Finishing Zanki Before Dedicated

[stickgirl390]

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I’ve read countless threads on SDN that the best path to a high Step score (250+) is to have all of Zanki matured before dedicated. I’ve been prioritizing Zanki since the first day of M2, and doing extremely well on in-class tests despite focusing so much on Step studying, which is awesome. Even with this success though, it seems next to impossible to keep up with the reviews of old Zanki cards.

I have a separate deck for what we’re currently learning, and I have the limits maxed out on that deck. After the in class test, I move those cards to a Step review deck that is set to 50 new/150 review. I have barely touched this deck though because there aren’t enough hours in the day.

I guess my question is; are the people who boast maturing the entirety of Zanki by dedicated mostly smoke and mirrors? Is this just another SDN overexaggeration of what needs to be done to do well on Step?

 

[Ho0v-man]

I got mid 250s and finished Zanki before dedicated, with the exception of some of the micro stuff that I thought was redundant buzzwordy stuff. I also made a deck of incorrects from uworld and from BnB concepts not in Zanki. I only matured 77%. But I kept up with all of my reviews until 2 weeks before Step and kept up with pharm until 2 days before.

It sucked ballz.

Edit: Do yourself a favor and AT LEAST keep up w pharm and micro

 

[Spectreman]

I’ve read countless threads on SDN that the best path to a high Step score (250+) is to have all of Zanki matured before dedicated. I’ve been prioritizing Zanki since the first day of M2, and doing extremely well on in-class tests despite focusing so much on Step studying, which is awesome. Even with this success though, it seems next to impossible to keep up with the reviews of old Zanki cards.

I have a separate deck for what we’re currently learning, and I have the limits maxed out on that deck. After the in class test, I move those cards to a Step review deck that is set to 50 new/150 review. I have barely touched this deck though because there aren’t enough hours in the day.

I guess my question is; are the people who boast maturing the entirety of Zanki by dedicated mostly smoke and mirrors? Is this just another SDN overexaggeration of what needs to be done to do well on Step?

Not smoke and mirrors. You get into a system where you can hit cards at a rate of ~6 seconds per card. People plow through 700-900 cards/day at this rate with time to still hit other stuff. Personally I couldn’t make it work, but I’m a slow reader and I like to think about the concepts as I read the card. I opted for Sketchy Path and that corresponding deck and wish I would have done it sooner. Still kept Zanki for Psych and other stuff of course.

 

[Type2Fiber]

I got mid 250s and finished Zanki before dedicated, with the exception of some of the micro stuff that I thought was redundant buzzwordy stuff. I also made a deck of incorrects from uworld and from BnB concepts not in Zanki. I only matured 77%. But I kept up with all of my reviews until 2 weeks before Step and kept up with pharm until 2 days before.

It sucked ballz.

Edit: Do yourself a favor and AT LEAST keep up w pharm and micro

How did you approach class material, especially over M2? I'm in a position where I can mature Zanki and knock out Kaplan/Rx Q-banks before dedicated, but it'll be hard to do if I also commit any real amount of time to class material

 

[Schwifty]

I got mid 250s and finished Zanki before dedicated, with the exception of some of the micro stuff that I thought was redundant buzzwordy stuff. I also made a deck of incorrects from uworld and from BnB concepts not in Zanki. I only matured 77%. But I kept up with all of my reviews until 2 weeks before Step and kept up with pharm until 2 days before.

It sucked ballz.

Edit: Do yourself a favor and AT LEAST keep up w pharm and micro

What was your schedule like with Zanki? Like did you do it along with classes for all of M1/2 and how many new cards per day?

 

[Espressso]

How did you approach class material, especially over M2? I'm in a position where I can mature Zanki and knock out Kaplan/Rx Q-banks before dedicated, but it'll be hard to do if I also commit any real amount of time to class material

A good thing to try and do is tailor your new cards/subdecks with the course you're in for M2. For example, if you're in a cardio course that is heavy on cardiac path and the corresponding pharm, your new cards each day should be the Zanki Cardiac Path subdeck, and the cardiac pharm cards after you watch the corresponding sketchy pharm for the cardiac drugs. It helped me last year to be very deliberate with the new cards I did each day. I worked to divide subdecks up into even more subdecks to get the cards I need in there to hit first, to make sure it matches my school work. I did this for each course. At most, I did 100 new cards a day, occasionally.

