Anki Central

[mehc012]

I apologize. I've read through the first page several times and ctrl+f for interval and multiple variations and didn't see any mention of what you set your max interval too. I saw you talk about short intervals for current deck and longer ones for review decks which I understand and makes sense. But I never saw any specifics as far as intervals go. No definition of what short vs. long is to you in terms of intervals.

You know what? You're absolutely right, my apologies. I must be conflating that with something I posted elsewhere (which reminds me, I should go dig that up and include it here!) My bad.

I don't really pay much attention to Max Interval; I don't think it's particularly important. The arbitrary value they set it to is so large that there may as well be no Max Interval. You simply won't hit it while you're still in med school...probably not while you're still in residency!

I think I pulled mine down to a year or two just out of personal discomfort at the idea of not seeing a card for what may as well be eternity. Again, I don't think it matters hardly at all.

As for the other intervals...they will be set organically as you review your deck based on what you set your initial steps and your starting ease at...and THOSE I did go into (just checked, I swear!) Once you set those up, you don't need to worry about short vs long intervals!

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[lifeandnothingmore]

Thank you!

 

[ZedsDed]

Hi. Is anyone else having trouble downloading image occlusion?
https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/282798835

 

[hpb]

Hey everyone!

I use Image Occlusion in Anki. Does anyone know if it's possible to edit an image after I've uploaded the card (when I realize, for example, that I would rather the image stay "staphylococcus aureus" than "s. aureus"?) The best would be if it automatically changes for all of the other cards made from the same image, but I realize that may be asking too much.

Thank you!

 

[mehc012]

Hey everyone!

I use Image Occlusion in Anki. Does anyone know if it's possible to edit an image after I've uploaded the card (when I realize, for example, that I would rather the image stay "staphylococcus aureus" than "s. aureus"?) The best would be if it automatically changes for all of the other cards made from the same image, but I realize that may be asking too much.

Thank you!

This is not straightforwardly possible to my knowledge. Also, Image occlusion seems to be having its own difficulties at the moment to boot.

 

[zeevee]

Hi mehc012 , I need a tutorial for Anki custom made for my needs .My step 1 is in 6 wks .I dont want to go through First Aid the traditional way I have been going through so far as it is too boring .I have downloaded Anki and Broscencephalon cards of First aid and Pathoma . 1) where can I see the TOTAL number of cards .The master decks say 1000+ in front of them .There are around 30 decks .I think There are around 8-9 K cards but I want to be sure to be able to divide my time or pick and choose some subjects that I want to do and leave the rest. 2) I want to handover my cram subjects like pharm , micro and biochem to anki and use its review methodologies .That would take some burden off .IF it works for me I can increase the number of subjects . 3) What new card limit should I set for the day or the session ? 4) How can I pick and choose and make my own deck and still use spaced repitition curve ?I can spend 3 hrs a day and then increase it if it is really productive. 5) How can I merge the decks so that if I choose 50 cards a day it doesnt show me 30x50 cards .I hope I am framing my questions right .

 

[mehc012]

Hi mehc012 , I need a tutorial for Anki custom made for my needs .My step 1 is in 6 wks .I dont want to go through First Aid the traditional way I have been going through so far as it is too boring .I have downloaded Anki and Broscencephalon cards of First aid and Pathoma . 1) where can I see the TOTAL number of cards .The master decks say 1000+ in front of them .There are around 30 decks .I think There are around 8-9 K cards but I want to be sure to be able to divide my time or pick and choose some subjects that I want to do and leave the rest. 2) I want to handover my cram subjects like pharm , micro and biochem to anki and use its review methodologies .That would take some burden off .IF it works for me I can increase the number of subjects . 3) What new card limit should I set for the day or the session ? 4) How can I pick and choose and make my own deck and still use spaced repitition curve ?I can spend 3 hrs a day and then increase it if it is really productive. 5) How can I merge the decks so that if I choose 50 cards a day it doesnt show me 30x50 cards .I hope I am framing my questions right .

1) Go into the Browser, choose 'Whole Collection' (first listing on the left sidebar), and look at the title bar of the window. It should tell you the total number of cards.
2) I don't think there is a question here?
3) Depends on how quickly you want to get through things. Take the number of cards you want to learn and divide by the number of days you have to learn them in (leaving at least a week or two at the end for pure review/practice). Just remember that the more New cards you do, the higher your Review due count will be each day. If anything, I would set the New count a little low, at a number that you can actually, sustainably tackle each day in addition to your Due count. Then on days where you have extra time, I would use Custom Study to see more New cards on that particular day (and catch up on any piled-up Due cards that exceed your daily Review count).

4/5) The interval for your card will be preserved wherever you move it, no matter what the settings, but the next interval will be calculated using the settings of the deck it is in when you review.
If I were you, I'd take the Brose decks (I'll call them all together Big Deck) and set them to 0 New Cards, 0 Reviews, etc. You won't study anything from these decks directly, which is good...why reinforce knowledge that you haven't taken the time to actively learn yet?

I'd then make a Current deck with a high New and Review count and small intervals.

Use the Browser to pull only the cards you want to study. Move those into the Current deck. Now they will start to pop up according to that deck's spaced repetition settings.

You can then study just from the Current deck and cover everything you want. You can even add cards to it no problem. When you're done, you can make a long-term Review deck with low Review counts and long intervals, move these cards to it, and retain the spaced repetition intervals they already have set.

Also, as a side note, opening with "I need a tutorial for Anki custom made for my needs" is the kind of approach that usually has the opposite of its intended effect.

