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Effective Spaced Repetition

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Re: Effective Spaced Repetition

#181

Post by sn9 »

gary_bernhardt wrote: post #170
jayro wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At Math Academy ( https://mathacademy.com ), we implement spaced repetition in combination with a knowledge graph consisting of several thousand math topics and tens of thousands of connections (and growing). We're working on a post that explains how this all works technically. We have a Linear Algebra course ( https://mathacademy.com/courses/linear-algebra ) that some of you might find interesting given how often th…

I'm the founder of Execute Program ( https://www.executeprogram.com ), where we've done a similar thing (knowledge graph + SRS) for programming languages/tools since 2019. Interesting to see that you have a graphviz render of a subgraph right on the landing page! We've toyed with the idea of exposing the graph visually, but haven't done it yet.

The UI/UX of executeprogram is genuinely amazing and the way lessons are broken down is extremely well-thought out!

Definitely recommended for anyone wanting to learn JS/TS, regex, and SQL (especially in conjunction with Jennifer Widom's Intro to Database lectures).

(Given your background with Ruby, have you thought about doing a Ruby course? I find it relatively easier finding resources for JS, Python, and even Rust. I imagine you could make an amazing Ruby introduction, though perhaps it would require more work than JS/TS than I would expect.)

Re: Effective Spaced Repetition

#182

Post by sn9 »

tiagod wrote: post #91

>A common failure mode (and I did this more than once, before I got the hang of it) is to use Anki for two weeks, then drop it, and pick it back up six months later only to find you have 600 cards due for review. This is not encouraging, and it defeats the point of spaced repetition, which is to review the cards on the intervals the algorithm chooses. >I don’t have much advice in this area, except that if you have pe…

Instead of setting a goal of getting through some number of cards, have you considered spending a maximum amount of time per day?

Like say you block of 30 minutes per day for Anki. Most days you'll probably have time left over, but some days you may have cards left to review by the end of the 30 minutes. But that's okay. You can just do them tomorrow. The point is to be consistent, not to be a completionist.

It would probably help to start reviewing old cards before learning new ones as well.

And of course you can start with whatever small block of time feels like it would be easy to complete like 15 minutes or 5 minutes. Maybe even 1 minute; you can always gradually increase the duration as you rack up a streak.

Re: Effective Spaced Repetition

#183

Post by charlieyu1 »

Avijit_Thawani wrote: post #124

Other software which have nailed spaced repetition (and a much better UI than Anki): - https://www.duolingo.com/ (language learninig) - https://www.chessable.com/ (chess) - https://readwise.io/ (book highlights) - https://examarly.com/ (test prep) - https://app.bestudious.io/login (certifications - CFA) - https://magoosh.com/ (vocabulary)

I struggle to learn chess even with repetition. Very slight difference on the board required drastically different plays. It is almost as if there is no pattern

Re: Effective Spaced Repetition

#184

Post by sn9 »

AlexErrant wrote: post #70
dan-g wrote: post #53

Andy Matuschak’s How to Write Good Prompts is another good resource about this: https://andymatuschak.org/prompts/

Going to add Supermemo's classic "Twenty rules of formulating knowledge", which is referenced at the end of the article. https://www.supermemo.com/en/blog/twenty-rules-of-formulatin...

Michael Nielsen has also written some influential stuff on SRS [0][1].

[0] http://augmentingcognition.com/ltm.html

[1] https://cognitivemedium.com/srs-mathematics

Re: Effective Spaced Repetition

#185

Post by atahanacar »

cpburns2009 wrote: post #164
atahanacar wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Going through a whole deck in one sitting is not the correct way to do it. Your brain gets tired and it needs some rest. The way I did it is use the tags to filter topics every day by lectures in my school. Once I complete the day and still have energy left, I'd move on the the next day and continue until I'm tired. I'd finish around 3 times quicker than the pace of school lectures. One thing with Anki or any other S…

I think the problem is Anki is advertized as digital flashcards when it's actually SRS. When you can't use it as digital flashcards, people without copious time to work around its peculiarities will consider it useless. > Once I complete the day and still have energy left, I'd move on the the next day and continue until I'm tired. How can you finish a day without finishing its material? That's what ultimately frustra…

>How can you finish a day without finishing its material? That's what ultimately frustrated my wife.

