Spaced repetition for study and learning • Hacker News Board

Re: Spaced repetition for study and learning

#61

Post by zxcvvcxz » Sat, Sep 28, 2013, 8:18 PM UTC

I've been considering making spaced repetition software to help reteach and remind me of technical concepts I've learned over college that I don't recall too well. Stuff like fluid mechanics, microelectronics, thermodynamics, control systems, complex analysis, computer architecture, etc. Basically I have access to a lot of relevant course notes I took over the years (and digitized), but I don't remember it, so I would use SRS on this material to relearn it. I was thinking 20 mins a day would be a good amount of time for this.

But wait, let's take a step back. Does it really matter if I can recall all this engineering material? Supposedly my brain "knows" enough of it such that if there were a big project in a field requiring that knowledge, then I could relearn it all, because I've been trained to think in a way pertinent to that material. Is my time better spent just learning new topics and building things, which is what I currently do? Why dwell on having perfect recall? It only seems to benefit test takers.

I would love to hear counter-arguments for why SRS for engineering materials would be a good idea for those no longer in school, maybe then I'll be motivated to build some gamified spaced repetition software. It'll need to be fun and reward-based, imo.

Re: Spaced repetition for study and learning

#62

Post by SRSthrow » Sat, Sep 28, 2013, 8:48 PM UTC

I used anki throughout high school for classes and SAT prep - pretty much the main reason I ended up at an ivy league school (now a junior). It was especially helpful for classes like AP Bio / AP US History where there was a ton of pretty obscure stuff to memorize.

It's not so useful in college now that I'm majoring in applied math, but occasionally I'll use it for a humanities class. (throwaway b/c I always use throwaways)

Re: Spaced repetition for study and learning

#63

Post by goblin89 » Sat, Sep 28, 2013, 9:01 PM UTC

Danieru wrote: post #41

Sukotto wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you use it for kana too? How did that work for you? I downloaded a nice kana set (with audio) but somehow they just didn't click. Anki eventually classed most of them as leeches and I stopped trying.

I must admit to not remembering how I handled kana. I know I did not start it until I was a decent way through the heisig book. I only remember even that because my mother was doing a masters in the university's German/Japanese department and one of the Japanese professors mentioned how odd the order was. Don't worry too much about kana. It feels impossible now but it will become second nature. At some point you will…

> At some point you will hate it when someone uses romaji since kana is so much easier to read.

I'm currently reading The Structure of the Japanese Language, and that is indeed the case (the book doesn't use kana, maybe it was difficult to typeset at that time). And I'm not at all proficient with the language at this point, nor have I studied kana specifically. I've struggled a lot with it initially, but consistently refused to read or write romaji, which may have helped.

(Having just recently returned to the RTK deck after a break, I feel it's not enough and I probably should be working through words or sentences already, maybe in parallel. Thank you for describing the various aspects of your workflow in this thread!)

Re: Spaced repetition for study and learning

#64

Post by biot » Sat, Sep 28, 2013, 9:15 PM UTC

Gwern, how long does it take to put together a comprehensive document like this? Also, what motivates you the most in compiling the information? Is it a rabbit hole of fascinating discovery which you joyfully explore until your knowledge is satiated or does something else compel you?

Re: Spaced repetition for study and learning

#65

Post by bayesianhorse » Sat, Sep 28, 2013, 9:16 PM UTC

_greim_ wrote: post #36

bayesianhorse wrote: post #21

Spaced repetition is great for material which is divided into very small chunks and where you have a ton of time for comparatively little information (Vocabulary, especially in languages you are not learning for a degree). Problems arise in practical situations when you want to pass an exam. Or a couple of them in a certain period of time. Proponents of SR will say that it takes at least 6 times the amount of time/ef…

Assuming you're paying to be educated about a certain thing, and you actually want the knowledge and not just the diploma, walking away merely being "primed" to learn it later isn't the best outcome. As an analogy, cramming is better than failing the exam as driving into the ditch is better than a collision. However, best to avoid either scenario in the first place.

For me that would have meant avoiding getting the degrees I wanted to get. Bad option.

Re: Spaced repetition for study and learning

#66

Post by rsheridan6 » Sat, Sep 28, 2013, 9:19 PM UTC

dxhdr wrote: post #16

Spaced repetition, also known as rote memorization, is a terrible way to "learn" anything. The trouble is, you aren't learning at all, you're hacking your brain to force information into it that has no relevance and really doesn't want to be there. It's not a useful or pleasurable activity. It definitely won't make you smarter. Even Mr. Supermemo himself admitted that after FIVE YEARS of constant daily marathon memor…

There are a lot of situations where you have to know a lot of facts and there's no way around rote memorization. Critical thinking isn't enough - you need a corpus of information. For example, if you're in a medical field, you'll have to memorize tons of facts about anatomy, physiology, disease states, drugs and other treatments, treatment algorithms, etc. Same with a language - you have to memorize thousands of words, lots of idioms, thousands of characters if it's Japanese or Chinese.

Re: Spaced repetition for study and learning

#67

Post by mjmahone17 » Sat, Sep 28, 2013, 9:35 PM UTC

joelhooks wrote: post #11

kiba wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I managed to hacked myself to build a habit of 30 minutes a day of spaced repetition, building off my momentum to consistently do khanacademy an hour a day(A project which I finished a while ago) in conjunction with my time tracking tool. The key seems to be a bunch of small repeatable goal that allow for small wins. It works for me, though I don't know if it will work for anyone else. Plus, it's only anecdotal, so t…

The Power of Habit and http://tinyhabits.com/ are both great.

That sounds like such a scam, the wording is the same as every "With these easy steps, you'll feel better and be more fit!" program I've encountered.

Not saying it is a scam, but I'm weary of clicking through.

Re: Spaced repetition for study and learning

#68

Post by seanlinehan » Sat, Sep 28, 2013, 9:39 PM UTC

I was working on mobile app that helped with spaced repetition as a side project. I built a pretty good looking user interface but ran out of time to work on it between school and my company. If anybody is excited about spaced repetition and wants to join me on my side project, I'd love to try to make a little bit of extra time to get it live. I really wish that the application already existed - my midterms would be going much, much better :)

Email me at sean@einstein.com

Re: Spaced repetition for study and learning

#69

Post by steveklabnik » Sat, Sep 28, 2013, 9:44 PM UTC

tunesmith wrote: post #35

I use Anki every day. I think part of the project is in learning how to use it best. I have little interest in learning word-of-the-day or country names. I am more interested in learning new skills, and I shared the concern that it wouldn't work so well for that. I think it's doing all right though. Here are some of the decks I'm most proud of: - Using lilypond snippets and a midi-to-wav generator, I wrote a perl scr…

> I worry that I'm doing the equivalent of writing pointless unit tests sometimes.

Unit tests never go away, though. Eventually a card will get scheduled for years out, and it takes a trivial amount of time to review, so it shouldn't be a problem. I'd imagine.

Re: Spaced repetition for study and learning

#70

Post by steveklabnik » Sat, Sep 28, 2013, 10:04 PM UTC

biot wrote: post #64

Gwern, how long does it take to put together a comprehensive document like this? Also, what motivates you the most in compiling the information? Is it a rabbit hole of fascinating discovery which you joyfully explore until your knowledge is satiated or does something else compel you?

Not gwern, but http://www.gwern.net/About