 

[zeevee]

Thankyou for your prompt reply. I am sorry for the rather plain request at the start of my message .I am able to find the total number of cards .There are 6K min to 8.5 K maximum cards that I 'wish' to target for a 5 week period .

4/5) The interval for your card will be preserved wherever you move it, no matter what the settings, but the next interval will be calculated using the settings of the deck it is in when you review.
If I were you, I'd take the Brose decks (I'll call them all together Big Deck) and set them to 0 New Cards, 0 Reviews, etc. You won't study anything from these decks directly, which is good...why reinforce knowledge that you haven't taken the time to actively learn yet?

How can I set cards to 0 New and 0 reviews?
How do I make a CURRENT deck and "move" the existing cards into it ?
What does the "due" column in the image mean .I have only been using Anki for a couple of days so far so my due for review cannot be this much .Is it the card makers due cards ?
Will this mess up with my space repetition algorithm?
Thankyou for your help

 

[mehc012]

Thankyou for your prompt reply. I am sorry for the rather plain request at the start of my message .I am able to find the total number of cards .There are 6K min to 8.5 K maximum cards that I 'wish' to target for a 5 week period .




How can I set cards to 0 New and 0 reviews?
How do I make a CURRENT deck and "move" the existing cards into it ?
What does the "due" column in the image mean .I have only been using Anki for a couple of days so far so my due for review cannot be this much .Is it the card makers due cards ?
Will this mess up with my space repetition algorithm?
Thankyou for your help

Some of these questions are answered in the first few posts of this thread. Another is a matter of arithmetic and personal preference.

I will take a look at the picture after lunch...It won't load on my phone

 

[zeevee]

I found this video online .I think this is what you are suggesting me to do .It is 10 mins long but I think what you suggested is 5 mins onwards .I dont want to mess up settings comlpletely while I am trying to get a hang of it .
Thanks for your replies .

 

[mehc012]

The numbers in the Due column you are showing do NOT mean those are Review cards. That sort of number is seen on New cards; I'm afraid I don't know the exact mechanism of it.
For cards that are actually due, there will be a date in that column.

You decrease the number of Due and New cards for a deck by making a set of Deck Options like that (I call it 'On Hold'), with 0 for the New and Review counts.
You then make a new deck, say, 'Current' for the cards you are studying, and make a separate set of deck options for it...I gave suggestions in my initial posts, but you'll want to increase the counts to reflect your timeline. To cover 6k in 4wks (with 1wk for review) you'd want at least 200 New cards/day, which will leave you with massive Review stacks piling up. I might set it for 150, or even 100, with a Review count of at least double that, and make up the difference on a few dedicated Anki days where you 'Increase New Card Limit' when you have time.

So, maybe bolus 250 New cards to start out, do 100/day for a week, with 250 Reviews, then on Saturday catch up on ALL overdue Reviews and then do another bolus of New cards if you've still got the stamina. You should do a morning session that covers everything and then an evening session daily to reinforce the New cards you learned that morning. Rinse and repeat every week.
Note: this is a huge Anki burden, but you are essentially trying to learn everything in 1mo, which is a bit intimidating.

Don't focus on the details right now; read through this and ask yourself, really seriously, whether this is something you realistically see yourself being able to add in consistently during your review. If you can't do it consistently, you will drown in it at a pace like this. If, after serious consideration, this is something you truly want to tackle, I can do a more detailed post and add it into the OPs to walk you through the details. Keep in mind that the strength of Anki is as a long-term tool. Using it like this, to cram factoids quickly, is do-able, but the experience will not be the best reflection of what using Anki long-term is like. It may even be harder than normal cramming (if you just want to do that, you can still use the Brose deck, but the instructions will be drastically different), but should hopefully set you up to continue (at a reduced pace) with these cards and retain the information down the line.

 

[zeevee]

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[mehc012]

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[zeevee]

Thankyou big time for your reply .I have been teaching myself Anki with your help today .
The number of cards is enormous .I want to reinforce First Aid in an interactive way and I want a system that can take the headache of calculating the due date for me to see facts that I want to see. However , I do not want to lose my sanity over them .
1) I have narrowed down the cards to 2500 for the absolutely critical subjects I want to target .
2) If I set the New card limit to 200 /day and I set my intervals as :easy 7 days and wrongs 3 days then does that imply that I will do 200 cards on day 1 , 200 on day 2 and on day 3 I will be presented with 200 cards of that day PLUS the 25 from 3 days ago making a total of 225 ?Assuming I mark only 25 as wrong then every third day I will have 225 cards and every 7th day 200 (new) + 175 ( from 7 days ago ) + 25 from the previous 3rd day 200+175+25 = 400 .meaning that every 7th day I will have the most cards and all other days something above 200 .
However , you mentioned below that I will have massive accumulation of cards as I go along .What am I not understanding correctly ?

To cover 6k in 4wks (with 1wk for review) you'd want at least 200 New cards/day, which will leave you with massive Review stacks piling up. I might set it for 150, or even 100, with a Review count of at least double that, and make up the difference on a few dedicated Anki days where you 'Increase New Card Limit' when you have time.

