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Anki: Memorization with Spaced Learning

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Re: Anki: Memorization with Spaced Learning

#81
post #9

Also worth reading is the excellent (and pretty extensive) article by Michael Nielsen[1] showcasing how he used Anki to create an in-depth knowledge about AlphaGo. Personally, I've used Anki to keep remembering/revisiting the concepts that I use for a while and then move onto something else. Common APIs of programming languages and their standard libraries is one such area. I've found that while it's not really diffi…

This article is the best summarization of real, everyday usage of Anki outside of language learning and medical studies which are common uses of Anki. Reviewing flash cards is the highest leverage 10-15 minute habit I have besides planning my day. There's a certain joy and relief from having a reasonable confidence new information will be readily available to you for years to come. Much knowledge is better absorbed t…

What specific techniques are you referring to when you mention planning your day as a high leverage habit?

Re: Anki: Memorization with Spaced Learning

#82
post #57

I started using Anki a few weeks ago when the SuperMemo article popped up on HN. I really like it, and it has helped me remember key terms and learn a new language, all in a really short time... Feel free to ask me questions if you're confused about how it works! I'm fairly experienced now.

I want to learn Spanish. I have a basic vocabulary and understanding. What’s the fastest way forward in your opinion?

Note that flash cards have only limited usefulness with learning languages: you can use them to remember grammatical rules at first, then do isolated word-choice tasks and expand the vocabulary. You'll still want to do massive amounts of reading in the target language to absorb the proper word usage, and the grammatical practices will stick better this way.

Re: Anki: Memorization with Spaced Learning

#83

Also worth reading is the excellent (and pretty extensive) article by Michael Nielsen[1] showcasing how he used Anki to create an in-depth knowledge about AlphaGo. Personally, I've used Anki to keep remembering/revisiting the concepts that I use for a while and then move onto something else. Common APIs of programming languages and their standard libraries is one such area. I've found that while it's not really diffi…

The system described here is in many ways similar to Incremental Reading [1], which also uses an algorithm to schedule when to read the URLs provided. (the Anki addon is fairly primitive though, would rather use a browser plugin that remembers how much I read from each webpage instead) Also worth paying attention when reviewing flashcards, as described in [2]: And when I rush through my flashcard reviews, I’m not thi…

Have you found any good tools other than Anki for Incremental Reading?

Re: Anki: Memorization with Spaced Learning

#84
I've used Anki over the past 8 years or so very successfully. I strongly recommend it to anyone learning a language. Here are some tips to get the most out of it:

* Only put things you know into Anki. An individual Anki card should feel a little too easy when you make it.

* Put in words with a good amount of context. Avoid single words as much as possible. The quickest way to do this is to just input the sentence from the book/TV where you learned the word. You'll learn collocations and grammar structures by doing this.

* Delete cards when they give you trouble. Language learning is a marathon, if the word is important you'll see it again. If you keep getting a card wrong then you probably didn't actually learn it in the first place, or the card is written in a confusing way.

* Avoid the temptation to input huge lists of words automatically. Lots of beginners download "3000 Most Common Words", put them all into Anki and then give up within a few weeks. A language is much more than just a list of words.

Re: Anki: Memorization with Spaced Learning

#85

This looks like a derivative/expansion of the Leitner Method[0] which I first came across over on Reddit in /r/flying for flashcard-based studying. I have definitely always had more success with paper-based studying than studying electronically--I recommend that you take a look at that document if you fall into this category as well! [0] https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzlHy07nfEjOQ2hXWjU3LWpDdmc...

I'd say one of the main benefits with Anki or SuperMemo is that the automation of the algorithm allows for many more variables than you could track manually. For each card, the history of its reviews can be remembered and taken into account―e.g. both Anki and SM have several possible answers for how well you remember the card instead of just "yes/no," varying the next interval relative to the previous one. You can tune parameters for each set of cards, allocating more or less attention to them depending on how easily you remember different kinds of information. This control, IMO, optimizes the schedule over the course of months. (Though it does make tweaking the params rather complicated sometimes.)

Re: Anki: Memorization with Spaced Learning

#86
post #78
post #34

I use supermemo, and the vast majority of my collection isn't language related. For languages, something like clozemaster, supermemo.com, or premade anki decks/courses are fine. I still find it odd that the only two groups of people who seem to use the software a lot are med students and language learning enthusiasts. Supermemo is really buggy, and the website is extremely disorganized, but has a lot of useful inform…

There's a plugin for Anki for incremental reading: https://github.com/luoliyan/incremental-reading (Though I'm not sure how the internal database structure works with that, I think you can't save the whole text along with a deck instead of individual notes―but maybe addons can change that.)

I tried it awhile ago, and it didn't work well, but I'll try it again. Incremental reading is kind of finicky to get right. Incremental reading is the real draw of these programs for me, and Supermemo (despite it's flaws) is kind of the only one that has a decent implementation of it.

Re: Anki: Memorization with Spaced Learning

#87
post #9

Also worth reading is the excellent (and pretty extensive) article by Michael Nielsen[1] showcasing how he used Anki to create an in-depth knowledge about AlphaGo. Personally, I've used Anki to keep remembering/revisiting the concepts that I use for a while and then move onto something else. Common APIs of programming languages and their standard libraries is one such area. I've found that while it's not really diffi…

This article is the best summarization of real, everyday usage of Anki outside of language learning and medical studies which are common uses of Anki. Reviewing flash cards is the highest leverage 10-15 minute habit I have besides planning my day. There's a certain joy and relief from having a reasonable confidence new information will be readily available to you for years to come. Much knowledge is better absorbed t…

Is there a convenient workflow for kindle highlights - > flashcards?

Re: Anki: Memorization with Spaced Learning

#88
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That seems like a waste of flashcards to me, but if it works for you, it works. I would just create one flashcard for front and back. What is a stack in CS? A stack is an abstract data type that's a collection of elements, with two principal operations: pop and push. If an answer's longer than 1-2 sentences then it's time to break it apart into different questions.

I find it somewhat excessive (and I still make poor cards even my by own guidelines all the time), but I try optimize to make my flashcards as easy as possible to answer according to [1]. Especially in the long run once you get thousands of flashcards, and have a few breaks because of life. A general rule of thumb I go by is that my answer should be shorter than the question. Even in your answer there's three or four…

Fair enough. I guess I'm pointing out with cloze questions that don't hide all the selected text, you're perhaps making it too easy. I prefer hiding all, showing one. On a test, you might be able to get similar hints but if the understanding isn't there you might be thrown off by different wording. If I'm creating the knowledge for work, I'd rather simplify as much as possible, break up into different parts where necessary, and learn the answer exactly. Relying on additional context is not something I'd do. For those reasons, I'd prefer regular flashcards when possible. The other benefit of a single flashcard is it's easier for organization purposes.

Re: Anki: Memorization with Spaced Learning

#89
post #57

I started using Anki a few weeks ago when the SuperMemo article popped up on HN. I really like it, and it has helped me remember key terms and learn a new language, all in a really short time... Feel free to ask me questions if you're confused about how it works! I'm fairly experienced now.

I want to learn Spanish. I have a basic vocabulary and understanding. What’s the fastest way forward in your opinion?

I recommend https://supercocoapp.com - it’s my app, so I’m biased, but it has great content and one of the few apps that really focuses on listening and speaking.
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