Need anki help - this should be easy, right?

Discussion in 'Learning Techniques and Advice' started by Stelle, Sep 9, 2014.

  1. Stelle

    Stelle Active Member VIP member

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    I know there are some anki aficionados in here - hopefully one of you can help me. I tried figuring it out myself, but it appears that my google-fu is very weak.

    I meant to increase my reviews for today, since I skipped yesterday. But I accidentally increased my new cards for today by 66! No matter what I do, I can't seem to undo it. I've tried:

    - custom study: "Increase today's new card limit by 1 card" - but the blue 66 is still there
    - options: "new cards/day: o" - but the blue 66 remains

    It's taunting me!

    Help! How can I get rid of it?

    There's no way that I can go through 66 new cards AND all of my reviews in one day. I won't be able to retain any of it. Especially after I've thrown my laptop out the window.

    Thanks for any help!
  2. Peregrinus

    Peregrinus Active Member

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    Two scenarios I can think of:

    a) When you make a change under options, you can have it effect all decks or just one option group (you get a red warning to that effect). If you always have that set to "default", then it affects all decks. So perhaps you do use different option groups and are not making a change to the right one.

    b) The previous accidental change you are trying to undo made those new cards be added to the day's queue, which now perhaps cannot be changed, although it would affect tomorrow's. I suspect this is what is going on. The only thing that possibly might work is setting the starting time of the new day (tools>preferences>new day starts at) to after now and see if that eliminates those new cards from the queue, and then reset the number of new cards.

    Otherwise, just answer "2 days" for all the new cards and slowly learn them later by failing ones you want to learn the next day and continuing to press the easy buttons on others until you get to them by failing them to learn them. Or you could just hunker down and study them :). I've got 575 reviews for today on top of which I plan to learn 30-60 new ones, using an Iversen list for the new ones before dealing with them in Anki.


    Edit to add: Perhaps you could also just do a system restore on the laptop.
    Last edited: Sep 9, 2014
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  3. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    I never use custom study, so I won't even try to fix it that way. Here's something that might take care of it for you though:

    select the deck>options>reviews>maximum reviews per day

    Just key in the total number of reviews you want to do, and it should limit them to that number (unless there is something in custom study that overrides it)
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  4. Stelle

    Stelle Active Member VIP member

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    Thanks for the suggestions! I added them to today's queue. I wanted to increase the review limit just for today in that one deck, and instead increased the new card limit. I'm just going to ignore the problem until tomorrow and hope that it goes away! Ha!
  5. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    There are so many ways to review on anki. What you're doing sounds sort of like what I used to do with supermemo starting back in 2006. I'd start out with a big ol' collection (deck) with all the cards deactivated. I would activate a certain number of them every day, and I would be able to complete all existing reviews. I was always very careful to do all my reviews, and didn't want anything to disturb the algorithm. Eventually my reviews spun out of control (won't get into that story here), and I had a little meltdown. Then I discovered the supermemo postpone function, and that took a lot of pressure off.

    I switched to anki several years later, and I got convinced by Damien that a certain simpler way of doing things was just as good. I won't mention the evolution I went through with anki, but just say it used to have a postpone option but now only has the review limit. I now have 2 decks with many (over 1000) new cards. Every day I do my existing reviews, and a few new cards…however many I'm in the mood for. The remaining new cards are just sitting there and don't contribute to reviews, so that's nothing to worry about. But sometimes I want to take a day off, so I use the review limit on not just the previously mentioned decks but all of them. The review limit defeats the algorithm, but it seems to be ok - no change in the review order, and no apparent lapses in my knowledge. The one exception is my Russian deck, which I do even when I take a day off. I don't put a limit on that one.

    Other anki users do something even more radical. They have decks with tons of new and old cards, they do reviews if and when they please, and pretty much never finish the day's reviews. Taking a break has no impact on this method. I'm tempted to start doing this, but I haven't talked myself into it yet:rolleyes:
  6. Peregrinus

    Peregrinus Active Member

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    Since that practice totally breaks the SuperMemo/SRS algorithm, it is no longer really SRS. However I think Anki provides great utility as a personal glossary whose definitions one has personally vetted and to which example sentences can be added.

    The one (big) feature that I would really like to have with Anki is the ability to have the example sentences and their translations be in separate fields in a different data table in the database, and which one could filter and use independently for just sentence reviews, but with a link to the key word. While I could create separate decks with just sentences, and in fact did with Spanish a couple years ago, I would like to be able to enter all the data at once in a form that feeds multiple tables. I'm sure I could make the database in Access or something but it would like the review algorithms and such.
  7. Stelle

    Stelle Active Member VIP member

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    I build my own decks, adding a few dozen cards a couple times a week from courses, reading or Skype conversations. I generally have anywhere between 30 and 80 unseen words in my deck, but I only see them if I click on stats or on custom study. When I open my deck in the morning, I only ever see the blue number 5 beside the word "new", no matter how many unseen words are waiting for me.

    Since I don't like spending more than 10 or 15 minutes on anki every day, I have my new card limit set at 5 (or sometimes 10), and my review limit set at 100. I usually have about 75 reviews per day in my Tagalog deck - except that I skipped the past two days. Normally I'd just stop at 100, but today I decided to increase my review limit. And then I accidentally increased my new cards limit instead. Bah.I'm still hoping that it will have disappeared by tomorrow, and I'll be back to my regular 5 new cards.