3) I am definitely going to follow your advice of making a CURRENT folder and using that .However , if I want to keep my subjects separate like Microbiology and pharmacology and Immunology and psychiatry do you suggest it is better to keep them in Four different folders/ decks and then choosing the NEW card limit as 50 .That would give me 50 new cards PER deck totalling 200 cards but this

So, maybe bolus 250 New cards to start out, do 100/day for a week, with 250 Reviews, then on Saturday catch up on ALL overdue Reviews and then do another bolus of New cards if you've still got the stamina. You should do a morning session that covers everything and then an evening session daily to reinforce the New cards you learned that morning. Rinse and repeat every week.

way I will be sure that I studied all the above subjects equally everyday ?
4) My question about the above is that HOW DO REVIEWS pile up ?
5) So far my speed has been 150 questions in an hour comfortably .I have 4 weeks ( +2 weeks for review) , 2500 cards .Which interval do you suggest?
6) What is the Bury card function .Do I click suspend if I never want to see it again EXCEPT under search ?
Thankyou again

 

[mehc012]

Thankyou big time for your reply .I have been teaching myself Anki with your help today .
The number of cards is enormous .I want to reinforce First Aid in an interactive way and I want a system that can take the headache of calculating the due date for me to see facts that I want to see. However , I do not want to lose my sanity over them .
1) I have narrowed down the cards to 2500 for the absolutely critical subjects I want to target .
2) If I set the New card limit to 200 /day and I set my intervals as :easy 7 days and wrongs 3 days then does that imply that I will do 200 cards on day 1 , 200 on day 2 and on day 3 I will be presented with 200 cards of that day PLUS the 25 from 3 days ago making a total of 225 ?Assuming I mark only 25 as wrong then every third day I will have 225 cards and every 7th day 200 (new) + 175 ( from 7 days ago ) + 25 from the previous 3rd day 200+175+25 = 400 .meaning that every 7th day I will have the most cards and all other days something above 200 .
However , you mentioned below that I will have massive accumulation of cards as I go along .What am I not understanding correctly ?

3) I am definitely going to follow your advice of making a CURRENT folder and using that .However , if I want to keep my subjects separate like Microbiology and pharmacology and Immunology and psychiatry do you suggest it is better to keep them in Four different folders/ decks and then choosing the NEW card limit as 50 .That would give me 50 new cards PER deck totalling 200 cards but this


way I will be sure that I studied all the above subjects equally everyday ?
4) My question about the above is that HOW DO REVIEWS pile up ?
5) So far my speed has been 150 questions in an hour comfortably .I have 4 weeks ( +2 weeks for review) , 2500 cards .Which interval do you suggest?
6) What is the Bury card function .Do I click suspend if I never want to see it again EXCEPT under search ?
Thankyou again

There is no 'every 7th day' because you review every day, meaning that once you get to your first '7th day' where you review all that you got right on day 1, the next day you will see everything you got right on day 2, as well as everything you got wrong on day 5 (though really, if you get something wrong you should be seeing it again RIGHT AWAY and then again the next day because clearly you don't know it well enough to wait 3d before seeing it again).

So, in your hypothetical "25 wrong, 175 right" scenario with the intervals as you described them (though I would neither recommend those intervals, nor would they function exactly that way if you were to use them), it would go something like this:

Day 1: 200 new cards +25 do-overs because you got them wrong 225
Day 2: 200 new cards + 25 do-overs because you got them wrong 225
Day 3: 200 new cards + 25 do-overs because you got them wrong 225
Day 4: 200 new cards + 25 do-overs because you got them wrong + 25 learning cards from day 1 250
Day 5: 200 new cards + 25 do-overs because you got them wrong + 25 learning cards from day 2 250
Day 6: 200 new cards + 25 do-overs because you got them wrong + 25 learning cards from day 3 250
Day 7: 200 new cards + 25 do-overs because you got them wrong + 25 learning cards from day 4 250
Day 8: 200 new cards + 25 do-overs because you got them wrong + 25 learning cards from day 5 + 175 reviews from Day 1 + 5 do-overs from reviews 430
Day 9: 200 new cards + 25 do-overs because you got them wrong + 25 learning cards from day 6 + 175 reviews from Day 2 + 5 do-overs from reviews 430
...
Day 11: 200 new cards + 25 do-overs because you got them wrong + 25 learning cards from day 8 + 175 reviews from Day 4 + 5 do-overs from reviews + 5 learning cards from Day 8(1) 435
...
Day 18: 200 new cards + 25 do-overs because you got them wrong + 25 learning cards from day 15 + 175 reviews from Day 11 + 5 do-overs from reviews + 5 learning cards from Day 15(8) + 170 reviews from Day 8 (1) 605

See, the key part of spaced repetition is repetition. So those cards that you got right after 7d? Well, Anki is going to make sure that you can remember them after an even greater interval next time (usually ~150% of the last one, though that depends on your settings). So everything that you get right on Day 1, you see again on Day 8, and then if you get it right again, again on Day 18 (and again on Day 33, etc).

I recommend that you read over the first post again while poking around in Anki and really try to make sense of what the interval settings mean.

As to your other questions - I mentioned in the first post why I don't like Subdecks in Anki (I think they're poorly handled). If you want to separate subjects, just tag the cards by subject (should be easy since they're already separated into different decks).
Further, if you want to add cards in the order that you're studying aside from Anki, feel free to transfer everything from Pharm first, and then Biochem, etc.

 

[zeevee]

Thankyou again!!
Sorry about the "O" it was obviously a mistake .

There is no 'every 7th day' because you review every day, meaning that once you get to your first '7th day' where you review all that you got right on day 1, the next day you will see everything you got right on day 2, as well as everything you got wrong on day 5 (though really, if you get something wrong you should be seeing it again RIGHT AWAY and then again the next day because clearly you don't know it well enough to wait 3d before seeing it again).

Please suggest the new card number, review number and intervals that you think should be best at the moment.( I have 2500 cards and my next NBME is 10 days to go so I want to cover maximum ground till that time but my exam is easily 6 weeks away so I do want to reap some benefits of relaxed space repetition as well )

If you want to separate subjects, just tag the cards by subject (should be easy since they're already separated into different decks).

