Raschaverak
Member
From: Hungary
Registered: 2008-12-30
Posts: 362
Anki. Yep... tried to learn those damn 2000 french words, and still no end to it.. I just can't sit in front of it anymore...when I do my eyes start to melt, so does my brain. The mistake I made was:
1. Tried to learn the words from Anki, whereas this is a tool to put into the long term memory things you already know.
2. I've always put every answer to hard, like a reflex, even when it was easy, way too easy. I guess this is the main reason I have so many repetitions like 700 a day....
I shouldn't stop because it reps will pile up....
So this is an oldschool Anki burn-out...anyone has a solution? I still have 200 new words to add. Haha 
rich_f
Member
From: north carolina
Registered: 2007-07-12
Posts: 1708
Go do something else. Something FUN.
I barely touched Anki while I was in Japan, and mysteriously, I still managed to learn Japanese just fine. I went out, talked to a lot of people, read a lot of books, watched some TV, and, of course, did all of my assignments.
With such a full plate of activities, I was able to take a bit of an Anki vacation. Sure, I probably have about 4000 reviews waiting for me, but I'm not too worked up about it. I needed a break from it.
Raschaverak
Member
From: Hungary
Registered: 2008-12-30
Posts: 362
I know...but I don't want to have a lot of reps pile up.... I have a goal in mind, a plan even So the question is..I would need a week to recover at least....I can't afford that much time.... so how do I keep going? Of course I could keep going like this, but it's no good, because I fail 3 times as much as normally, since no motivation to think
EratiK
Member
From: Paris
Registered: 2010-07-15
Posts: 874
If you don't learn to press "easy", then there's no end to your problem, the reps will keep piling up...
For your present reps, just wait a week or ten days, then just pass them (several thousands from what I gather) with easy (no need to even read them), that should set the algorithm straight (or at least start to).
Meanwhile, just do something enjoyable as said above.
Good luck! 
Why can't you spare a week? A good plan is suppose to have flexibility...
A week without Anki isn't like a week without studying at all.
Last edited by EratiK (2012 February 04, 12:40 pm)
ta12121
Member
From: Canada
Registered: 2009-06-02
Posts: 3190
The thing about the srs is, do a small amount daily (when adding new cards). I recommend people don't add more than 20 cards or just to add less than that. Just so you can get a good handle on how to use it well. A lot of people may not have a lot of time but to be honest, this is suppose to be used to save you time on studying. I manage to complete all my reps daily even though I have 2 jobs and go to school at the moment(part-time but I have 3 hour chem lecture, 2 hour bio lecture and 3 hour labs for both organic chemistry and biology. I still manage to use the srs but that's because I know it's suppose to be done in small bursts and plus it shouldn't take any more than 20mins or so(even less). (It takes me 30-40mins to do both decks)
I agree with what people are saying, learn to press easy or good and less of hard. The srs will fix anything you miss over time. So when your trying to learn 2000 french words, take it slowly and you will reach it over the long-term(with awesome results).
Last edited by ta12121 (2012 February 04, 6:49 pm)
Tefhel
Member
From: UK
Registered: 2008-12-13
Posts: 72
Don't press 'hard' for every answer. Doing so is completely pointless, you might as well just print out the words in a big list and learn them old-school style - because just doing pass/fail completely negates the point of an SRS (your 'repetitions' will not be 'spaced' if you do not differentiate between which ones are easy and which are hard).
If I were forcing myself to do 700 reps a day I would want to give up too.
Last edited by Tefhel (2012 February 05, 9:34 am)
As the others have already said, review the cards in small amounts, maybe 40 a day. With 2000 cards it should take plus / minus two months. Learning 40 cards per day also should take less than 12 or maybe 15 minutes, learn them before you review new cards later that day. Do it and you have more time to actually experience the language, that's why you are learning it in the first place, instead of commiting a large amount of new information to your memory.
While you are at it, determin how far you can spread out cards, before you are likely to forget ~whatever. You can then set Anki accordingly, and you'd only have to press the space-bar, instead of automatically selecting hard. Which is what you could also do, that is, if you are not learning before reviewing new cards, you can initially push 2, and then let it cycle by pushing the space-bar.
And if Anki is killing you, take a break from it. nadiatims is so right about picking up words naturally from reading or listening and watching media, do that instead. And as i've read somewhere, Anki in fact rewards not reviewing over some time. If you aren't reviewing for some time and you come back to it, it spaces the cards out further, than it would if you'd have kept up with the reviews every day. So you might or might not try that as well.
Oh and don't worry about forgetting. It's only natural - we are humans after all. ;-)