Schedule wise, I found it really beneficial to do all my reviews first thing in the AM. Each day. No exceptions. So every morning, I would make coffee and change my new card settings to 0 and work through my reviews. This would take anywhere from 2-4 hours. Then, work through class/lecture stuff. By 4-5 PM, I have the evening to knock out 5-20 board qs in the course I'm in. Lastly, I would do my new cards for the day. I was in bed by 10 pm each night, and woke up at 5 am every morning. Also made a 45 min gym session each morning a requirement. It's doable!

I don't think it's necessary to completely blow off class work. As second year class work is really board relevant. I mean, if your school is teaching you board stuff, might as well take advantage of it. But you need to be extremely cognizant of your time management.

 

[watermelon master]

A good thing to try and do is tailor your new cards/subdecks with the course you're in for M2. For example, if you're in a cardio course that is heavy on cardiac path and the corresponding pharm, your new cards each day should be the Zanki Cardiac Path subdeck, and the cardiac pharm cards after you watch the corresponding sketchy pharm for the cardiac drugs. It helped me last year to be very deliberate with the new cards I did each day. I worked to divide subdecks up into even more subdecks to get the cards I need in there to hit first, to make sure it matches my school work. I did this for each course. At most, I did 100 new cards a day, occasionally.

Schedule wise, I found it really beneficial to do all my reviews first thing in the AM. Each day. No exceptions. So every morning, I would make coffee and change my new card settings to 0 and work through my reviews. This would take anywhere from 2-4 hours. Then, work through class/lecture stuff. By 4-5 PM, I have the evening to knock out 5-20 board qs in the course I'm in. Lastly, I would do my new cards for the day. I was in bed by 10 pm each night, and woke up at 5 am every morning. Also made a 45 min gym session each morning a requirement. It's doable!

I don't think it's necessary to completely blow off class work. As second year class work is really board relevant. I mean, if your school is teaching you board stuff, might as well take advantage of it. But you need to be extremely cognizant of your time management.

I mean all you really need is b&b sketchy and Pathoma for board material. Class lectures are too slow and a waste of time when there’s so much other HY material to remember

 

[Espressso]

I mean all you really need is b&b sketchy and Pathoma for board material. Class lectures are too slow and a waste of time when there’s so much other HY material to remember

I agree with this. But we did have a few really good professors that taught a lot during second year that helped give me another perspective for the material. It helped me. I just don't like automatically writing off school work 100%.

 

[Ho0v-man]

How did you approach class material, especially over M2? I'm in a position where I can mature Zanki and knock out Kaplan/Rx Q-banks before dedicated, but it'll be hard to do if I also commit any real amount of time to class material

I did not complete Kaplan or rx prior to dedicated. I wish I had done just 10 q/day but by the end of 3rd semester, I was commonly getting 1000 reviews/day and I was toast. So I watched the lectures and took notes during the week and reviewed every lecture that weekend.

What was your schedule like with Zanki? Like did you do it along with classes for all of M1/2 and how many new cards per day?

First semester was such a shock and really took its toll on my mental health. Forget studying for boards. I just needed to survive! The only board resource I used was sketchy micro.

I started systems second semester and just followed along Espressso said above.

During summer I kept up with reviews bc I wanted that damn review deck to go down for when school started back up. I also memorized sketchy micro cold.

During third semester I did the pharm from first semester and did half of biochem. During fourth semester I finished biochem, pathoma 1-3 decks, and kept adding for classes.

I usually did 100 new/day just to get it out of the way until I covered all the new cards for that block. I’d break up the grind with lectures, boards and beyond, pathoma, whatever. Neuro was straight up hell and I did 150 new/day.

 

[Ho0v-man]

I agree with this. But we did have a few really good professors that taught a lot during second year that helped give me another perspective for the material. It helped me. I just don't like automatically writing off school work 100%.

Same. While I think Dr. Ryan is amazing, he wasn’t always better than my school. Except cardio, renal, and heme/onc

 

[Type2Fiber]

A good thing to try and do is tailor your new cards/subdecks with the course you're in for M2. For example, if you're in a cardio course that is heavy on cardiac path and the corresponding pharm, your new cards each day should be the Zanki Cardiac Path subdeck, and the cardiac pharm cards after you watch the corresponding sketchy pharm for the cardiac drugs. It helped me last year to be very deliberate with the new cards I did each day. I worked to divide subdecks up into even more subdecks to get the cards I need in there to hit first, to make sure it matches my school work. I did this for each course. At most, I did 100 new cards a day, occasionally.

