a simple question parents can ask at dinner, and you can edit anything before you send it.

Line upon Line take-it-home screen with a QR code for students and a ready-to-copy message for parents
Take it home: a QR code for students to practice and a ready-to-copy message for parents.

Your class memorial

Class mode keeps a memorial of 24 stones for your class, separate from each student's own. Watching it fill in over the year is a simple way to celebrate progress together. Your class memorial and your name are saved only on your device, and no student information is collected.

Line upon Line teacher class mode with the 24 Old Testament passages and a class memorial with its first stone
The teacher's class mode: choose any of the 24 passages and watch the class memorial fill in.

Ways to use Line upon Line

  1. The weekly rhythm. Introduce Monday, review with a quick choral recitation Tuesday through Thursday, and check with a live round Friday.
  2. Devotional slot. Use the fade-together step as a 90-second opening in place of a spiritual thought.
  3. Catch-up weeks. Use the mixed review rounds to bring back passages from earlier in the year.
  4. Home study and online classes. Share your screen for class mode, and students practice on their own phones in between.
  5. Parents as partners. Send the parent message each week. A single question at dinner is one more chance to recall the passage.
  6. Pair it with Seminary Showdown. The weekly Seminary Showdown round includes a double-points Doctrinal Mastery question, a quick check on the passage your class just learned.
  7. Future missionaries. Students preparing for missions can use it to review all 96 passages before they leave.

Questions teachers ask

Is Line upon Line free?

Yes. It's free, with no login, no email and no app to install.

Where is student progress saved?

In the browser on the student's own phone. Nothing about the student is stored on our servers. Students can save a backup code to restore progress on a new phone. Clearing browser data or using a private window can erase progress.

Which passages does it cover?

All 24 Doctrinal Mastery passages for each of the four courses: Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon, and Doctrine and Covenants. Key phrases come from the Doctrinal Mastery Core Document.

How long does it take each day?

About two minutes. On days with nothing due, students can choose to practice extra.

Is this an official Church resource?

No. Line upon Line is an independent study tool made by Weak Things. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Use it alongside the Doctrinal Mastery Core Document and your seminary curriculum.

Start this week

Open class mode, pick this week's passage, and fade it together with your class tomorrow morning. Then share the QR code so your students can practice two minutes a day. For a weekly review game, read our guide to Seminary Showdown. You can also see every free seminary game for teachers.

Sources

The games are free because the shirts aren't. Shop shirts. Love God.

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