I review unknown vocab several times per day. 

If you are using Anki, this is easy.  Just make a filtered deck with rated2:1 and no rescheduling.  This will show you all cards that you missed in the last 2 days.  I try to run through this deck 2x per day if I have time.  It makes learning new vocab and kanji much easier.

Chris' idea is a good one too.  I've been meaning to redesign my cards to show the sentence for context.

I'm using Core, so I don't really have any kind of context to think back on, but regardless I don't do anything special. I just learn the word when it pops up as a new card in Anki and usually get it wrong a couple times til I can pass it forward to the next day.

(I use the default 10-minute step routine, so I have to pass it once, then again after 10 minutes in order for it to be scheduled for the next day. A pretty good system for solidifying that you actually are remembering the word after a fair duration of time.)

Young card retention rate of 78.9% (that's not that awful for young, right?) & I have been adding over 44+ cards every day for the last couple months. (And native media reinforcement has been very very low.)

So I don't really feel the need to give new cards special attention; I'm just content to fail cards when I fail 'em and let Anki do its thing. But it seems like everyone has their own system of handling new cards! That's pretty neat.

Using nukemarine's core 2k/6k Optimized Japanese Vocabulary deck, reviewing it as it comes and relying mostly upon Anki's new "learning mode" function wherein you pass it once then have to pass it again in a few minutes in order to start the maturing cycle.

Oh, that and I've modified the deck and are using the deck as it is as one deck, and other of the same deck, only set up for recognition. Using the same principle.

There is vocabulary outside of Anki, but I don't bother to make cards out of them. I'll eventually come across them in either core 6k or the new core 10k deck, and if not, unless I really want to remember a certain phrase, it will be "memorised" through repeated exposure in given genres, etc.

zurisu wrote:

Young card retention rate of 78.9% (that's not that awful for young, right?)

Could be higher, could be lower. Young retention rates aren't really that relevant, overall.

Xanpakuto wrote:

Learning mode? Is this some plug in

No, it's built in.
Under options (for a given deck), in the new cards tab, there are steps. Card difficulties aren't increased or decreased while  a card is 'learning' (middle color on your counts - failed/learning/due). Each pass moves it to the next step and only when you finish the steps does it become normal and go to intervals in days instead of steps in minutes.
If you want to really 'learn' vocabulary in anki, make your steps like 1 10 60 180 300 600 1200 ... then you get a bunch of early reviews before the card becomes normal.

There's another set of steps for lapsed cards, which works on the same principle for re-learning.

My steps are just 1 10, which has me look at a card a couple times on the first day and then it becomes normal.

^It isn't really a relevant factor in respect to the overall retention value of a deck, though. Isn't that what the particular discussion about?

Vempele wrote:

uisukii wrote:

^It isn't really a relevant factor in respect to the overall retention value of a deck, though. Isn't that what the particular discussion about?

It's extremely relevant in the beginning (since no cards are mature) but yes, its relevance decreases as more and more of your cards become mature and you finish adding new ones. It never reaches zero, though, as failed mature cards will still become young again (though their recall rate should arguably be considered a different variable).

I use steps of 1 10 60, by the way. I tried 1 3 15 90 (I think Anki rounds the last one up to 120) when I attempted to add some 600 recog cards from RTK3 in one day (I failed - only added 419), but concluded that it's better to only add a sane number of cards at a time.

419 cards in one day? How was the retention rate the next day?

I've been learning vocab like zees:



Front: image + sentence audio + clozed sentence text (picture)

Grade/score by: understanding of the sentence, farmiliarity of the sentence pattern/grammar, and write down the missing word either before or after seeing answer

Back: image + vocabulary audio + sentence audio + full sentence text

How long does it take you guys using core to finish 50-100 new words? In the beginning, when sentences where easy and i+0/1, I'd be able to finish 50 in an hour, and now it takes me ~2 hours for 60 new words.

s0apgun wrote:

60 new words per day is a lot, especially when you get deeper into core. You seem to remember less and less regardless of the order introduced.

Really? I noticed that it's easier to learn new vocabulary the further into Core I've gotten. Granted, I don't usually go above 20-30 cards a day, but most of the things I forget are either really new, really old (and fairly unused), or things that I had trouble with since I first saw them.
Of course, I started Core almost a year ago, so maybe it's just my pacing.

As for new words, I don't start on new cards until I've finished reviews (a little earlier if I'm adding less than twenty). Usually, I take a look at the new cards before I start reviewing them, taking quick note of any patterns in the words (if they exist); this seems to help me remember them better than when I just see them in the program.

sholum wrote:

Really? I noticed that it's easier to learn new vocabulary the further into Core I've gotten. Granted, I don't usually go above 20-30 cards a day, but most of the things I forget are either really new, really old (and fairly unused), or things that I had trouble with since I first saw them.
Of course, I started Core almost a year ago, so maybe it's just my pacing.

It's not just you! I think Core gets easier as it goes along because Kanji readings start to become intuitive to a certain degree, and it's a lot easier to guess them on first encounter.

I felt so overwhelmed at the beginning of Core because of all the new sound patterns (ふく？　りょう？　しつ？ WHAAA) that just simply never occur in English. But after time, familiarity forms, and the sound patterns emerge prominently, which makes the words themselves start to seem friendly and easier to digest instead of seeming like hostile little rapscallions! ^_^

Last edited by zurisu (2013 September 13, 7:01 pm)

Sorry, I guess I should say that was my experience with Core6k. I added 35 cards a day, about 1000 a month, and the first 2000-3000 were fine but then after that it started to get a little fuzzy and retention rates dropped along with ability to maintain focus. I now read native material daily instead of continuing reviewing.

trumpet wrote:

I just wonder what you guys do when you add vocab to your decks. Do you just add it then only review it when it shows up on your deck? Or do you learn it, maybe look it over a couple times over the course of a day or over a few days to really get a handle on it and then not pay it any mind until it's time to review it? Do you go back to the source to review it? Do you try at all to remember the context in which you found it?

1.Yes, I've set up deck options to "show new cards in order added". In preferences I've set "show new cards after reviews".
2.Yes, I've edited "steps" in options to prolong the learning period
3.I clear reviews daily, grading accordingly (1-4)
4/5. Generally I find new, suitable sentences for anki

With pre-made decks, I learn ~12 new words with recognition. (plus a few other i+0 cards: production, comprehensible output)

After clearing reviews from pre-made decks, I may add vocab from media.

Most of the cards I add into anki are in production or clozed format. Lately, my favored template has been [similar to pmnox's and Animosophy's production template].

Last edited by Aspiring (2013 September 14, 10:15 pm)