Schedule wise, I found it really beneficial to do all my reviews first thing in the AM. Each day. No exceptions. So every morning, I would make coffee and change my new card settings to 0 and work through my reviews. This would take anywhere from 2-4 hours. Then, work through class/lecture stuff. By 4-5 PM, I have the evening to knock out 5-20 board qs in the course I'm in. Lastly, I would do my new cards for the day. I was in bed by 10 pm each night, and woke up at 5 am every morning. Also made a 45 min gym session each morning a requirement. It's doable!

I don't think it's necessary to completely blow off class work. As second year class work is really board relevant. I mean, if your school is teaching you board stuff, might as well take advantage of it. But you need to be extremely cognizant of your time management.

Nice, I've pretty much been doing exactly this. I've also not been in the camp of blowing off lectures thus far - my NBMEs have been best when I also covered class material well. Just wanted the perspective of someone on the other side of step 1 to see if you guys would have done questions instead of class lectures if you could do it over

 

[Thesimplelifeofamyloid]

I’ve read countless threads on SDN that the best path to a high Step score (250+) is to have all of Zanki matured before dedicated. I’ve been prioritizing Zanki since the first day of M2, and doing extremely well on in-class tests despite focusing so much on Step studying, which is awesome. Even with this success though, it seems next to impossible to keep up with the reviews of old Zanki cards.

I have a separate deck for what we’re currently learning, and I have the limits maxed out on that deck. After the in class test, I move those cards to a Step review deck that is set to 50 new/150 review. I have barely touched this deck though because there aren’t enough hours in the day.

I guess my question is; are the people who boast maturing the entirety of Zanki by dedicated mostly smoke and mirrors? Is this just another SDN overexaggeration of what needs to be done to do well on Step?

If you're not doing your Zanki reviews from previous blocks on time, then you're wasting you time with Zanki.

 

[fldoctorgirl]

Not a myth, I've been Zanki-ing since early M1 (with a break from neuro at the end of the year through the summer, finally caught up on all of those reviews). You can't limit your reviews, otherwise you're defeating the purpose of Anki. You need to complete all reviews, every single day. With news and reviews, I'm at the point where I'm going through 1,500 cards/day...it takes ~3 hours, but once you get used to the grind every single day, it just becomes what you do. It's my #1 priority, and the first thing I do every day before studying anything class related.

This is a common habit that I've noticed amongst my classmates, though. They use Zanki for the current block we're in but then dump the cards after. That may provide success while in the block, but I don't think it'll help long-term and it's kind of a waste imo.

 

[Chelsea FC]

Not a myth, I've been Zanki-ing since early M1 (with a break from neuro at the end of the year through the summer, finally caught up on all of those reviews). You can't limit your reviews, otherwise you're defeating the purpose of Anki. You need to complete all reviews, every single day. With news and reviews, I'm at the point where I'm going through 1,500 cards/day...it takes ~3 hours, but once you get used to the grind every single day, it just becomes what you do. It's my #1 priority, and the first thing I do every day before studying anything class related.

This is a common habit that I've noticed amongst my classmates, though. They use Zanki for the current block we're in but then dump the cards after. That may provide success while in the block, but I don't think it'll help long-term and it's kind of a waste imo.

500 cards an hour ?? Dam youre crazy fast at anki

 

[iforget2]

Not a myth, I've been Zanki-ing since early M1 (with a break from neuro at the end of the year through the summer, finally caught up on all of those reviews). You can't limit your reviews, otherwise you're defeating the purpose of Anki. You need to complete all reviews, every single day. With news and reviews, I'm at the point where I'm going through 1,500 cards/day...it takes ~3 hours, but once you get used to the grind every single day, it just becomes what you do. It's my #1 priority, and the first thing I do every day before studying anything class related.

This is a common habit that I've noticed amongst my classmates, though. They use Zanki for the current block we're in but then dump the cards after. That may provide success while in the block, but I don't think it'll help long-term and it's kind of a waste imo.

I see this a lot with my classmates as well. I bet a lot of the posts we read of people who "did zanki" and didn't end up doing that well on Step came from people who used it this way.

