I can't get Tags to display in my answers. When I include %(Tags)s in the cards answer formats, it gives me error messages everywhere: [invalid format; see model properties]. I've tried every spelling but nothing works. Suggestions?

Or...... you could just use the Japanese mobile phone interface and have it all stay updated in real time.

Last edited by dilandau23 (2008 January 10, 9:39 pm)

Thanks. I studied with my PDA for a while but got fed up with the small screen, low resolution, and not having a sense of "how much" I had left to learn.

Somewhat contrary to my expectations, I found that printing my study list in a small font on a single sheet of A4 paper did wonders for my motivation. At a glance, I could see everything I wanted to study for the day/week, and my eyes could very quickly scan the entire list and identify items that I was weak on. Reviewing with a PDA seemed to me to be a much more sequential (next card, next card, next card...), rather than holistic process (scan the list... aha, there's a word I don't remember). Also, the sheet of paper is instant-on and super-high resolution, unlike my PDA.

Looks like I'll be writing my own program! Thanks again for the information.

Last edited by rtkrtk (2008 January 10, 10:11 pm)

you could probably write a plugin for anki to accomplish what you want

rtkrtk: I suggest you try the cell phone feature before writing it off - it has an ETA and count of remaining reviews for the day so I don't understand your "how much" point.

But Anki's plugin system will let you do absolutely anything. Making a plugin to print a list of the due cards for the day would be quite easy.

dingomick: don't capitalize it

Sorry, I don't agree with your argument that a paper and its "higher information density" is more efficient. Yes, it's faster to scan through a list of words, some which you know well and others which you don't, and decide which words need attention. But the whole point of an SRS is that you're not shown things you don't need to see. If you are optimistically scheduling your cards and aiming for a retention ratio of < 90%, the thinking time per card is going to be a much bigger factor than the overhead of looking at one card at a time. If you find that you're wasting time passing things you remembered really easily, then the SRS is not scheduling the cards far enough in the future.

Last edited by resolve (2008 January 10, 11:29 pm)

I've been a big fan of Tufte for a long time; I once drove 14 hours to attend one of his seminars during one of my school vacations. I think your example is improperly applied. The whole point of an SRS is information priority. It scans for you. You don't need to look at all the items because the system already knows which ones you have trouble with. And it presents them all to you on a schedule determined to be most beneficial for your learning and retention.

Not only that, your idea of 500 kanji on one page is exactly what Tufte fights against. His whole point is parsing, collecting, layering, linking, highlighting, and distinguishing masses of information. One long list is the epitome of what he thinks is wrong with information presentation.

Tufte's principals would be best applied to something like the upcoming Trinity or a Japanese electronic dictionary. Computers allow information to exist in multiple assignments rather than in isolated places. For example, a computer allows you to have on the screen a kanji, animated stroke count, lists of compounds, notations for words you already know, readings, irregular readings, etc all hyperlinked and extendable.

All that to say, I appreciate the convenience of word lists and use them myself to great benefit. But not for the reasons you listed.

--resolve beat me to the punch about SRS review--

Last edited by dingomick (2008 January 10, 11:36 pm)

rtkrtk: I'm not suggesting that printing out the list of due cards would be silly, but having to enter scores in later would be inefficient. Remember that Anki essentially has two modes - "acquiring" and "maintaining". When you add new vocabulary in for the first time and fail it once or twice until you've remembered - that stage can easily be done on paper too, and there is no need to manually enter in the failures later on.

So I think it would be more productive to study new material when commuting, ie print out a list of new, never seen before vocabulary to acquire, or use the time to read a book and highlight words you don't know. You could then go home and add the words into the SRS, with a much higher chance of passing the first grade than you would have otherwise.

What does that really gain you though?
I try to not let myself do SRS outside of a set time period (I do when I can't finish my reviews in that time, but that's another story.)

The thing is you do not want to be doing SRS. You want to spend as little time reviewing as you possibly can. You want to be doing things. So when I'm out I bring a book, my DS/PSP or whatever. When I'm at home, I watch TV/movies/play games. (And write down words I don't know to put in later.)

SRS time is a limited part of my day.  If you don't have an hour at home to dedicate, I'm sorry to hear. That blows.

Last edited by revenantkioku (2008 January 11, 12:07 am)

It's about 0.2-0.6 yen per question. I use the cell phone interface moderately and never go over 1000yen (I'm charged that much whether I use it or not)

I have to do it backwards, because it's easier to explain. This is only a rough guide for me. I know what a 4 sentence feels like, and I know what a 1 feels like. I'm still working on it, though.

The way I score sentences is like this:

4 - Easy. Read it out loud without effort, understood it without thinking.

3 - Could read the sentence out loud (kanji and all), knew what all the words meant, and understood the meaning of the sentence as a whole with a little difficulty, but didn't spend more than a few seconds hesitating.

2 - Same as 3, but with a little more difficulty and effort. It doesn't feel completely comfortable.

1 - Same as 2, but with even more difficulty and effort. Doesn't feel comfortable, and I had to struggle to remember it all. BUT no mistakes.

0 - I missed the meaning/pronunciation/spelling of a word in the sentence, or I couldn't grasp the meaning of the sentence.

I'm a little more indulgent with myself. Here's how I score my sentences:

4 - Read out swiftly and understood all the parts and the whole

3 - Read everything out correctly but hesitated or got something wrong in the first place and then corrected it

2 - Read correctly but hesitated a lot and maybe the meaning was slightly fuzzy

1 - Got something wrong, like the pronunciation of a kanji or the meaning of a word

0 - It's like the first time I've seen any of the words in there...

Actually, I changed the interval for 1 and 2 cards to, respectively, 20 and 50 minutes. Also, I almost never score 0 to a sentence.
That's because I hate to see the same card two times before having finished the whole review. I know it's probably against the spirit of the SRS, but I found that it took the fun out of the process. It felt like starting the reviews all over.

Not using 4 must give you large numbers of due cards each day no?

I almost never use 0 because that completely resets the progress, which most of the time isn't necessary. I'll only use it if I had no clue at all. If I make a mistake or get anything mixed up then it's always 1.