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Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

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Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#81

Post by mantap »

leke wrote: post #16

Trying to learn Finish vocab, Anki made me realize I had terrible recall. Sometimes, I couldn't even remember what the last freaking card was, and I would forget most things the next day, and everything the day after. After about 3 weeks, I had only remembered 3 or 4 words, so I gave up.

Your memory is like a muscle. Most people don't use their memory very much in their daily lives and so their ability to remember things atrophies. You need to exercise it regularly.

Memory is also a skill. People have all kinds of techniques to remember things more easily, for instance med students use a lot of mneumonics. The key is to make memories stronger by building associations. Memories that are islands die faster. Associations with places are especially strong, which is the genesis of the "memory palace" technique where you imagine a palace with rooms containing the things that you want to remember. But any association will do. For instance, when I'm learning a language I like to make up a little story for each word. Using your episodic memory is a great way to increase strength of memories.

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#83

Post by JulianWasTaken »

tedmcory77 wrote: post #71

What anki desperately needs (to the point years ago I explored this), is out of app nudges. I know I know, lots of folks dont like nagware, but I've found that for recreational things sometimes life happens and I just forget to go back to certain decks. If it's not tied to a goal I never get back to it.

At least on Android, it definitely has this.

Settings > AnkiDroid > Notify when (X number of cards due, etc.)

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#84

Post by leppr »

agd wrote: post #75
crumbshot wrote: post #74

I tried using Anki but found it far too boring to sustain my interest. Staring at fact flashcards for hours on end just felt like a waste of time. In my experience it was much more useful and engaging to learn by doing things (creating, writing, experimenting) that the facts were related to - then the most necessary facts would become deeply embedded in my memory, with others at just the right level of vagueness nece…

I think to make the most of it you need to engage your imagination. Relating stories and context to the facts transforms it from ‘staring at flashcards for hours’ into more of a game and something to enjoy. And the great thing is, because of the spaced repetition, you don’t need to spend hours on it at a time. You can learn a lot in 5/10 mins a day.

When I was starting Anki, I would spend time really focusing my thinking on the cards while reviewing them (reading sentences aloud multiple times until pronunciation is good, relating concepts to others, ...). I'm now convinced this is a waste of time and Anki is best used rushing through sessions as fast as possible (maximum 20min a day). This takes care of the small, boring but often essential rote memorization part, allowing you to use as much of your time and intellect for actual practice in the target domains.

(This may not apply if the target domain is actually itself rote memorization, e.g. medical exams)

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#85

Post by patresh »

Jabbles wrote: post #33

I have used Anki productively, I think it's a great tool, and should be a component of learning in many fields. But I can't help but think it could be a lot better, a lot more efficient, perhaps even 2x more. Anki allows you to customise many aspects of when cards are shown. But presumably those settings can be tuned for a individual, a subject, or even a card. One person probably doesn't have enough data to know wha…

I agree with your comment. As a sidenote concerning your last point, Gabriel Wyner's book "Fluent Forever: How to Learn Any Language Fast and Never Forget It" explains in detail how to build an SRS system to learn a language and it strongly advises against using translation tasks in your SRS.

Instead of thinking in the target language, your mind will create strong associations with the words in your original language and make it difficult to think in the target language by always having to refer to the original language. A better task design would be receiving images and coming up with the word in the target language.

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#86

Post by codyb »

wenc wrote: post #72

Just wondering if anyone has tried combining Anki with handwriting for improved retention? (any personal experiments?) In language learning, memorizing words in a shallow way tends to not be as helpful as memorizing them in a sentence (shallow vs deep encoding). One can try to ankify sentences, but it's too easy to click on the green button and fool oneself that one has mastered the sentence. Anki works great for sni…

I’ve used Anki prior and always wished there was an easy way to inject a bit of randomness into it.

For instance, you could have the idea of a “template” such as

and a .

A lot of times things probably would be a bit non sensical such as

“They went to the bank and saw an apple.”

“She will go to the Eiffel Tower to see a motorboat.”

But I always thought it would really help me a lot more than the more rote aspects.

Of course, then the spaced repetition might be less effective due to the variety of the same card, and it may be more like studying something new.

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#87

Post by codyb »

Ozzie_osman wrote: post #73

What programs do people use for Anki? I've tried the usual suspects, and found them a little too tedious. What I'd love is: - seamless syncing of cards between my devices. - more thought into the engagement loop (ie getting me to not be lazy and actually do the work). - an easily searchable database with credible curated decks.

I think Anki’s official app has those features? It was about 20 bucks on iPhone and free on OS X I believe, not sure about other platforms.

The thing that would always get me would be that I would make a card on the phone and forget to manually sync it or something and then make a card on the computer and have to resolve conflicts.

They really just needed an “add all cards from all sources” feature since that was generally all I wanted.

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#88

Post by vslira »

crumbshot wrote: post #74

I tried using Anki but found it far too boring to sustain my interest. Staring at fact flashcards for hours on end just felt like a waste of time. In my experience it was much more useful and engaging to learn by doing things (creating, writing, experimenting) that the facts were related to - then the most necessary facts would become deeply embedded in my memory, with others at just the right level of vagueness nece…

> Staring at fact flashcards for hours on end just felt like a waste of time.

I think I found your problem.

Try this cycle: - Add however many cards you like - Study - Got bored and didn't finish all your cards? Stop and don't add any new card until you can finish quick enough to not get bored - Finishing quickly? Add more cards

The exponentially increasing interval is your friend. Before you notice you won't be studying more than 10 cards a day :)

It doesn't feel like it in the first ~10 days of a block of cards, but there's a jitter in the spacing function, so you will see the same block at the same time 2 or 3 times but then they'll start dispersing and be a lot less overwhelming.

And most important of all: don't be afraid of slow progress: progress is progress!

Re: Anki as Learning Superpower: Computer Science Edition

#90

Post by MeinBlutIstBlau »

crumbshot wrote: post #74

I tried using Anki but found it far too boring to sustain my interest. Staring at fact flashcards for hours on end just felt like a waste of time. In my experience it was much more useful and engaging to learn by doing things (creating, writing, experimenting) that the facts were related to - then the most necessary facts would become deeply embedded in my memory, with others at just the right level of vagueness nece…

I believe anki was originally devised for foreign language learning
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