The grind is definintely real. I'm at around 1000 cards per day and have done it since day 1 of med school. In my experience, you really have to break up your zanki times throughout the day to avoid being burnt out. Maybe 300 before noon, 300 in the afternoon, and 300 in the evening. The other 100 you could do waiting in line/pooping/in between sets at the gym. It's an awful feeling when it's the end of the night and you still have like 600 reviews left to do because you weren't efficient with your time during the day.

 

[stickgirl390]

Not a myth, I've been Zanki-ing since early M1 (with a break from neuro at the end of the year through the summer, finally caught up on all of those reviews). You can't limit your reviews, otherwise you're defeating the purpose of Anki. You need to complete all reviews, every single day. With news and reviews, I'm at the point where I'm going through 1,500 cards/day...it takes ~3 hours, but once you get used to the grind every single day, it just becomes what you do. It's my #1 priority, and the first thing I do every day before studying anything class related.

This is a common habit that I've noticed amongst my classmates, though. They use Zanki for the current block we're in but then dump the cards after. That may provide success while in the block, but I don't think it'll help long-term and it's kind of a waste imo.

Ok, I’m glad I posted this now. I’m only in our 2nd module right now, and maturing the cards in that pretty well. I think I can incorporate the first module back in fairly well and keep up from here. The cards for my current module are already reaching the 1 month + mark.

 

[FindersFee5]

Not a myth, I've been Zanki-ing since early M1 (with a break from neuro at the end of the year through the summer, finally caught up on all of those reviews). You can't limit your reviews, otherwise you're defeating the purpose of Anki. You need to complete all reviews, every single day. With news and reviews, I'm at the point where I'm going through 1,500 cards/day...it takes ~3 hours, but once you get used to the grind every single day, it just becomes what you do. It's my #1 priority, and the first thing I do every day before studying anything class related.

This is a common habit that I've noticed amongst my classmates, though. They use Zanki for the current block we're in but then dump the cards after. That may provide success while in the block, but I don't think it'll help long-term and it's kind of a waste imo.

This is the correct viewpoint. Long term spaced repetition is really what makes Anki shine, and is what will let you grind the nitty gritty details that separate 240 -> 250 -> 260 during dedicated.

Also as a long term Zanki user, I didn't end up going past ~800 reviews ever, even with max review time capped at 6 months. The spaced repetition algorithm works, trust it.

Also can't speak highly enough about using review cards as my rest timer between sets at the gym - I hit my lifetime max deadlift and bench during dedicated.

 

[fldoctorgirl]

500 cards an hour ?? Dam youre crazy fast at anki

So, I suspect the time is slightly off because I think I read somewhere that Anki stops counting time for a card after you've spent more than 60 seconds on it. Usually, Anki will tell me I spent ~180 minutes studying x amount of cards, but if I ever actually look at the clock it seems to be more. Regardless, the thing that takes the longest is obviously the new cards and the newer reviews. When I'm knocking out mature cards (with an interval of 2 or 3 months), I can usually answer pretty quickly.

 

[fldoctorgirl]

This is the correct viewpoint. Long term spaced repetition is really what makes Anki shine, and is what will let you grind the nitty gritty details that separate 240 -> 250 -> 260 during dedicated.

This is what keeps me motivated to grind through it. I'm pretty much only interested in IM or FM at this point, but if grinding through Zanki can get me in the 230s or 240s, it'll be worth it for me.

Also, I'm one of those people who doesn't typically break up their reviews unless I have something required to do from my school. I hate the anxiety of having the cards looming over my head so I will typically just knock them out in one sitting.

 

[slowthai]

This is what keeps me motivated to grind through it. I'm pretty much only interested in IM or FM at this point, but if grinding through Zanki can get me in the 230s or 240s, it'll be worth it for me.

Also, I'm one of those people who doesn't typically break up their reviews unless I have something required to do from my school. I hate the anxiety of having the cards looming over my head so I will typically just knock them out in one sitting.

Me too. Absolutely HATE having reviews to do after some mandatory nonsense, so I try as hard as I can to get them out of the way first thing in the morning.

 

[kb1900]

I finished zanki by dedicated and honestly, if I couldn’t keep up 500-800 reviews per hour, I wouldn’t have been able to do it.

