Random Quizlet/Anki use observation

General discussion about learning languages
jsega
Orange Belt
Posts: 133
Joined: Mon Aug 15, 2016 6:44 pm
Languages: English (N) Spanish (beginner)
x 92

Random Quizlet/Anki use observation

Postby jsega » Mon Mar 13, 2017 4:53 am

So I've been switching off between using the Quizlet Long-term learning (their SRS avail. w/ paid vers.) and Anki to really decide which I like better once and for all. I'm using the same flashcards on both (via Anki import quizlet addon). All my cards are English front, Spanish back.

I noticed that I consistently have better and less frustrating recall with Quizlet. I wasn't sure why but just now I realized it may be due to the fact that the Quizlet TTS audio plays for the English side as well as having the answer in Spanish of course.

As I stated, recall is definitely easier and less frustrating and I think this may be attributing to it, but is having the English audio (plus obviously the written Eng.) a good thing overall?
0 x
: 8 / 163 Breaking the Spanish Barrier - Beginner:

User avatar
smallwhite
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2386
Joined: Mon Jul 06, 2015 6:55 am
Location: Hong Kong
Languages: Native: Cantonese;
Good: English, French, Spanish, Italian;
Mediocre: Mandarin, German, Swedish, Dutch.
.
x 4876

Re: Random Quizlet/Anki use observation

Postby smallwhite » Mon Mar 13, 2017 5:34 am

jsega wrote:I noticed that I consistently have better and less frustrating recall with Quizlet. I wasn't sure why...

What is Quizlet's scheduling like? Eg. Memrise's is 4 hours, 12 hours, 1 day, 6 days,12 ,24 ,48 , 90, 180; 180 days max.
0 x
Dialang or it didn't happen.

jsega
Orange Belt
Posts: 133
Joined: Mon Aug 15, 2016 6:44 pm
Languages: English (N) Spanish (beginner)
x 92

Re: Random Quizlet/Anki use observation

Postby jsega » Mon Mar 13, 2017 6:12 am

smallwhite wrote:
jsega wrote:I noticed that I consistently have better and less frustrating recall with Quizlet. I wasn't sure why...

What is Quizlet's scheduling like? Eg. Memrise's is 4 hours, 12 hours, 1 day, 6 days,12 ,24 ,48 , 90, 180; 180 days max.


It's definitely by the day in Long-term learning, their new learning assistant I know is different.

I'm not sure on specifics but, at least when you're first learning it, there definitely are not as many repetitions as Anki. Even the first day you see it in Quizlet, once you get it right the first time that's it for that day. On the other hand, there aren't any options to grade yourself so you can never hit Easy.

Edit: I will need to try and see if they've shared their scheduling information. It's not readily available on the website.
0 x
: 8 / 163 Breaking the Spanish Barrier - Beginner:

User avatar
Adrianslont
Blue Belt
Posts: 827
Joined: Sun Aug 16, 2015 10:39 am
Location: Australia
Languages: English (N), Learning Indonesian and French
x 1936

Re: Random Quizlet/Anki use observation

Postby Adrianslont » Mon Mar 13, 2017 7:17 am

So many variables! You seem to be suspecting that the audio on the front is somehow helping? Did I understand correctly? And Smallwhite seems to suspect that the intervals in quizlet may suit you better?

I guess anki is flexible enough that you could reproduce what quizlet does with tts and intervals in your cards in anki anyway without too much difficulty.

I think your comparison is only going to work if you intend to stick to pretty simple cards such as the ones you have described.

I've tried quizlet - 2.5 years ago, so pre srs - and I liked some things about it - one of the games, it looked nice, behaved pretty well, easy interface but I have converted to anki because I can use MP3 audio, make subs2srs cards for it, use cloze deletion cards and sync easily across devices. Along with the srs - these are features that win me over.