They are definitely in separate decks .Here is another super basic question .How do I tag them ?
I do want to study the cards subject wise but I want to study a set number from all FOUR subjects DAILY that is why I was going for subdecks because in my limited knowledge that is the only option I have .For example if I am spending three hours then an hour per subject .
I have read the first post many times but some questions keep coming up as I go along.
Today will be my first day to start this project and I can safely give it 4 days to see if I get a hang of it , if its fits my schedule and if it is helping me commit facts to memory .
Hope it works for me .I am very grateful to you for answering my questions relentlessly .

 

[mehc012]

Thankyou again!!
Sorry about the "O" it was obviously a mistake .


Please suggest the new card number, review number and intervals that you think should be best at the moment.( I have 2500 cards and my next NBME is 10 days to go so I want to cover maximum ground till that time but my exam is easily 6 weeks away so I do want to reap some benefits of relaxed space repetition as well )

They are definitely in separate decks .Here is another super basic question .How do I tag them ?
I do want to study the cards subject wise but I want to study a set number from all FOUR subjects DAILY that is why I was going for subdecks because in my limited knowledge that is the only option I have .For example if I am spending three hours then an hour per subject .
I have read the first post many times but some questions keep coming up as I go along.
Today will be my first day to start this project and I can safely give it 4 days to see if I get a hang of it , if its fits my schedule and if it is helping me commit facts to memory .
Hope it works for me .I am very grateful to you for answering my questions relentlessly .

If you want to see all 2500 cards in the next 10 days, you're either going to have to have a huge load for all of those days, or else only see each card once, maybe twice for early ones, prior to your exam. Your call as to which route you want to go.

If you want to study all subjects separately, then yeah just leave them in 4 different decks (not subdecks, Anki handles subdecks terribly) and just divide the total number of New/Review cards by 4 when setting things up. As a note, this is generally not recommended; you learn material better when you interleave subjects, and if you have varying numbers of cards in each deck, you may end up studying less on a given day if one deck has less than your limits and the other has more.

Now, for settings:
Steps for New cards I would do exactly as suggested in my initial posts, 1 120. This sets you up to do a morning review and then a quick evening doublecheck to ensure that you remember what you learned in the AM.
New cards/day: ? whatever suits your needs...this is a matter of your individual tolerance and schedule, and I will not make that decision for you
Graduating: 3d this means that you will see all new cards 2x, during the learning steps, and then about half of them 1 more time before NBME
Easy: 6d these cards will probably not be seen again after initial review, prior to NBME. Use the 'Easy' button judiciously.
Starting ease: 250%
(See, while decreasing the ease would increase how often I saw the card, the decreased ease is a permanent change to that card; even after I move it to a Review deck or change the settings I would see it more frequently than the other cards. Better to adjust Interval Modifier for the Review cards in this deck...more later)

Review Cards/day: At least 2x your New count
Easy Bonus: 130% This is how much bigger your ease, and therefore interval, becomes than it normally would if you mark something easy. So a 3d card should become 7d for a correct answer (3*250% ease) but instead will become (3*250%*130%) = 10d and will now increase by 325% everytime you mark it correct.
Interval modifier: 85% This is <100% because you want to know these cards well by the end of the 6wks. It won't make much difference prior to your shelf, but it will give you more reps with each card during your 5wks. This should be changed to 100% if reviews start to overwhelm you.

I would show all new cards in random order and bury related cards until the next day...makes for better learning.

Now, for Lapses (cards you get wrong):
Initial steps: 1 120 These are your 'Relearning' steps...I make them the same as your initial learning steps
Interval: 40%
This means that if you see a card after a 10d interval and forget it, you would see it again immediately, see it in your evening review, and then see it again after 4d. If you missed it again then, you'd see it immediately, in evening review, and then again after 2d.

Quick note: DO NOT make your total New/Review count (adding ALL of your decks) more than the minimum you are willing to do on your bad days. If you aren't seeing everything that comes due while you are still adding cards, you can either wait and let things work themselves out over time (you will see everything that is due eventually, and if you remember it after a longer interval than your scheduled one, that progress will be noted) or, on days when you have the stamina, select Custom Study/Increase Review Count.

 

[zeevee]

My total number of cards have been reduced to 1895 .I have made 2 decks with the following settings ( images attached)
Before I launch into using the settings can you clarify , as you have been so well , the following
What is Leech action?
What is Leech threshold ?
Bury related card is ticked ( ?) ?
Steps in minutes is 180 under new cards .I intend to finish 2 decks ( 220 cards or 110 cards per deck ) within 3 hours for sure .Is that a correct understanding of that function ?
To select new card number I divided 1895 /8 = 236 .Thats 118 / deck /day (I went 8 less per deck to keep the number round I guess ) and then doubled that number for reviews which is 220 .
Are the settings changeable atleast once as I fine tune myself ?
Through "custom study" I can do more than my daily due .How do I create a custom study deck ?
I am sure all these have been answered in the thread before but can you please guide here as well .Thankyou for the trouble you are taking.

 

[t5Nitro]

Does anybody know if there is a way to switch between cloze and basic card types with a hotkey? It looks like it's possible with an additional program like BetterTouchTool. Anyone try this?

 

[mehc012]

Does anybody know if there is a way to switch between cloze and basic card types with a hotkey? It looks like it's possible with an additional program like BetterTouchTool. Anyone try this?

There's no hotkey for that built into Anki that I know of, but you can do amazing things with 3rd party hotkey apps.
Because I have no other card types beginning with 'B' or 'C', I just hit "Ctrl+N", "B" (or "C"), "Enter" and it does the trick, if that's streamlined enough for you It avoids the mouse which is all I really care about.