Finishing all 3 qbanks with notes (Kaplan, Rx, uworld) is probably more high yield anyway but just as grindy

I gotta day the zanki grind has made m3 quite a bit easier though despite not keeping up with those cards. I basically didn’t have to study for the psych shelf except for doing questions. Neuro floor service I had a stronger foundation than my peers for creating differentials and localizing lesions

 

[watermelon master]

I finished zanki by dedicated and honestly, if I couldn’t keep up 500-800 reviews per hour, I wouldn’t have been able to do it.

Finishing all 3 qbanks with notes (Kaplan, Rx, uworld) is probably more high yield anyway but just as grindy

I gotta day the zanki grind has made m3 quite a bit easier though despite not keeping up with those cards. I basically didn’t have to study for the psych shelf except for doing questions. Neuro floor service I had a stronger foundation than my peers for creating differentials and localizing lesions

You've kept up zanki reviews from step 1?

 

[kb1900]

You've kept up zanki reviews from step 1?

No

 

[Ho0v-man]

This is what keeps me motivated to grind through it. I'm pretty much only interested in IM or FM at this point, but if grinding through Zanki can get me in the 230s or 240s, it'll be worth it for me.

Also, I'm one of those people who doesn't typically break up their reviews unless I have something required to do from my school. I hate the anxiety of having the cards looming over my head so I will typically just knock them out in one sitting.

Don’t ever stop the grind, even for FM! Your high score means you can basically train anywhere you want in FM!

 

[initialize]

What should I do if I finished a block but haven’t unsuspended all the cards in that block yet?

For example, we just finished biochem at my school and we’re moving on to immunology next week, so I started unsuspending new immunology cards on Zanki instead of biochem. I have my Zanki set to 40 new cards per day. I’m still reviewing all of my old biochem cards every day though.

Should I just forget about the new biochem cards for now until dedicated? Or should I gradually unsuspend them?

 

[slowthai]

What should I do if I finished a block but haven’t unsuspended all the cards in that block yet?

For example, we just finished biochem at my school and we’re moving on to immunology next week, so I started unsuspending new immunology cards on Zanki instead of biochem. I have my Zanki set to 40 new cards per day. I’m still reviewing all of my old biochem cards every day though.

Should I just forget about the new biochem cards for now until dedicated? Or should I gradually unsuspend them?

Remember, the aim of doing it this way is to make step studying manageable, not to reinforce class material (at least immediately). You're most likely not going to keep up with your curriculum by default. Jumping around doesn't sound ideal. The best thing, imo is to just finish each deck that you've started. The free time that doing this amount of new cards gives you should be used to study class material.

 

[Thesimplelifeofamyloid]

What should I do if I finished a block but haven’t unsuspended all the cards in that block yet?

For example, we just finished biochem at my school and we’re moving on to immunology next week, so I started unsuspending new immunology cards on Zanki instead of biochem. I have my Zanki set to 40 new cards per day. I’m still reviewing all of my old biochem cards every day though.

Should I just forget about the new biochem cards for now until dedicated? Or should I gradually unsuspend them?

Biochem really never comes back at all, so you're probably safe on leaving any new ones you haven't covered till the summer or something.

 

[initialize]

Remember, the aim of doing it this way is to make step studying manageable, not to reinforce class material (at least immediately). You're most likely not going to keep up with your curriculum by default. Jumping around doesn't sound ideal. The best thing, imo is to just finish each deck that you've started. The free time that doing this amount of new cards gives you should be used to study class material.

Well part of the reason I like doing Zanki alongside my classes is because my school switched to NBME exams. I found doing the associated Zanki cards SUPER helpful for my exams so far

 

[fldoctorgirl]

What should I do if I finished a block but haven’t unsuspended all the cards in that block yet?

For example, we just finished biochem at my school and we’re moving on to immunology next week, so I started unsuspending new immunology cards on Zanki instead of biochem. I have my Zanki set to 40 new cards per day. I’m still reviewing all of my old biochem cards every day though.

Should I just forget about the new biochem cards for now until dedicated? Or should I gradually unsuspend them?

Instead of doing 40 new cards/day, divide the amount of Zanki cards in the deck by how many days you have until your test, this way you can do them all. This may be hard with the broader decks like biochem or immuno, which have a lot of cards, but should be easier to do once you get into systems. I usually try to have seen all the cards by a week before the exam, so I just divide how many are in the deck by that amount of days and do that many cards each day. This way, I'm done with each Zanki deck when I'm done with the class.

