[Ask] Based on what does the flashcard system pick cards?

[skyreem]

Hi all

I've been using Pleco for quite some time now and I've been wondering how these flashcard tests actually work? Based on what are cards chosen from your categories? Difficulty, time added, amount of mistakes, ...?

Just finished my first year Chinese at uni and I want to keep rehearsing my characters and words, but now everything mixed up. I do get some very easy characters so I've been wondering what algorithm is used.

Cheers!

 

[mikelove]

Depends on your 'card selection' system. (New Test / Card Selection) With spaced repetition it goes by how well you've previously remembered the card - shows up less often the better you've learned it.

 

[skyreem]

Depends on your 'card selection' system. (New Test / Card Selection) With spaced repetition it goes by how well you've previously remembered the card - shows up less often the better you've learned it.

Hey Mike, thanks for your reply! I just played around with spaced repetition but I can't seem to configure it the way I'd like to.
My aim is to do tests of 20-30 cards from my characters/vocabulary list (about 850 at the time of speaking). The cards that I know well should appear less, and the cards I know vice versa.

Right now when I use spaced repetition it asks all characters/words instead of 20. Also, is the question whether or not your remembered the card well enough, mandatory for spaced repetition?

 

[mikelove]

No problem!

Create/select a new scorefile (in New Test / Scoring), make sure the option to only introduce some # of new cards a day is enabled, and try again with that - that should do them a few cards at a time instead of giving you all of them. (it probably gave you all of them because it thought they were already learned / overdue for another review)

 

[skyreem]

No problem!

Create/select a new scorefile (in New Test / Scoring), make sure the option to only introduce some # of new cards a day is enabled, and try again with that - that should do them a few cards at a time instead of giving you all of them. (it probably gave you all of them because it thought they were already learned / overdue for another review)

Thanks, I forgot to put a # of cards in the "Card Selection" section. I'm getting there but I'm not quite there, yet. The only thing I want to get rid of the prompt when there are no new card due yet. I thought by disabling "prompt to continue" I would bypass this prompt.
It's possible that I'll do 10 of these small tests a day. My aim is to do short bursts of tests and go through all my current characters from uni. At a certain point I want Pleco to ask for cards that are considered "not learned" and from time to time repeat some cards I've already learned to not forget them.
For example, over time cards below 50% accuracy will be asked more often, 50-80% accuracy moderately, 80+% rarely. If I add new cards, they'll be introduced mixed with older cards. Or something that works in a somewhat similar fashion.

 

[mikelove]

In that case, you could configure it to use 'max unlearned' instead of a set # of new cards per day, and set the 'learned' threshold low enough so that a card is now 'learned' after you've answered it correctly 1 time.

 

[skyreem]

Oh okay, I turned on "max unlearned". It goes from 20 down to 1 every time I make a mistake. If I follow up with another test it prompts if I want to review cards that aren't due yet or review those not-due-yet cards without extending their due date. Why does this happen?

 

[mikelove]

Sorry, what goes from 20 down to 1? Is the setting itself changing or is it that as soon as you answer one card incorrect it now says you only have one left?

 

[skyreem]

Basically I've set it to "Limited by maximum unlearned" and "To 20". So when I start a test it asks 20 cards, but every mistakes reduces the amount of cards asked in the next text. For example if I make 4 mistakes, the next test will only have 16. If I hit one card, it will shop a pop-up whether or not I want to review "not due-yet" cards.

Maybe the screenshots will show any mistakes I've made in the settings.

 

[mikelove]

Ah, sorry, didn't quite appreciate the issue here - those mistaken cards still have an interval before they're seen again (that's pretty much how SRS is supposed to work). So if you start the test again instantly you see new cards in place of all of the correct ones (as their 'slots' have now been freed up), but the mistaken cards still have to wait until they're due for another review.

It sounds like maybe what you're looking for really isn't SRS at all; I'd suggest you instead switch your card selection system to "Random" but then also add a 'Card filter' to exclude cards that have been answered correctly at least once.

 

[skyreem]

Hey!

My apologies for not getting back, I've spent some time doing some trial and error, exploring the manual more deeply and some google research. I was messing around with the Unlearned card ratio setting and I found a post that pretty much answered almost everything.
The explanation you gave there was what I actually needed, because indeed, SRS isn't actually the answer.

So far it's working pretty great. In the beginning I made the mistake of resetting my score files because I had a feeling I was seeing the same cards even after I had them correct 3 times in a row. However, I didn't release that in the beginning you'll see the same cards multiple times because the pool of "learned cards" is still small.

This leaves me with three more, and hopefully final questions:
- What is a more natural requirement to consider a card "learned"?
- How does the pool of "learned cards" work? Does Place pick cards randomly, based on score or based on the time it hasn't been reviewed?
- How does timit of new cards work in correlation with Unlearned card ratio? For example, if you have huge limit of new cards, does that mean it's possible you won't get the same "new cards" in the next test?

 

[mikelove]

- What is a more natural requirement to consider a card "learned"?

I think correct in a row works best, actually.

- How does the pool of "learned cards" work? Does Place pick cards randomly, based on score or based on the time it hasn't been reviewed?

If you're not using SRS, it picks them randomly.

- How does timit of new cards work in correlation with Unlearned card ratio? For example, if you have huge limit of new cards, does that mean it's possible you won't get the same "new cards" in the next test?

Yes, in fact it's quite likely - the ratio just affects roughly how the two groups are weighted.