 

[mehc012]

My total number of cards have been reduced to 1895 .I have made 2 decks with the following settings ( images attached)
Before I launch into using the settings can you clarify , as you have been so well , the following
What is Leech action?
What is Leech threshold ?

Leech is not really relevant for what you are doing, which is why I didn't address it.
Basically, if you get a card wrong a certain number of times (the 'Leech threshold'), it's probably a badly made card - something vague, for example - so Anki takes some sort of action (the 'Leech action') to notify you of this...it can either flag it as a leech, or it can flag it and suspend it. This allows you to go through every once and a while and fix/purge any cards in your deck that just aren't working for you.

Bury related card is ticked ( ?) ?

Bury related card should be ticked, as recommended in my last post. What this means is that no 2 Cards made from the same Note will be shown on the same day. Why does this matter? Here's an example:
Say you have a Note of type 'Basic + reverse'. These Notes have a Front and a Back, and generate 2 Cards: one where it shows you the Front and you supply the Back, and one where it shows you the Back and you supply the Front.

As you're learning New cards, say it takes you a few attempts to learn "Front→Back". Then, a few seconds later, it shows you "Back→Front". With all of the prompting from reviewing "Front→Back", "Back→Front" is going to feel super easy to remember, even if you haven't really learned it well yet.
These two Cards, since they're made from the same Note, are considered 'siblings'. When you check 'Bury related cards', what you are saying is "even if both of those cards are in line to be learned/reviewed today, please space them out so that I can test the knowledge separately."

Steps in minutes is 180 under new cards .I intend to finish 2 decks ( 220 cards or 110 cards per deck ) within 3 hours for sure .Is that a correct understanding of that function ?

Noooo!!
Steps in minutes has nothing to do with how long it takes you to review! Steps in minutes sets the intervals for New cards that you are still learning. The first number is how long it will wait to show you a card that you miss when you see it. This should always be 0, so that the card you missed gets put right back in the queue every time you miss it until you get it right.
You can put however many numbers you like after this...in order to 'graduate' to become a Review card (one whose content you know), the card has to either complete all of the Steps or be marked 'Easy'. Any time you miss a New card prior to it completing all of the Steps, it starts over. You can select 'Easy' at any time in the process.
When a card graduates regularly, it becomes a Review card with an interval equal to the 'graduating interval' in the settings.
When it graduates because you pressed 'Easy', it becomes a Review card with an interval equal to the 'Easy interval' in the settings.

The Steps that I suggested in my last post (though I formatted that line differently than the others) were 0 120. In my mind, if I get something right in 2 consecutive, yet distinct, review sessions, I know the information. Typically, I will do all of my New/Due cards in the morning, and then do another session later in the day where I go through all of the cards I learned that morning and make sure I know them all. The 120min learning interval means that that second session can be any time at least 2hrs after my initial review (long enough to make sure I actually remember the cards because I learned them, not because I *just* saw them). If I don't do a second session, they'll just pop up the next morning (note: cards in the 'Learning' phase do not count as New or Due cards, so if you only do 1 review per day, you will see more cards during that session than you anticipated!)

To select new card number I divided 1895 /8 = 236 .Thats 118 / deck /day (I went 8 less per deck to keep the number round I guess ) and then doubled that number for reviews which is 220 .

Sounds good! If it feels manageable, after your shelf you can wait until the Reviews/Day dwindles a bit for a breather and then add in more New cards.

Are the settings changeable atleast once as I fine tune myself ?

Absolutely. Not only can you change the settings for each deck at any time, but moving cards between decks with different settings is perfectly fine!
Note: The new settings only affect how the next interval for a card is determined, it will not retroactively lengthen/shorten the intervals. However, changing the number of New/Review cards daily is immediate.

Through "custom study" I can do more than my daily due. How do I create a custom study deck?

In the main deck page, next to the 'Options' button, you will see a 'Custom Study' button. Click that.
The first two options, "Increase today's new card limit" and "Increase today's review card limit" do not actually make a Custom Study deck. They simply sift through and show you however many additional New or due Review cards you tell it to.
The next options all make a Custom Study deck based on the criteria described...you can look over everything you've forgotten recently, Review ahead by a few days (this will show you everything that will come due in the next several days...useful if you have a day with extra time, or you plan to take a few days off for a trip or something), preview new cards (I don't see the point in this...just increase the day's New card limit), or create a Custom Study deck based on particular status/tags (once you make this, you can actually adjust the options to include cards based on any Browser search you can type out).
The last one is what I use for a final pre-test Cram session...I tag every card that's pertinent to the test (in your case the entire deck) with something, say 'NBMExyz', create a Custom Study deck based on that tag, and there you go!
Cram deck settings: Generally when making these decks, I tell it to select some crazy high number of cards, (9999) so that everything gets put into that deck. If I don't have time to go through them all (I won't), I just do what I can/feel like and then delete the deck.
If you want to change the search criteria for the Cram deck (or use something more complex than what the Custom Study menu allows for), or need to increase the number of cards, there is an Options menu within the Cram deck's main page. The big thing in here is that you generally do NOT want to check the box for "Reschedule cards based on..." These cram decks are for last-minute review. They pull out cards that are not due, and rescheduling can mess with your spaced intervals. Cram decks are for Cramming, daily reviews are for spaced repetition.

Final note: If you increase your New/Review count, or Review ahead, or try to Cram, but aren't seeing anything even though the deck tells you there are cards left in those categories, chances are they are buried (remember the siblings issue above?) Next to the 'options' and 'custom study' button, you will see an 'unbury' button. This will allow you to see cards even if their siblings are also up that day. Generally you don't need this unless you are trying to do some sort of custom study and find that not everything is being included.

