Spaced repetition flashcards - how does it work?

[Cubuk]

Hi. I'm new to this forum and I think Pleco is great, I found no better app for Chinese than that.

Recently I purchased Flashcards Spaced Repetition Add-on, and I tried it out with different settings, however, none of them satisfied me. I get a feeling I'm doing something wrong - whenever I create a new card category (which is like 60-80 cards), and begin the test session (after selecting that category, and spaced repetition profile).

Pleco always tests me from all those newly created cards at once - and goest through all 60-80 of them one at a time. Meanwhile all other SRS programs tested only few entries (like 10) and repated them, after I received good score - then, moved on to the next, mostly repeating those I have problems with.

I don't know what am I doing wrong, and I'll admit, those configuration option are a bit confusing. Any tips or ideas, how to make it work properly, that is as most SRS programs?

Thanks in advance!

 

[mikelove]

Go into Card Selection and turn on the option to "limit new cards" and the options under it to limit to a set number of new cards per day - we disable that by default because it seems to cause more confusion than it fixes (when it was on by default we'd get 1-2 "why aren't all of my cards appearing?" emails per week).

 

[Cubuk]

I did just that and I set the amount of cards, but when I begin the test session, it still asks about all those 80-something cards in a category. What am I doing wrong?

 

[mikelove]

Have you already reviewed those 80 new cards once? If so then it'll keep testing them since it thinks you've already started studying them - to fix that, go into Organize Cards, navigate to that category, tap Edit, Batch, scroll all the way down and tap on the command to reset their scores.

 

[Cubuk]

Thank you. Now, when I begin test session, I get only about 25 cards to answer. However, when I finish the session, Pleco goes to another set of card, instead of repeating those that got a low score, and coming back to then often - so when I test myself of, let's say, 80 cards, I see the 'problematic' card only once or twice - which really isn't sufficient for nailing it down in my brain.

Usually SRS programs works in a way, that new cards are shown only after previous ones got good rating, however, it doesn't seem to be the case here.

 

[mikelove]

Are you seeing a prompt after those 25 cards? If so, choose the option to stop instead of the option to continue - we offer that prompt because some people hit the end of their spaced repetition test and want to keep studying with cards that aren't due yet, but if you tell it to stop then it will stop showing you additional cards and begin reviewing the cards that you answered incorrectly (assuming that you've turned on the option to repeat incorrect under "Commands").

 

[Cubuk]

I decided I need to renew this topic. I tried several times, but I still don't know how to adjusts the settings to my needs. The problem is that I have a lot of cards - but I don't have enough time to review them daily.
Usually I have categories that consist of about 120 cards, if not more. Whenever I select few categories and start to learn, it ALWAYS wants me to review every single card once, and only after that it moves along to separating them into smaller groups. But still, in those groups, those cards rarely repeat themselves. And usually, after finishing one group of cards, the reviewing is finished.

What I need is a system similar to the one from Anki - if I choose a category, it asks me through all cards, but moves on to the next only when I remembered well the previous ones (and those previous ones still appear again, but more rarely).

I find the configuration menu a bit incomprehensible and not very user friendly. Is it possible to set the way I want it to?

 

[mikelove]

Yes - for that you'd want to turn on the 'limit new cards' option in Card Selection so that it will only introduce a few new cards at a time. You'll probably also want to go into Organize / Edit / Batch and reset the statistics of your cards, since once you review them once the system assumes you want to keep learning them.

It looks like that's the advice I gave you before, pretty much - did you actually go in and reset those statistics? You need to do that for it to start managing your new card additions intelligently.