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I sometimes wonder if tools like Anki aren't just another form of procrastination. The time invested could probably be better spent.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe Anki isn't a tool for you. I personally don't use Anki because it bores me to death. For me it needs to be interesting. I think there are other people out there who even don't use Anki because it's a boring way to learn something.
Spaced repetition really clicked for me when I realized that it isn’t about learning, but about keeping memories fresh. If you don’t have an emotional attachment to each card in the deck, reviews become a terrible slog. Mine is a mix of random insights I’ve had, photos of places I’ve been, summaries of things I’ve learned, etc. The questions are simply there to force me to engage my memory, which drags up the whole w…
I sometimes wonder if tools like Anki aren't just another form of procrastination. The time invested could probably be better spent.
That depends on what knowledge you're trying to retain. When I majored in Spanish in college I was extremely efficient compared to my classmates. Whereas most would memorize lists of words and sentences and dedicate tens of hours to it, I would average less than 5 hours of preparation time per exam.
Did you use spaced rep?
I sometimes wonder if tools like Anki aren't just another form of procrastination. The time invested could probably be better spent.
In the end, I got a lot more out of doing the research to create the cards than I did from the actually looking at the cards. I might even go so far as to say that after creating the cards, they were practically worthless.
This would be less true if the exam was further from the creation of the cards, though. It was within a month.
Someone else's cards might have helped a little, but not nearly as much.
I’ve used Anki for months, trying to learn the Greek alphabet. I’ve failed. I don’t think I’ve learned more than one or two of its letters. Is it possible I’m just not compatible with the way this works? Any tips on alternatives?
Anki is "just" a tool to prompt you with flash cards. Designing them is up to you and extremely flexible. You're free to add text, images, audio, whatever you want.
Some ideas of how you could use Anki to learn the Greek alphabet:
- Front of the card has the upper- and lower-case glyphs and the back has their sounds, either English, IPA or an actual recording (Wikipedia has them for everything in IPA and the Greek Alphabet page has a mapping from letter to IPA). You should also do this in reverse.
- Front of the card has a Greek word with a missing space, back of the card has the complete word. You can use audio recordings here as well if it helps you (e.g. have the front read the entire word).
There are also a few pre-made decks that people have shared: https://ankiweb.net/shared/decks/greek%20alphabet
I sometimes wonder if tools like Anki aren't just another form of procrastination. The time invested could probably be better spent.
If it's anything longer, then it's probably not a subject you should be using anki to learn or you're trying to remember too large a bloc of information at once.
I have absolutely no idea how this could be a form of procrastination, or how I could more efficiently memorize information that must be memorized.
I sometimes wonder if tools like Anki aren't just another form of procrastination. The time invested could probably be better spent.
I'm learning German and Anki is nothing short of amazing. I'm easily able to learn ~20 words a day primarily just practicing on my phone during bathroom breaks.
On the other hand I'm also learning Russian and Anki just doesn't work. Words won't stick in my head the way they do with German.
I've heard very numerous accounts of it being great for Japanese.
I sometimes wonder if tools like Anki aren't just another form of procrastination. The time invested could probably be better spent.
I tried to use Anki to study for a tech certification. In the end, I got a lot more out of doing the research to create the cards than I did from the actually looking at the cards. I might even go so far as to say that after creating the cards, they were practically worthless. This would be less true if the exam was further from the creation of the cards, though. It was within a month. Someone else's cards might have…
Anki is basically meant for longer term studying. The criteria for when a card matures in Anki is when the interval becomes 21+ days.
- Memrise - https://www.memrise.com/ - Has a very extensive selection of decks for language learning
- Supermemo - https://www.supermemo.com/en - Has a (disputed) claim that its algorithm beats Anki, various pre-made decks
- Drops - https://languagedrops.com/ - Mobile-only, has a higher reliance on pictures and audio over written translations.