 

[Satire5Texul]

I made an account after hearing it so much.

Also made me upgrade to new OSX lol

But I am loving the program. I wanted to see what the big fuss is all about, and I love it to be honest. Questions are where its at.

Making a ton of cards for my biochem class + others. Already I see refinement around the edges on concepts.

 

[zeevee]

@mehc two a window is popping up repeatedly in my previous session that tells me how many cards I did in a minute.What did I change? I have to read your response a couple of times before I understand the 0 120 function .Thanks ( cannot say enough )

 

[mehc012]

@mehc two a window is popping up repeatedly in my previous session that tells me how many cards I did in a minute.What did I change? I have to read your response a couple of times before I understand the 0 120 function .Thanks ( cannot say enough )

You're hitting Shift+S, which is the hotkey for the Statistics window.

 

[Spector1]

Where do you find a good mcat 2015 deck? (just out of curiosity)

 

[zeevee]

You're hitting Shift+S, which is the hotkey for the Statistics window.

I just changed the"timebox time limit " under Preferences which was set to a minute.I guess that was the problem

 

[mehc012]

Where do you find a good mcat 2015 deck? (just out of curiosity)

No clue...I made an MCAT 2014 deck and published it on SDN, haven't looked for MCAT materials since.

If I were to do it, I'd take my MCAT deck and splice in the Psych/Soc. My deck has plenty of biochem (I prepped using TBR Bio which was 'too dense' for the last MCAT and I included all the extra material) in my opinion...I took the biochem trial and scored rather well on it, especially considering I didn't gaf at that point. I didn't find it very content-heavy. I'd probably skim through a Biochem review book for the 2015 MCAT and throw in factoids if there was new material.

 

[mehc012]

I just changed the"timebox time limit " under Preferences which was set to a minute.I guess that was the problem

Ah, gotcha...that's not a feature I've used. Guess it's to keep you on track and accountable for getting distracted!

 

[mehc012]

Hey guys, so I know that I've been incredibly remiss in not updating my original posts.
I've made some pretty heavy updates, improved the formatting, and have gone through and listed the topics I hope to cover in coming weeks...I'd like to get through one per week for a while now that my schedule is freer. I will also be attempting to clean up/add in the information I've put together in the last few pages answering people's in-depth questions.

SO...if you look through those topics on page 1 and see one that you'd like me to tackle next, post it here! And, as always, ask away on questions (but please, DO read the initial posts first).

 

[mehc012]

In on thread, useful links (I currently use this in undergrad, MS friends state its a lifesaver as well):

http://www.supermemo.com/articles/20rules.htm

http://www.gwern.net/Spaced repetition

Also, I finally watched this video, and it drives me CRAZY that he has like 8 versions of the 'Basic' card. What that means to me is that he downloaded several 3rd party decks and didn't bother to combine Basic cards.
It would drive me nuts because I compulsively convert all of my cards for typing...feels more active. I don't have 'Basic' or 'Cloze' cards anymore, I have my own 'Basic+' and 'Cloze+' cards, which have optional typing and typing hints.

 

[Halcyon32]

Hey guys, I have a few decks that I did like 1 or 2 sessions, some probably over a month ago some a few days ago, and then I didn't use those decks again. There is one deck that I use daily and i decided to take a look at the other decks too but when I answered one of the questions on a card it showed me that the time frames were really high. for example, if I pressed easy it would show the card again in 10 days, good was like 1 month and hard was 1.9 months or something really high like that. I certainly never used those cards that frequently to get to that high of an interval. does anyone know why this happened?
something else probably worth mentioning is that I noticed that on a given day if I check to see how many days one of these really high interval decks are its normal and shows like hard >1min good >10 mins easy 4 days etc. but then when I review the deck that I mentioned i use on a daily basis and then press the sync button, those numbers shoot back up to 10 days 30 days 1.9 months etc.
Any ideas?

 

[mehc012]

Hey guys, I have a few decks that I did like 1 or 2 sessions, some probably over a month ago some a few days ago, and then I didn't use those decks again. There is one deck that I use daily and i decided to take a look at the other decks too but when I answered one of the questions on a card it showed me that the time frames were really high. for example, if I pressed easy it would show the card again in 10 days, good was like 1 month and hard was 1.9 months or something really high like that. I certainly never used those cards that frequently to get to that high of an interval. does anyone know why this happened?
something else probably worth mentioning is that I noticed that on a given day if I check to see how many days one of these really high interval decks are its normal and shows like hard >1min good >10 mins easy 4 days etc. but then when I review the deck that I mentioned i use on a daily basis and then press the sync button, those numbers shoot back up to 10 days 30 days 1.9 months etc.
Any ideas?

Anki takes hiatuses into account...so even if a card was only due after 5d, if you wait 30d to review it, Anki goes "hey, looks like you can remember it after a large interval, so let's use that number going forward."
I'm not sure what's going on with the inconsistency, but the description of the behavior also wasn't particularly clear.

 

[Halcyon32]

Anki takes hiatuses into account...so even if a card was only due after 5d, if you wait 30d to review it, Anki goes "hey, looks like you can remember it after a large interval, so let's use that number going forward."
I'm not sure what's going on with the inconsistency, but the description of the behavior also wasn't particularly clear.

yeah it's kind of hard to explain but so if I skip a day it takes that to mean that i know the stuff for that day? How many days does it increase the interval by per day that I miss?

 

[mehc012]

yeah it's kind of hard to explain but so if I skip a day it takes that to mean that i know the stuff for that day? How many days does it increase the interval by per day that I miss?