Cheers.
0 x

jsega
Orange Belt
Posts: 133
Joined: Mon Aug 15, 2016 6:44 pm
Languages: English (N) Spanish (beginner)
x 92

Re: Random Quizlet/Anki use observation

Postby jsega » Mon Mar 13, 2017 7:46 am

Adrianslont wrote:So many variables! You seem to be suspecting that the audio on the front is somehow helping? Did I understand correctly? And Smallwhite seems to suspect that the intervals in quizlet may suit you better?

I guess anki is flexible enough that you could reproduce what quizlet does with tts and intervals in your cards in anki anyway without too much difficulty.

I think your comparison is only going to work if you intend to stick to pretty simple cards such as the ones you have described.

I've tried quizlet - 2.5 years ago, so pre srs - and I liked some things about it - one of the games, it looked nice, behaved pretty well, easy interface but I have converted to anki because I can use MP3 audio, make subs2srs cards for it, use cloze deletion cards and sync easily across devices. Along with the srs - these are features that win me over.

Cheers.


Yea, Anki can't be beat in a lot of ways. I go back and forth, but since I'm using other things (and like them), I'm beginning to feel that much of the time I put into trying to make full use of many of the features Anki brings is wasted time, and Quizlet is better at the stock level.

For instance, the fact you can use native audio in Anki hasn't felt that useful with how I've been studying. I think TTS is fine just as a basic pronunciation check and extra form of input since I'm getting plenty of audio input throughout my day. I'm working through course books right now so I have a track playing on repeat whenever possible.

I've made listening comprehension cards, made from the same content I test in other ways, and I've found they are extremely redundant. I never once get them wrong if I can actively produce that same sentence from English already. They're pointless, I won't waste time creating those anymore.

Imo the Cloze deletion tool in Anki is the feature that makes it a necessary tool to keep around though. For a basic sentence cloze deletion, meh, not a big deal, but it has so much more potential than that with just some of the addons already available.
1 x
: 8 / 163 Breaking the Spanish Barrier - Beginner:

User avatar
rdearman
Site Admin
Posts: 7231
Joined: Thu May 14, 2015 4:18 pm
Location: United Kingdom
Languages: English (N)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1836
x 23125
Contact:

Re: Random Quizlet/Anki use observation

Postby rdearman » Mon Mar 13, 2017 4:51 pm

jsega wrote:So I've been switching off between using the Quizlet Long-term learning (their SRS avail. w/ paid vers.) and Anki to really decide which I like better once and for all. I'm using the same flashcards on both (via Anki import quizlet addon). All my cards are English front, Spanish back.

I noticed that I consistently have better and less frustrating recall with Quizlet. I wasn't sure why but just now I realized it may be due to the fact that the Quizlet TTS audio plays for the English side as well as having the answer in Spanish of course.

As I stated, recall is definitely easier and less frustrating and I think this may be attributing to it, but is having the English audio (plus obviously the written Eng.) a good thing overall?

Sorry, but why don't you just configure Anki cards to do the same? e.g. play audio on the english side too?
1 x
: 0 / 150 Read 150 books in 2024

My YouTube Channel
The Autodidactic Podcast
My Author's Newsletter

I post on this forum with mobile devices, so excuse short msgs and typos.

jsega
Orange Belt
Posts: 133
Joined: Mon Aug 15, 2016 6:44 pm
Languages: English (N) Spanish (beginner)
x 92

Re: Random Quizlet/Anki use observation

Postby jsega » Mon Mar 13, 2017 5:21 pm

rdearman wrote:Sorry, but why don't you just configure Anki cards to do the same? e.g. play audio on the english side too?


I was just curious about my own observation, and any potential drawbacks to always being prompted like this.

The fact that I can manually add TTS to the English side of my cards in Anki is irrelevant. I wouldn't have even thought to do it before or that it might help.

Anyway, for me, I want the most benefit out of my review software, with the least amount of effort, according to how I personally study.