    I generally don't stress out about anki. But I'm finding it frustrating and - yes - stressful to have those new cards staring me down. Ha!

    (As for why I decided to increase my review limit today - it has more to do with dogs than languages, which is fitting for a polydog forum. I've spent most of the past two days on the couch. My dog tore the ACL in his back leg. He can't walk very well and has difficulty getting up from the ground. At 120 pounds, negotiating the half-dozen stairs to the yard and back when he needs to go to the bathroom is a real struggle. He won't eat - which means he won't take his pain meds. He spends the better part of the day shaking and panting. I don't want to leave him alone, so I've been spending most of my time sitting next to him - hence extra time for anki. We're taking him in to a specialist tomorrow, who I already know will tell me that we have to go out of town - and possibly out of province - to find someone who can do ACL surgery on dogs over 100 pounds. My poor boy is a mess, and I can't do anything to help him right now.

    Maybe - JUST MAYBE - my anki stress and frustration is misdirected sadness because my dog is so miserable. Yes?

    Nah, that doesn't make sense. It's obviously just because of anki. Ha!)
  8. Peregrinus

    Peregrinus Active Member

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    Sorry to hear about your dog's problems. Hopefully he can get treated. And by all means, blame the stress on Anki, because it can take it :).

    As an alternative to reviewing new cards of whatever number each day, some users spend a couple hours each day on the weekend and do 100-200 of them then instead of the other 5 days. Naturally though this increases reviews during those other days and the time to review them. You could always just do Iversen lists as they are a lot more flexible. I find that 60 new words takes about an hour and another 20 minutes or so the next day for that day's review of same. If you are willing to suffer some attrition (Iversen's seems to be in the 15% range overall but more perhaps on slavic langs), then it is a lot more flexible.
  9. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    It breaks the algorithm, but keeps the review order. So it's still an SRS, but it's one with a less scientific spacing. If I had time, I could probably sit down and prove to myself that in most cases this wouldn't have much negative impact. And it's more likely to be true if I compare it with what I'm doing right now...I'm already breaking the algorithm after all.

    Unless I'm misunderstanding you, I'm pretty sure you can already do this. For example, the Japanese Core 6000 decks have tons of fields, but the cards that you create determine which fields you actually see in the answer and question. Also, last time I heard there can be "hint" fields, which stay hidden unless you ask to see them. Sorry if I'm misunderstanding - maybe you could post sample cards of exactly what you want to do?

    I think what you do with anki is perfect for your situation. You sound pretty quick with your reviews too.

    That's awful. Hope he gets better soon, and that the surgery goes well. He's lucky to have such caring owners.
  10. Peregrinus

    Peregrinus Active Member

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    I am aware and sometimes use the feature of many fields, even ones that I don't have show in the template. For what I want to do, the sentences need to be in a separate database table, with links to the key word for a given sentence (could have more than once since they don't need to be unique, though of course every entry must have a unique key in addition). This would also mean that each card was composed of fields from multiple tables. Since the sentences may not be unique to one key word, and the number of example sentences might vary in which case you don't want to waste record space with set/fixed number of fields for same, this is best enabled to my mind by the simple/common feature of relational databases of using multiple tables to avoid duplication and wasted space.

    As an example, I enter a word and 3 example sentences and then continue on the same way for another 999 words. Then I want to filter verbs (separate field for POS) and certain ones that match a common base given the search string I enter. And I only want sentences, not the cards associated with each with the key word for each. Thus I want a more granular approach to both individual word entries and example sentences for them.
  11. Stelle

    Stelle Active Member VIP member

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    Since I know you're all dying to know...

    ...my very high-tech approach of just shutting down anki and reopening it the following day worked. Even though I had lots of new words queued for one day, they didn't carry over to the next. The next day, I just had my regular number of words waiting for me. Thank goodness!\

    Thanks again for your help and support during my anki melt-down! Haha!

    And as for the dog, I present to you Chase the Wonderdog, bionic canine:

    [​IMG]
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  12. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    So no operation was necessary?
  13. Stelle

    Stelle Active Member VIP member

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    Difficult question to answer.

    Cecause we're moving out of province in less than a month, the orthopaedic surgeon here isn't comfortable doing the operation. Understandable - we wouldn't get in for another week or two (since he's the only specialist in this part of the country), and then there would be no post-op care available. But it still sucks.

    The guy who made the brace is pretty amazing. He designed prosthetic limbs and braces for children before specializing in dogs. He said that we may or may not have to get surgery when we move next month - but it's possible that Chase will take well to the brace, and that it will be enough for him (although he'd have to wear it for the rest of his life).

    There are lots of complications to consider. At ten years old, Chase is a senior dog, so he might not be the best candidate for major surgery. He also has only one semi-working kidney, which makes it really difficult to use any painkillers, anaesthetics or sedatives.

    Ack, I'm making him sound like a wreck! Ha! He's a happy, active boy - he's just had some bad luck over the past few years.
  14. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    Well, I hope he takes well to the brace then.
  15. Wise owl chick

    Wise owl chick Active Member

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    Poor chase (((((((hug for chase))))))))) I hope that his leg will be ok. he's a beautiful colour, I love the apricot fur colour. My dog is apricot also, but lighter, like a mixture of cream and apricot, but the poodles' fur is different, and my dog is only 3, I know that 10 is quite old for the dogs.

    my dog image.jpg send Chase a dog kiss and wish him all the best
    Last edited: Sep 17, 2014

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