 

[ohmanwaddup]

Anyone want to comment what their max interval is? I set mine to 100 and sometimes worry that I wont see the cards enough. Seems to be working alright for now but I always worry I'm shooting myself in the foot

 

[fldoctorgirl]

Anyone want to comment what their max interval is? I set mine to 100 and sometimes worry that I wont see the cards enough. Seems to be working alright for now but I always worry I'm shooting myself in the foot

3 months

 

[7331poas]

Anyone want to comment what their max interval is? I set mine to 100 and sometimes worry that I wont see the cards enough. Seems to be working alright for now but I always worry I'm shooting myself in the foot

100 is way too low lol

3 months

also way too low

 

[slowthai]

Well part of the reason I like doing Zanki alongside my classes is because my school switched to NBME exams. I found doing the associated Zanki cards SUPER helpful for my exams so far

Well, if you prefer to do it that way, then you should 100% do what fldoctorgirl said. But obviously, make sure to do all reviews (including ones from past blocks) everyday until dedicated/step. The reason I say this is that it can quickly get overwhelming doing it this way.

 

[slowthai]

100 is way too low lol



also way too low

Why?

 

[fldoctorgirl]

100 is way too low lol



also way too low

It's the most frequently recommended interval I've seen: https://medshamim.com/med/anki-step-one

It works well for me, I see the cards infrequently enough that I know whether or not I truly remember them or not. Also, to utilize Anki properly you really have to be honest with yourself whether you know the answer or not-- if I happen to get it correct but don't feel confident, I reset it. So, I think I'm okay.

 

[ohmanwaddup]

100 is way too low lol



also way too low

Even for Step 1 studying? I'm a MS2 so the exam is only 9 months away, if I set it higher then wont I not see the card till after my exam, given enough times getting it correct?

 

[7331poas]

Why?

Trust the algorithm. If you dont know the answer press again. Otherwise let the algorithm decide where the card should be placed.

I set my max to around 6 months. There is no need to make the interval so short when in reality you will know most of the cards well.

Even for Step 1 studying? I'm a MS2 so the exam is only 9 months away, if I set it higher then wont I not see the card till after my exam, given enough times getting it correct?

Its in your brain. You might be worried that it isn't but it is. Trust the algorithm.

Spend your extra time doing qbanks

 

[fldoctorgirl]

Even for Step 1 studying? I'm a MS2 so the exam is only 9 months away, if I set it higher then wont I not see the card till after my exam, given enough times getting it correct?

You should do whatever you feel comfortable with. Most sources I've seen recommend an interval of 3-4 months, definitely 6 or less. If you feel comfortable changing it to 6 months, do it. If not, stick with 3-4. It's all personal honestly so no one can tell you 100% what's the best.

 

[slowthai]

Trust the algorithm. If you dont know the answer press again. Otherwise let the algorithm decide where the card should be placed.

I set my max to around 6 months. There is no need to make the interval so short when in reality you will know most of the cards well.



Its in your brain. You might be worried that it isn't but it is. Trust the algorithm.

Spend your extra time doing qbanks

I totally agree with this. Anki's meant to be for long term retention. 6 months is on the lower end of long term. It will definitely stay there in your mind. I keep mine to at least 6 months as well.

 

[slowthai]

Trust the algorithm. If you dont know the answer press again. Otherwise let the algorithm decide where the card should be placed.

I set my max to around 6 months. There is no need to make the interval so short when in reality you will know most of the cards well.



Its in your brain. You might be worried that it isn't but it is. Trust the algorithm.

Spend your extra time doing qbanks

I couldn't even remember why I originally set my max interval to like 6 months haha. This was my reasoning. Thanks for the reminder, lol. I did so much research on how to optimize Anki a few months ago that I've forgotten why I set some things to a certain number or setting or whatever.

 

[Ho0v-man]

I couldn't even remember why I originally set my max interval to like 6 months haha. This was my reasoning. Thanks for the reminder, lol. I did so much research on how to optimize Anki a few months ago that I've forgotten why I set some things to a certain number or setting or whatever.

Should have made a card to help you remember😉

Plenty of my reviews were >1 year out. I just trusted the algorithm. To each his/her own though.