The intervals on the buttons you press are calculated based on your current interval. Depending on your deck settings, what you've answered in the past, whether you mark it easy/hard, etc, it will apply a multiplier to your current interval.

So if you see a card with an interval of 3d, you might see:
Hard: 3d*x
Good: 3d*y
Easy: 3d*z

(maybe 2d, 8d, 11d)

If you waited 30d instead of reviewing the card after 3d like you were supposed to, the *current* interval is assumed to be 30d, because, well...you remembered it after 30d! Good job! So now you'll see options of:
Hard: 30d*x
Good: 30d*y
Easy: 30d*z

(maybe 15d, 75d, 105d)

 

[Halcyon32]

The intervals on the buttons you press are calculated based on your current interval. Depending on your deck settings, what you've answered in the past, whether you mark it easy/hard, etc, it will apply a multiplier to your current interval.

So if you see a card with an interval of 3d, you might see:
Hard: 3d*x
Good: 3d*y
Easy: 3d*z

(maybe 2d, 8d, 11d)

If you waited 30d instead of reviewing the card after 3d like you were supposed to, the *current* interval is assumed to be 30d, because, well...you remembered it after 30d! Good job! So now you'll see options of:
Hard: 30d*x
Good: 30d*y
Easy: 30d*z

(maybe 15d, 75d, 105d)

damn that sucks. thanks for your help though!

 

[mehc012]

damn that sucks. thanks for your help though!

You have a couple of choices...you can either do them with the larger intervals and not worry about it...it'll work itself out in the end (either you get them wrong and the interval shrinks to one you can manage, or you get it right and it turns out you were fine skipping all of those steps!) or you can go into the Browser, select 'Current Deck', hit Ctrl+A, and go into File/Reschedule cards. Then you can manually assign them to a smaller interval range (it'll let you pick a min and max and randomize them within it) or even reset them into New cards and start the deck over.

 

[Sailor Senshi Dermystify]

How can I refresh my cards after I finish studying them?

 

[mehc012]

How can I refresh my cards after I finish studying them?

I don't understand the question.

 

[Sailor Senshi Dermystify]

I don't understand the question.

If let's say I studied 30 cards, and I want to start all over again from scratch, how do I do that

 

[mehc012]

If let's say I studied 30 cards, and I want to start all over again from scratch, how do I do that

Make a cram deck (under Custom Study, see the main posts for more info.)

 

[Halcyon32]

You have a couple of choices...you can either do them with the larger intervals and not worry about it...it'll work itself out in the end (either you get them wrong and the interval shrinks to one you can manage, or you get it right and it turns out you were fine skipping all of those steps!) or you can go into the Browser, select 'Current Deck', hit Ctrl+A, and go into File/Reschedule cards. Then you can manually assign them to a smaller interval range (it'll let you pick a min and max and randomize them within it) or even reset them into New cards and start the deck over.

You're awesome. thank you so much!

 

[natg101]

Just a quick question...

I have a main deck for current classes + a master review deck

For the master review deck would it be better to set a manageable review daily limit (eg 100ish) for a minimum, and do more when I have time? Or would it be better to just leave the review daily limit really high (like 9999) and just do as many as I can?

For my main deck I like doing all the reviews available because that's the most important information at the time obviously.

So if its easier to establish a review limit of ~100/day for my review deck, how is the best way to do more when I have an off day or something and wanna knock through them? I'm not sure I understand the method for this.

Thanks in advance!

 

[mehc012]

Just a quick question...

I have a main deck for current classes + a master review deck

For the master review deck would it be better to set a manageable review daily limit (eg 100ish) for a minimum, and do more when I have time? Or would it be better to just leave the review daily limit really high (like 9999) and just do as many as I can?

For my main deck I like doing all the reviews available because that's the most important information at the time obviously.

So if its easier to establish a review limit of ~100/day for my review deck, how is the best way to do more when I have an off day or something and wanna knock through them? I'm not sure I understand the method for this.

Thanks in advance!

Set your limit lowwwwwww! Especially if it's not your main, current, deck! The worst thing you can do is to skip a bunch of days and then get discouraged and stop reviewing regularly. That is less likely to happen if you set your total reviews to a value that you feel able to knock out no matter what, even on your worst day.
When you have time to do more, simply hit 'Custom Study' at the bottom of the main page for that deck, and select "Increase today's due limit". Pick how many extra cards you want to get through, and you're ready to go!
For more details, see the first few posts.

 

[molarmom]

Set your limit lowwwwwww! Especially if it's not your main, current, deck! The worst thing you can do is to skip a bunch of days and then get discouraged and stop reviewing regularly. That is less likely to happen if you set your total reviews to a value that you feel able to knock out no matter what, even on your worst day.
When you have time to do more, simply hit 'Custom Study' at the bottom of the main page for that deck, and select "Increase today's due limit". Pick how many extra cards you want to get through, and you're ready to go!
For more details, see the first few posts.

Exactly, the key to Anki is repetition and routine. They're key!

 

[natg101]

Exactly, the key to Anki is repetition and routine. They're key!

Thank you both!

 

[zeevee]

1) Go into the Browser, choose 'Whole Collection' (first listing on the left sidebar), and look at the title bar of the window. It should tell you the total number of cards.
2) I don't think there is a question here?
3) Depends on how quickly you want to get through things. Take the number of cards you want to learn and divide by the number of days you have to learn them in (leaving at least a week or two at the end for pure review/practice). Just remember that the more New cards you do, the higher your Review due count will be each day. If anything, I would set the New count a little low, at a number that you can actually, sustainably tackle each day in addition to your Due count. Then on days where you have extra time, I would use Custom Study to see more New cards on that particular day (and catch up on any piled-up Due cards that exceed your daily Review count).