Well, I don't think anyone can actually finish a day's worth of material in just one day. What Anki does is it helps you plan out how to spread your material so you use your time efficiently. A day's material is spread to multiple days, but you "learn" (the terminology for the card being due in more than a day) all of them the same day, to repeat it the next day and so on, with delays depending on your recall performance. If you make a mistake, your delay for that card is reduced.

>Anki prevented her from getting through all of the material in the med school decks she got from a classmate.

Ah, that might be a problem. If those decks were poorly made, and they probably were if they aren't something like Anking or copied straight from a source like Pathoma, they might even make one want to quit medical school. Ask me how I know.

> I think the problem is Anki is advertized as digital flashcards when it's actually SRS. When you can't use it as digital flashcards, people without copious time to work around its peculiarities will consider it useless.

I don't understand what you mean. Flashcards are SRS, and Anki tries to emulate flashcards.

Re: Effective Spaced Repetition

#186

Post by atahanacar »

cpburns2009 wrote: post #158
all2 wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can adjust the number of cards that get pulled into a given review session. You can also do multiple review sessions. I'm confused as to the problem here. I will admit, reasoning through options is very much harder when you're under a lot of stress.

The problem is you can't go through a whole deck like you can with real flashcards. It becomes a lottery as to what cards you might get. You don't know what cards you didn't see. This was the biggest frustration my wife experienced trying to use it.

>The problem is you can't go through a whole deck like you can with real flashcards.

You definitely can, just not in a single day which is not something you should do. Anki takes commitment.

Re: Effective Spaced Repetition

#187

Post by sn9 »

ekkeke wrote: post #13

Big fan of spaced repitition, especially for language learning. Unfortunately I feel like it fares worse for topics that require more application instead of memorisation, like mathematics or electrical engineering. Would love know if there was some super effective way to learn these similar to spaced repitiion. So far, the only thing that really works for me is solving lots of problems until I have the technique mast…

You can use SRS to schedule the review of problems you've understood how to solve.

Front of card: where to find the problem (e.g., book, page number, problem number).

Back of card: where to find a solution (e.g., solution manual, page number, maybe a personal notebook with cleanly written solutions, etc.).

I initially tried writing up the problem and solution in Anki, but that was too much of a hassle and realistically I'm not gonna be reviewing problems without the book in front of me anyway.

Re: Effective Spaced Repetition

#188

Post by sn9 »

ivvve wrote: post #111
zetalyrae wrote: post #35

I wrote this. Ask me anything!

How would you reccomend I learn history with spaced repetition? I'm studying a detailed subject independently (I.e. not for an exam with a set curriculum) and I'm finding it hard to atomise the cards down bevond dates and names. I suppose I should start there first and then build more complex cards, but I'm not sure what the best approach for those is. Thanks for the detailed article!

I'd check out Cal Newport's work on efficient study habits and apply Anki where it makes sense.

For example, read this and follow the links: https://calnewport.com/case-study-how-i-plan-to-study-for-my...

Obviously ignore the stuff that's less relevant for an autodidact, though seriously consider the effect any particular thing could have on your learning. For example, perhaps you'd get a high ROI paying a history graduate student to assign and grade a research paper or exam.

Ali Abdaal also has great suggestions that should be useful: https://aliabdaal.com/the-essay-memorisation-framework/

Re: Effective Spaced Repetition

#189

Post by greymalik »

ChadNauseam wrote: post #126
Avijit_Thawani wrote: post #124

Other software which have nailed spaced repetition (and a much better UI than Anki): - https://www.duolingo.com/ (language learninig) - https://www.chessable.com/ (chess) - https://readwise.io/ (book highlights) - https://examarly.com/ (test prep) - https://app.bestudious.io/login (certifications - CFA) - https://magoosh.com/ (vocabulary)

I’d like to add Mochi to the list https://mochi.cards/ It’s just a standard flashcard tool like Anki, but with a much better user interface and a simpler (IMO superior) SRS algorithm.

And a subscription required for key functions like multi-device sync.

Re: Effective Spaced Repetition

#190

Post by all2 »

atahanacar wrote: post #186
cpburns2009 wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is you can't go through a whole deck like you can with real flashcards. It becomes a lottery as to what cards you might get. You don't know what cards you didn't see. This was the biggest frustration my wife experienced trying to use it.

>The problem is you can't go through a whole deck like you can with real flashcards. You definitely can, just not in a single day which is not something you should do. Anki takes commitment.

For med students, you need to be able to hit a whole deck in a day. There's too much information to ingest to not do that.
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