 

[Cath Up]

So, I suspect the time is slightly off because I think I read somewhere that Anki stops counting time for a card after you've spent more than 60 seconds on it. Usually, Anki will tell me I spent ~180 minutes studying x amount of cards, but if I ever actually look at the clock it seems to be more. Regardless, the thing that takes the longest is obviously the new cards and the newer reviews. When I'm knocking out mature cards (with an interval of 2 or 3 months), I can usually answer pretty quickly.

I am fairly certain you can change the timing thing, I notice the same problem.

 

[fldoctorgirl]

View attachment 282267

I am fairly certain you can change the timing thing, I notice the same problem.

Nice, thanks!

 

[slowthai]

I finally got around to checking and my max interval is 36500 days, lol. Just for reference.

Edit: turns out it's the default setting.

For more assurance that you'll be okay if your max interval isn't low:
"The max interval is 36500 days by default (not quite 100 years). Your retention should get better and better with practice and 90% of your cards should be fine getting pushed farther. Reviewing too early can be very inefficient. "

Link to reddit post on the subject:

 

[DrDwayneJohnson]

Late to the game but I'm agreeing with @thefleetfooted and @7331poas. I've changed my max interval around a few times over the last year with the longest being 6 mo (I've seen all of these again by now). My retention rate was a tad higher with 6 mo mostly because I think I was too hesitant to start those cards over again. If you have the discipline, definitely go with 6+ months. I'm now at 5 months with ~91% on matured cards. I'm finishing up Zanki in the next two weeks so I'll see the whole deck again by the time I take Step in April. YMMV

 

[Chelsea FC]

Late to the game but I'm agreeing with @thefleetfooted and @7331poas. I've changed my max interval around a few times over the last year with the longest being 6 mo (I've seen all of these again by now). My retention rate was a tad higher with 6 mo mostly because I think I was too hesitant to start those cards over again. If you have the discipline, definitely go with 6+ months. I'm now at 5 months with ~91% on matured cards. I'm finishing up Zanki in the next two weeks so I'll see the whole deck again by the time I take Step in April. YMMV

This is dangerous, the time repetition algorithm only works if you're honest to yourself and the software. I hate getting a 4-6month card work but if I even partially forgot something im gonna hit again. Thats the rules to this anki gang **** we all signed up for

 

[Cath Up]

This is dangerous, the time repetition algorithm only works if you're honest to yourself and the software. I hate getting a 4-6month card work but if I even partially forgot something im gonna hit again. Thats the rules to this anki gang **** we all signed up for

I second this. It's in the contract.

 

[Gilakend]

Those that have their intervals longer than 4 months (mine is 4 months currently): how is your retention for those cards? I understand that to truly utilize Anki for efficiency, there should be no max interval. However, given that we're all using it for a predetermined amount of time where we want to have an abnormally high retention rate (I would guess 90%+ while the Anki manual says to aim for 80%-90%). For that reason, I chose 4 months, although I'm not very far in (2.2k mature) at all and realize I could start getting reviews piling up quickly, so I might want to be proactive and change it.

This is dangerous, the time repetition algorithm only works if you're honest to yourself and the software. I hate getting a 4-6month card work but if I even partially forgot something im gonna hit again. Thats the rules to this anki gang **** we all signed up for

Did you change your default lapse settings?

 

[Chelsea FC]

Those that have their intervals longer than 4 months (mine is 4 months currently): how is your retention for those cards? I understand that to truly utilize Anki for efficiency, there should be no max interval. However, given that we're all using it for a predetermined amount of time where we want to have an abnormally high retention rate (I would guess 90%+ while the Anki manual says to aim for 80%-90%). For that reason, I chose 4 months, although I'm not very far in (2.2k mature) at all and realize I could start getting reviews piling up quickly, so I might want to be proactive and change it.



Did you change your default lapse settings?

Nope, I left the it at default. Chances are you will remember alot of the cards you wont see in 4 months time if you matured it. And if you dont remember it via cold recall by anki you will remember if via recognition when it pops up on an exam. Cards pilling up is just the name of the game, embrace it and everything else will work out.

 

[Chelsea FC]

I also do a Spacebar day once a month. I know its taboo but a mans got to rest sometimes. Also I think my gf would break up with me if I didnt do it every now and then. I havent found out how to finish reviews quickly. Normally do 100-150 reviews . cards per hour so it takes the entire day to finish around 1000 reviews and 150-200 news.