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A question to the experienced Anki users: The recommendation is to learn before you memorize. Many times I hack the infos (from an article) right into Anki. N

A question to the experienced Anki users: The recommendation is to learn before you memorize. Many times I hack the infos (from an article) right into Anki. Now if it‘d want to review the infos in the Anki app, that totally destroys my stats. What are some of you doing? Extract the info into some other tool, review the infos there and then quiz yourself in Aki?

atahanacar 4y ago
>that totally destroys my stats I don't understand what you mean. There are only 2 stats that are mostly significant. The first is, when first learning the card, if you hit again too many times the card becomes a leech - as in it leeches your time, at which point you should temporarily suspend that card and to the others first. The other one is the recall rate: after you learn a card (on default settings, when you hit the 1 day mark for that card) how often you don't fail to recall the information. This rate is the single most important metric in your stats, and a value that is constantly below 90% means you should probably tweak your settings to show cards more often. This can be easily done by reducing the interval modifier. A value close to 100% might also be slightly problematic depending on what you want, because you might be wasting time with unnecessary reviews, which can be solved by slightly increasing the said interval modifier. As for your main question, you can do it however you see fit. Some people might prefer to do everything in Anki, while others might prefer to read a textbook, watch lectures etc. first and then move on to Anki for that specific topic. Don't use Anki as a way to quiz yourself, it is not a testing tool. If you want to test yourself, use question banks. Use Anki as a tool that will help you memorize things. For this, you have to do your reviews on time, or the algorithm just won't work.
Graziano_M 4y ago
Why would you care about your stats? Do you have the stuff memorized? Nothing else matters.
sureglymop 4y ago
I have a similar issue. I create cards for the subject I need to study, then I study it all at once in a custom study session. I then go to the exams but how do I continue afterwards? Like what are the best settings to retain all the information after that? And how do I make sure that I'm not destroying those settings when I need to study before an exam again?
- Jtsummers 4y ago
  https://docs.ankiweb.net/filtered-decks.html https://docs.ankiweb.net/filtered-decks.html You can use filtered decks and set them up so they don't alter the schedule of the cards when they're "returned" to their actual regular deck. Useful for a cram session before an exam where you don't want to actually alter the regular study schedule.
  - sureglymop 4y ago
    Thank you! Exactly what I was looking for. I was in such a cramming mode at the time that i didn't finish the docs but pretty much stopped after I understood notes and cards. Can you recommend any settings for a good schedule to retain information?
    - Jtsummers 4y ago
      Sorry, I just use the defaults. I've found they're effective for me. The most I tune it is to raise or lower the number of cards per day (number of review, number of new) for specific circumstances. Like when I've fallen behind I may lower the number of new cards per day and raise reviews a bit to clear a backlog. I have tried adjusting it more in the past and found it did nothing to help me overall and I was just turning knobs to turn knobs.
- tra3 4y ago
  But the point of SRS is that it prompts you to review the cards when there's a high chance of memory decay. Say you learned your cards and did a custom study to review them before your exam. Now you "know" these cards to some extent. Anki knows how many times you reviewed them and if you provided an accurate assessment of how well you retained these cards, Anki will know when to show 'em next, so you don't forget. You don't have to do anything.
- Version467 4y ago
  The real answer to this is to regularly create good cards during your semester. This drastically reduces the amount of cards you need to create a week before your exam which in turn reduces the amount of cramming you have to do. Now don't get me wrong, I'm perfectly well aware that the knowledge required for exams isn't representative of the knowledge required to be well versed in a topic outside of exams, and Anki can still help you learn stuff that you specifically want to remember for exams, but you can remove those cards afterwards. You don't actually need (and probably don't want) to remember much of the stuff that instructors want you to remember for exams. So after the exam you just keep reviewing as normal, but radically delete/suspend cards that were exam specific. This way you start learning a lot of the things that you actually want to remember longterm during the semester, while also avoiding a lot of clutter from exam specific cards.
somsak2 4y ago
Why does it matter what your stats are?

atahanacar 4y ago

>that totally destroys my stats I don't understand what you mean. There are only 2 stats that are mostly significant. The first is, when first learning the card, if you hit again too many times the card becomes a leech - as in it leeches your time, at which point you should temporarily suspend that card and to the others first. The other one is the recall rate: after you learn a card (on default settings, when you hit the 1 day mark for that card) how often you don't fail to recall the information. This rate is the single most important metric in your stats, and a value that is constantly below 90% means you should probably tweak your settings to show cards more often. This can be easily done by reducing the interval modifier. A value close to 100% might also be slightly problematic depending on what you want, because you might be wasting time with unnecessary reviews, which can be solved by slightly increasing the said interval modifier. As for your main question, you can do it however you see fit. Some people might prefer to do everything in Anki, while others might prefer to read a textbook, watch lectures etc. first and then move on to Anki for that specific topic. Don't use Anki as a way to quiz yourself, it is not a testing tool. If you want to test yourself, use question banks. Use Anki as a tool that will help you memorize things. For this, you have to do your reviews on time, or the algorithm just won't work.

Graziano_M 4y ago

Why would you care about your stats? Do you have the stuff memorized? Nothing else matters.

sureglymop 4y ago

I have a similar issue. I create cards for the subject I need to study, then I study it all at once in a custom study session. I then go to the exams but how do I continue afterwards? Like what are the best settings to retain all the information after that? And how do I make sure that I'm not destroying those settings when I need to study before an exam again?

Jtsummers 4y ago
https://docs.ankiweb.net/filtered-decks.html https://docs.ankiweb.net/filtered-decks.html You can use filtered decks and set them up so they don't alter the schedule of the cards when they're "returned" to their actual regular deck. Useful for a cram session before an exam where you don't want to actually alter the regular study schedule.
- sureglymop 4y ago
  Thank you! Exactly what I was looking for. I was in such a cramming mode at the time that i didn't finish the docs but pretty much stopped after I understood notes and cards. Can you recommend any settings for a good schedule to retain information?
  - Jtsummers 4y ago
    Sorry, I just use the defaults. I've found they're effective for me. The most I tune it is to raise or lower the number of cards per day (number of review, number of new) for specific circumstances. Like when I've fallen behind I may lower the number of new cards per day and raise reviews a bit to clear a backlog. I have tried adjusting it more in the past and found it did nothing to help me overall and I was just turning knobs to turn knobs.
tra3 4y ago
But the point of SRS is that it prompts you to review the cards when there's a high chance of memory decay. Say you learned your cards and did a custom study to review them before your exam. Now you "know" these cards to some extent. Anki knows how many times you reviewed them and if you provided an accurate assessment of how well you retained these cards, Anki will know when to show 'em next, so you don't forget. You don't have to do anything.
Version467 4y ago
The real answer to this is to regularly create good cards during your semester. This drastically reduces the amount of cards you need to create a week before your exam which in turn reduces the amount of cramming you have to do. Now don't get me wrong, I'm perfectly well aware that the knowledge required for exams isn't representative of the knowledge required to be well versed in a topic outside of exams, and Anki can still help you learn stuff that you specifically want to remember for exams, but you can remove those cards afterwards. You don't actually need (and probably don't want) to remember much of the stuff that instructors want you to remember for exams. So after the exam you just keep reviewing as normal, but radically delete/suspend cards that were exam specific. This way you start learning a lot of the things that you actually want to remember longterm during the semester, while also avoiding a lot of clutter from exam specific cards.

somsak2 4y ago

Why does it matter what your stats are?