If something is more efficient for my actual needs but happens to lack extra functionality that I personally don't really care about, well the 80/20 obsession inside of me compels me to consider it.
0 x
: 8 / 163 Breaking the Spanish Barrier - Beginner:

User avatar
smallwhite
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2386
Joined: Mon Jul 06, 2015 6:55 am
Location: Hong Kong
Languages: Native: Cantonese;
Good: English, French, Spanish, Italian;
Mediocre: Mandarin, German, Swedish, Dutch.
.
x 4876

Re: Random Quizlet/Anki use observation

Postby smallwhite » Tue Mar 14, 2017 2:36 am

Adrianslont wrote:And Smallwhite seems to suspect that the intervals in quizlet may suit you better?

That's right.

jsega wrote:I noticed that I consistently have better and less frustrating recall with Quizlet.

That means you have worse and more frustrating recall with Anki. How worse? Does it just take you longer to come up with the answer (ie. "Hard"), or are you often completely unable to come up with the answer at all (ie. "Fail")?

If it's just "Hard", then Anki is actually the better choice here. Quizlet is too easy (scheduling too frequently), and Anki is just right, just in time (scheduling the most infrequently feasible). Theoretically, I would use SRS to just barely kinda-sorta remember my words. To remember them well and to use them confidently, I'd do other activities like self-talk. If 90% of my SRS cards are "Easy", it's a sign that I'm doing too much SRS.

But frustration is real so going with whichever is less frustrating is important, too.
2 x
Dialang or it didn't happen.

jsega
Orange Belt
Posts: 133
Joined: Mon Aug 15, 2016 6:44 pm
Languages: English (N) Spanish (beginner)
x 92

Re: Random Quizlet/Anki use observation

Postby jsega » Tue Mar 14, 2017 5:06 am

smallwhite wrote:
Adrianslont wrote:And Smallwhite seems to suspect that the intervals in quizlet may suit you better?

That's right.

jsega wrote:I noticed that I consistently have better and less frustrating recall with Quizlet.

That means you have worse and more frustrating recall with Anki. How worse? Does it just take you longer to come up with the answer (ie. "Hard"), or are you often completely unable to come up with the answer at all (ie. "Fail")?

If it's just "Hard", then Anki is actually the better choice here. Quizlet is too easy (scheduling too frequently), and Anki is just right, just in time (scheduling the most infrequently feasible). Theoretically, I would use SRS to just barely kinda-sorta remember my words. To remember them well and to use them confidently, I'd do other activities like self-talk. If 90% of my SRS cards are "Easy", it's a sign that I'm doing too much SRS.

But frustration is real so going with whichever is less frustrating is important, too.


I understand what you're saying. I'm not sure if this explanation makes sense, but as far as simply knowing the information, I haven't noticed a huge difference, it's mostly my ability to fluidly repeat the Spanish outloud reasonably quickly after being prompted with the English.

I guess for some this is common sense, but I think the English audio prompt really helps trigger my Spanish response more fluidly than simply reading the English. It's the formulating of the Spanish output that feels less clunky, not the recall itself.

This isn't a Quizlet vs. Anki thing really, just an observation while I happened to be using the 2.
2 x
: 8 / 163 Breaking the Spanish Barrier - Beginner:

User avatar
smallwhite
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2386
Joined: Mon Jul 06, 2015 6:55 am
Location: Hong Kong
Languages: Native: Cantonese;
Good: English, French, Spanish, Italian;
Mediocre: Mandarin, German, Swedish, Dutch.
.
x 4876

Re: Random Quizlet/Anki use observation

Postby smallwhite » Fri Mar 17, 2017 2:00 pm

jsega wrote:I guess for some this is common sense, but I think the English audio prompt really helps trigger my Spanish response more fluidly than simply reading the English. It's the formulating of the Spanish output that feels less clunky, not the recall itself.

I think it's because having listened to the question on top of reading it, your brain retains, decifers and manipulates it better during the translation process.
1 x
Dialang or it didn't happen.


Return to “General Language Discussion”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: guyome, Khayyam, lichtrausch and 2 guests