Comment by iandanforth

Comment by iandanforth 14 hours ago

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I wrote "Why Anki Doesn't Work for Me" (https://medium.com/@iandanforth/why-anki-doesnt-work-for-me-...) six years ago, which means it was before the new algorithm was implemented. While Anki likely still suffers from all the other issues I mentioned, this directly addresses my point (3). I'm going to have to give it another try and see if the other points are still too much friction, or if the frustration caused by the algorithm was a majority of my pain.

Alex-Programs 14 hours ago

I switched to FSRS via the extension partway through my A levels. I also used the little google collab notebook to custom fit it to my learning patterns - I'm not sure if that's in the version that was merged into the main version.

It about halved the amount of reviews I needed to do, and they didn't come up in bursts, so they were a lot more pleasant. I didn't quite believe it at first, and worried that it would be less effective, but it worked just as well if not better.

I really recommend giving it another try!

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  • domenicd an hour ago

    > I also used the little google collab notebook to custom fit it to my learning patterns - I'm not sure if that's in the version that was merged into the main version.

    It was! There's a little "Optimize" button in the deck settings that you're supposed to click once a month or so, which does what the old colab would do for you.

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  • scalingpilled 14 hours ago

    I’m doing my A-levels at the moment with economics and geography still to go, do you have any tips or advice for leveraging FSRS / tailoring it to my learning style that is more specific to A-levels, based on your experience?

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    • Alex-Programs 13 hours ago

      Good luck!

      I personally used Anki the whole time, so if you're currently doing your exams some of my advice might not be super useful. I did maths, physics, and computer science. I didn't use flashcards much for maths - just for the irritating stats equations - but used it extensively for physics, and a little for compsci (I barely studied for compsci).

      During my GCSEs I extensively used them for history, which is probably the closest analogue to the wordy questions you'll get in geography. I used it for facts, order of events, etc. I found that the process of organising history into a well-organised Obsidian database, then distilling it into flashcards, was as useful as the flashcard reviews itself. I recommend separating your rough working during class (e.g. the short essays you write at the end of a lesson) and your organised notes, which I split into separate, interlinked concepts with flashcards at the bottom of the file synced with Anki via an extension.

      I suppose the advice I'd have is

      - Cloze cards are excellent, and you should use them

      - You can't flashcard your way to mental models. Absolutely don't rely on them alone, and you need to do practice questions for every separate question type you'll get until you're confident with the mental model itself.

      - That said, it's easy to get into the trap of remembering the answers to flashcards as words. While this lets you "learn" quicker, and speed up reviews, I found that I had much better real-world results when I tried to actually "load in" the mental model into my head. So for example, if I had a flashcard about refraction behaviour, I'd not just answer the question, I'd also visualise a laser going from air into water and how the behaviour of the light changed as the angle changed.

      For history, it's been a while, but if I had a question about one factor in a broader crisis (e.g. the Berlin Airlift) I'd try to think about the broader context of the question - not in my internal monologue, but just vaguely considering the various factors involved, the period of history, personally I instinctively visualise a map, etc, for a second or two before clicking for the answer.

      Edit: Oh, and the heatmap extension is great. It gives you streaks and a heat map that you really don't want to break!

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rendaw 13 hours ago

I had similar issues... anki would drill me hard while stuff was still in short term memory (single session) then push it back weeks or months before I had any retention. I'd get to it again and it'd be completely gone, queue re-learning it from scratch.

I brought it up around the time I tried it and got shouted down. Pretty much every spaced repetition app was treating anki like a holy emissary, so I gave up on spaced repetition entirely.

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  • Tijdreiziger 12 hours ago

    There is definitely an aspect of online language learning communities where certain sanctioned methods are treated as gifts from the gods, while other methods brand you as a no-good heretic who doesn’t really want to learn the language.

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  • Aerroon 12 hours ago

    I had a similar experience. In retrospect I felt like I was wasting my time trying to use it. I somehow ended up with memorization sessions that were too easy and impossibly hard and there seemed to be no way to kind of bridge the gap.

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echelon 14 hours ago

WaniKani has the best UI for any SRS software I've ever seen, but they suffer from the old algorithm. They're guilty of all of your points and the article's fourth heading concern:

> And the idea that you’ll literally never see a card again after the last interval is terrifying, as it means you’re constantly losing knowledge.

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