4/5) The interval for your card will be preserved wherever you move it, no matter what the settings, but the next interval will be calculated using the settings of the deck it is in when you review.
If I were you, I'd take the Brose decks (I'll call them all together Big Deck) and set them to 0 New Cards, 0 Reviews, etc. You won't study anything from these decks directly, which is good...why reinforce knowledge that you haven't taken the time to actively learn yet?

I'd then make a Current deck with a high New and Review count and small intervals.

Use the Browser to pull only the cards you want to study. Move those into the Current deck. Now they will start to pop up according to that deck's spaced repetition settings.

You can then study just from the Current deck and cover everything you want. You can even add cards to it no problem. When you're done, you can make a long-term Review deck with low Review counts and long intervals, move these cards to it, and retain the spaced repetition intervals they already have set.

Also, as a side note, opening with "I need a tutorial for Anki custom made for my needs" is the kind of approach that usually has the opposite of its intended effect.

 

[zeevee]

Hi mehc012 , Thankyou tremendously for your help regarding set up of anki.I used it succesfully for 2 weeks and the results were sweet. I just focussed on 2 subjects ( a total of 2000 flash cards ) and set two decks in a way that everything would show up atleast twice during a 9 day period.I am amazed at how relaxed my brain is regarding these rote subjects.Now I am preparing for my next assessment and since I have gone through all the flashcards once how can I set the settings to an absolute low so that I can start some other subject at high speed ? I tried putting NEW cards to 50 and restricted the REVIEW to 100 but everyday the "DUE" cards are piling upto 300 something .I am obviously missing something here .Is it that I had to choose a new file name to reset the new limit ?
Also I want to merge "parts of decks into one deck" .I am afraid of mixing up things and not being able to undo it .Will my original decks be retrievable easily ?
Very much in the learning phase of anki.

 

[mehc012]

Hi mehc012 , Thankyou tremendously for your help regarding set up of anki.I used it succesfully for 2 weeks and the results were sweet. I just focussed on 2 subjects ( a total of 2000 flash cards ) and set two decks in a way that everything would show up atleast twice during a 9 day period.I am amazed at how relaxed my brain is regarding these rote subjects.Now I am preparing for my next assessment and since I have gone through all the flashcards once how can I set the settings to an absolute low so that I can start some other subject at high speed ? I tried putting NEW cards to 50 and restricted the REVIEW to 100 but everyday the "DUE" cards are piling upto 300 something .I am obviously missing something here .Is it that I had to choose a new file name to reset the new limit ?
Also I want to merge "parts of decks into one deck" .I am afraid of mixing up things and not being able to undo it .Will my original decks be retrievable easily ?
Very much in the learning phase of anki.

I will get you more detail when I'm not traveling, but 2 things stand out:

If your New count is high, your Due count may primarily be Learning cards (aka New cards from the other day that haven't graduated yet). Learning cards are always brought Due separate from your New/Review counts.

This can be addressed by lowering the New count or adjusting your Learning steps. Again, can't do details right now.

Add for the Deck thing...simply tag all cards in each of your current decks BY deck before you combine them and you'll be able to retrieve them all easily should you need to. To do this, click on a deck, go into the Browser, Ctrl+A, and 'Add Tag'. Then, while they're still all selected, hit 'Change Deck' and move then to your Review deck.

Finally, you may not even need to change settings if you only want to see all of your cards one or two times before taking it easy...just implement that in your Learning steps and then have a large graduating interval and lenient Review settings.

 

[zeevee]

You have a couple of choices...you can either do them with the larger intervals and not worry about it...it'll work itself out in the end (either you get them wrong and the interval shrinks to one you can manage, or you get it right and it turns out you were fine skipping all of those steps!) or you can go into the Browser, select 'Current Deck', hit Ctrl+A, and go into File/Reschedule cards. Then you can manually assign them to a smaller interval range (it'll let you pick a min and max and randomize them within it) or even reset them into New cards and start the deck over.

I tried doing the above just now for a deck that I did some 1.5m ago as a trial and then totally forgot about it /stuck in a hiatus.It is now showing me zero new cards , zero cards to review and does not let me make a "custom study " , tells me its all done.The only option for me is to go to Browse and read the cards in "preview" , I think. Reschedule isnt working for me .It gives me two options when I want to reschedule "place at the end of new card queue " ( which I suppose I should do but the days options are not active ) and "place at the end of review card queue " ( even if I choose zero days to 2 days and go back to the main deck page to see how many cards are there , there are none ) ? Any methodology to go about it ?

 

[mehc012]

I tried doing the above just now for a deck that I did some 1.5m ago as a trial and then totally forgot about it /stuck in a hiatus.It is now showing me zero new cards , zero cards to review and does not let me make a "custom study " , tells me its all done.The only option for me is to go to Browse and read the cards in "preview" , I think. Reschedule isnt working for me .It gives me two options when I want to reschedule "place at the end of new card queue " ( which I suppose I should do but the days options are not active ) and "place at the end of review card queue " ( even if I choose zero days to 2 days and go back to the main deck page to see how many cards are there , there are none ) ? Any methodology to go about it ?

Did you unbury?
And there's no way it won't let you make a Custom Study at all...several of the Custom Study options are designed specifically to enable the actions you're talking about.

Reschedule could help in the long run, but if you've reviewed up to your limit for the day, nothing else will show up even if there are cards Due.

You really need to figure out what you're doing wrong with Custom Study...it's made to do what you're talking about in a ton of different ways.