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How to accommodate irregular study schedule

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flimzy

28 Dec, 2014 07:19 PM

I'm a new user to Anki, and have previously been using "old fashioned" flash cards to practice language vocabulary. I study on my own (not part of a course), and thus the time I have to dedicate to study varies greatly. Sometimes I'll go several days without any time to dedicate to study, some days I may have only 15 minutes to study, and some days I may have 3-4 hours I can dedicate.

How can I make Anki best work for me in this situation?

I can imagine simply opening up all the limits (daily new cards, daily review cards) to the maximum (I think 1,000), and then just spend whatever time I have on cards, and not worry if I don't finish my queue for the day.

My primary concerns (although there may be others I haven't considered) are:

- I want to maximize my 'bandwidth' on days when I have plenty of time to study. I don't want to finish my cards in 20 minutes, then spend the next 3 hours playing Plants vs. Zombies, simply because Anki says I should wait 24 hours...
- I don't want to make retention more difficult by reviewing cards too quickly, then forgetting the material 2 days later. But my understanding of the scheduling algorithm suggests this shouldn't be a serious problem anyway...

Aside from the drawbacks inherent in irregular study, are there any drawbacks to this method? Are there other suggestions which might work better for me?

1. 1 Posted by Vit on 29 Dec, 2014 04:31 AM

   

   I can imagine simply opening up all the limits (daily new cards, daily review cards) ....

   Decide also ... the New cards: First; last; or mixed.

   I don't want to finish my cards .... and wait because Anki says I should wait 24 hours...

   Using Filtered and Custom decks, you CAN study 'Ahead of time' and schedule cards, too. How much Ahead of time ? Start with prop:due=1 ( due tomorrow ); see my 3 consecutive screen shots narrowing the card selection. Now u can tag these cards and Custom study with Scheduling option.

   You can also go thru Leeches and 'fix' them.

   I don't want to make retention more difficult by reviewing cards too quickly,

   I agree; those reviews have the name - Wasted reps.

   But my understanding of the scheduling algorithm suggests this shouldn't be a serious problem anyway...

   Wasted time and reinforcing short-term memory ? It is serious enough for me.

   Aside from the drawbacks inherent in irregular study,

   I think we have a pretty wide margin of error -- considering that Intervals are not 'perfect'; for me i think it is in the 20% range or so.

   ... are there any { other } drawbacks to this method { irregular reviews }?

   Yes; if u let the overdueness grow , "any traces of the card will disappear and u have to start learning card as if it is New"; that is what Supermemo says; i do not feel that; i were recalling 50% or more cards which were overdue 3-6 mo. But they were mature cards with many reps in the bag.

   And this leads us to the "Relative Overdueness' ; explained clearly in the Manual . The review option is in Filtered deck.

   Good luck.
   Are there other suggestions ...?

   Review and adjust Options Groups defaults ( 'Groups' is in Plural bec u have to have different options to accommodate different situations ( another story ).

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2. System closed this discussion on 22 Feb, 2016 11:42 PM.