I have decided to begin using Mnemosyne after an unreliable happening with my internet. This sites program is very well setup, but you guys know how it is with internet issues, and I cant risk it. I also will be adding 50 cards as much as I can. Anyways, I have a few questions about using Mnemosyne specifically with reviewing the kanji.

1) Should I study/learn the set of 50 kanji first, then insert them into Mnemo and review what I studied the next day?
2) How do I know when my review session is over with Mnemo? When I rate one I dont know 0-1, it will loop until I rate it higher. Is this ok? If so, I heard that you should only be reviewing a card once, not multiple times.
3) Any additional tips and information is appreciated. Thanks guys!

+CandyCane

I use Anki, which I think is better for Japanese, but I suppose it still works:

1) Don't worry, try out different ways and you'll eventually find out what works. I put them in as I learned them and reviewed once. Others do different things.
2) Those mean you failed the kanji.
3) Don't worry. It's hard to do this wrong.

First, thanks for the reply. I have another question, I know what grading those means. Some people say that you should review the kanji once after failed and then leave it alone until the next testing. The problem is that Mnemo will show it again in loop the same day, after you rate it low. I personally dont care, but I want to make sure I do it right in order to keep my long-term retention in place rather than short-term.

CandyCane Wrote:I personally dont care, but I want to make sure I do it right in order to keep my long-term retention in place rather than short-term.

Don't panic. Read response #3.

lol, OK, I appreciate it. Thanks again, Al.

I would also recommend using Anki instead, I personally used Mnemnosyne before and it's not even close to as good. The syncing features and the model features etc of Anki makes it vastly superior.

Tobb, if using Anki, how should I set up scheduling? I read up about it but it seems you have to go into changing the scheduling up a bit, not sure what to do there.

I've been using Mnemosyne a long time now, up to 8891 cards.

1) It's not really important whether you review on Mnemosyne same day or next. That first review is just one review, what really matters is the subsequent reviews which will be scheduled in the future.

2) Unless you manage to pass EVERY new or failed card, the session doesn't end; if you do manage that, you'll know because the bar will suddenly say "Learn ahead of schedule" while the Question is blank. But practically speaking, it ends when you feel you've had enough. One thing I should say though, is that Mnemosyne will always show you *scheduled* questions before *failed/new* questions. So there's really two parts to a Mnemosyne daily review, the scheduled questions and then the failed/new questions. The "looping" you mentioned, only happens in the 2nd part.

3) Experiment, experiment, experiment. There is no wrong way to study. I've experimented with being very stingy with ratings, only rating 5's for pathetically easy cards. And that worked fine. I've experimented with being very liberal, rating 5's out for almost every card I don't fail. And that worked fine too. Different strategies have subtle differences, like the stingy strategy obviously takes more time, but you learn the cards better.

BTW, theres a misconception in the SRS community. The idea that, seeing something twice in one day will somehow make you know it "less". If that were the case, we'd all have forgotten the Roman alphabet long ago Every time you see the card, you remember it better. The thing is, seeing it multiple times isn't as efficient *with respect to time*. E.g., seeing the same card 10 times in a day, will train it a lot more than seeing it 1 time, but not TEN times more. If your goal was to cram for a test tomorrow rather than invest longterm in a language, then Mnemosyne's looping of failed cards would be very useful.

One last Mnemosyne tip: you can make invisible text by enclosing it in html tags, <"like this">.

Another Ohio man or woman, awesome. Thanks for the insight, I feel more confident in using Mnemo now, but I may also give Anki a go as well. Everyone is different, but you guys definitely gave me some important views, especially since I am new to this.

Where are you in OH? If you're near OSU, let's go hit up the sake lounge at Bentous sometime.

And I'm a man, btw

CandyCane Wrote:Tobb, if using Anki, how should I set up scheduling? I read up about it but it seems you have to go into changing the scheduling up a bit, not sure what to do there.

Er, where did you hear that? You don't have to change the scheduling at all.

CandyCane Wrote:Tobb, if using Anki, how should I set up scheduling? I read up about it but it seems you have to go into changing the scheduling up a bit, not sure what to do there.

Unless you dislike Ankis default scheduling, you don't have to change anything. And Ankis default is good, so you really wouldn't have any reason to.

Oh, alright then. By the way, I am around Fairborn, and not yet old enough to drink. ^_^

I got a question: you're talking about inserting, but there's a file with all the Hansig keywords that I downloaded, noone uses that? The problem with it: I wouldnt be able to test just the first cards, but I would have to test the whole chapter, cause they are summarized that way. Some chapters are pretty long though...
My problem with this site is, that I cant rate how well I know kanjis, and it wont show me the failed ones while I review. So I guess I wanna try switiching with a new lesson.

If you're talking about the anki RTK 1+3 file you can suspend them all, go to edit all cards, sort by Heisig number, then select the cards you wish to "add" and unsuspend them.

zodiac Wrote:If you're talking about the anki RTK 1+3 file you can suspend them all, go to edit all cards, sort by Heisig number, then select the cards you wish to "add" and unsuspend them.

Hm, no, I downloaded just the first volume kanjis on the Mnemo page.
Edit: just found a solution, have to change the category name, then its no prob xD

snispilbor Wrote:Where are you in OH? If you're near OSU, let's go hit up the sake lounge at Bentous sometime.

And I'm a man, btw

Hey, Ohioans! Slightly new here (well registered a while ago but been inactive) myself. I' m in Columbus but not that close to OSU, is that Bentous place any good? Heard of it before and have been wanting to go with my fiancee, but only Japanese places I've went to around here so far are Akai Hana and Momo's. And can't wait for the Asian Festival to come around again...

Anyways, on topic a bit more, I've been using mnemosyne a little bit but am contemplating just switching to Anki since so many people seem to say it's a lot better, though I'm still not totally used to the SRS stuff.\