Cookiemole
Member
In the card selection settings, it seems like there is an option to randomize the order of the cards that are due. If it's not selected, Pleco defaults to ordering the cards in order of due date. I would like to ask for a third ordering option: reverse due date. This means, of the cards that are due, the ones with the most recent due dates show up first.
I'd like to argue in favor of this feature by presenting the following use case example. Between the HSK and a few other lists, I have about 10k flashcards. For the first year of using this program, I was pretty diligent about doing all the flashcards that would show up in my inbox. But in the last few months I've gotten lazy and now I have a couple thousand cards that are due. To cut this down to bite size chunks, I can enable certain categories at a time, but even if I only enable HSK6 I still end up with 700 cards in my inbox, which is still overwhelming. Let's say I have some free time today and fire up the flashcard app. Let's also say I only feel like doing 50 cards today. If I fire up the app tomorrow I won't be able to get reps on the 50 cards that I do today. Instead, because the number of due cards is around 700, I'll be presented with a completely different set of cards because those are considered to be more overdue. The next time I see the 50 cards from today could be a month from now, depending on how lazy I am and how long it takes me to get through the backlog. I'll be denied a sense of progress, and the feeling that I'm reinforcing what I'm learning today.
If memories fade like exponential decay, like the SRS models claim, then the cards that are months overdue have mostly decayed already, and the leftover residue is only decaying slowly. There is no need to do earlier cards first; I would argue that it is more urgent to catch the cards that have just become due, because you see more gains if you are reinforcing a card that is fresher in your memory.
In a practical sense, this would divide up the backlog into bite-size chunks without the need to fiddle with categories or filters. Even with a backlog of thousands of cards, the set of cards that are being "worked on" are the ones that have most recently been seen. If I do 50 cards today, the first 50 I see tomorrow will mostly be the ones I worked on today. Older cards would stay in cold storage, with minimal decay rates.
With this in place, I would argue that there won't even be the need to limit the number of unknown cards in your hand, because there won't be any pressure to finish the whole set of due cards.
I'd like to argue in favor of this feature by presenting the following use case example. Between the HSK and a few other lists, I have about 10k flashcards. For the first year of using this program, I was pretty diligent about doing all the flashcards that would show up in my inbox. But in the last few months I've gotten lazy and now I have a couple thousand cards that are due. To cut this down to bite size chunks, I can enable certain categories at a time, but even if I only enable HSK6 I still end up with 700 cards in my inbox, which is still overwhelming. Let's say I have some free time today and fire up the flashcard app. Let's also say I only feel like doing 50 cards today. If I fire up the app tomorrow I won't be able to get reps on the 50 cards that I do today. Instead, because the number of due cards is around 700, I'll be presented with a completely different set of cards because those are considered to be more overdue. The next time I see the 50 cards from today could be a month from now, depending on how lazy I am and how long it takes me to get through the backlog. I'll be denied a sense of progress, and the feeling that I'm reinforcing what I'm learning today.
If memories fade like exponential decay, like the SRS models claim, then the cards that are months overdue have mostly decayed already, and the leftover residue is only decaying slowly. There is no need to do earlier cards first; I would argue that it is more urgent to catch the cards that have just become due, because you see more gains if you are reinforcing a card that is fresher in your memory.
In a practical sense, this would divide up the backlog into bite-size chunks without the need to fiddle with categories or filters. Even with a backlog of thousands of cards, the set of cards that are being "worked on" are the ones that have most recently been seen. If I do 50 cards today, the first 50 I see tomorrow will mostly be the ones I worked on today. Older cards would stay in cold storage, with minimal decay rates.
With this in place, I would argue that there won't even be the need to limit the number of unknown cards in your hand, because there won't be any pressure to finish the whole set of due cards.