I use Anki as a notebook to review from instead of a flashcard app. Am I wasting time?

[drp9341]

I'm asking this because right now I have 200 reviews due.

When I have 20 new cards and 60-70 reviews, (that's been the average recently,) it takes me around 90 minutes to complete it if "I do it right." Some things I do: I'll repeat a card if I even miss one letter. I'll go on Wiktionary to add some declensions to the card. I'll check if a word perhaps has another meaning. I'll basically repeat everything until I get bored, or until I feel satisfied with the amount I've learned, and will just fail any cards I haven't then "studied really hard" so that they'll appear within the next three days.

What do you guys think of this?

The biggest negative is it causes me to miss more days. How bad does it mess with the algorithm?

[lusan]

I'm asking this because right now I have 200 reviews due.

When I have 20 new cards and 60-70 reviews, (that's been the average recently,) it takes me around 90 minutes to complete it if "I do it right." Some things I do: I'll repeat a card if I even miss one letter. I'll go on Wiktionary to add some declensions to the card. I'll check if a word perhaps has another meaning. I'll basically repeat everything until I get bored, or until I feel satisfied with the amount I've learned, and will just fail any cards I haven't then "studied really hard" so that they'll appear within the next three days.

What do you guys think of this?

The biggest negative is it causes me to miss more days. How bad does it mess with the algorithm?

All depends of the strategy. I use Anki to as notebook+memory tool.

Right now I have 245 reviews plus 28 new cards. No problem at all.
I have been using Anki for about 7 years. I found that I can make it as hard/easier as I want.
However, the simpler, the more effective.

Currently, I have a bunch of Polish/French/Italian decks. It takes me about 1.25 hour to go through my decks. I don't strive for perfection ever. I am satisfied if I a get 85-90 % correct. If I am getting higher than 95 %, then I know that I am not learning anything. Too easy cards are worthless. Once in a while, I skipped all. Missing a day doesn't bother me. I don't care if the algorithm is messed up.

[drp9341]

I have a feeling this has already been answered. I always pass over Anki related posts. However, this one is not about numbers!


Let me give an example...

I have the expression...
"Nawet nie trudziła się, by nałożyć makijaż." and I even somehow was pretty sure it was some prefixed verb form łożyć that you use here with makijaż since, despite never hearing this na+łożyć (on+place) must have had struck me as memorable, likely because I had never heard it despite I often hear my girlfriend talking about how despite use being late make up application is non-negotiable. I either heard "sobie zrobić makijaź" or "malować się." The thing is though, nałożyć is a pretty useful verb. I consider, and probably will forevermore, any Polish verb involving the movement of people or things to be super important. Especially those that have many similar forms.

So I edited the card, put the word nałożyć in bold and changed the color to a dark red / maroon. I then added the first person and second person conjugations.

I do this for tons of cards considering how much time I have, what mood I'm in, and whether my mood is "Pass the C2 exam and know it like a Ph.D." and "Learn to understand written and spoken Polish as much as you can for the time being."

Perhaps if my listening skills were better I would be able to review tons of vocab and grammar passively!!!

I know a lot of people study lists before they put their day's worth of words into Anki, but I am always putting in stuff. Recently, 90% of what I put into it is from Netflix, and if I stopped to write it down I'd lose interest in the show.

I'm going to see how this minimal effort approach goes.

I really like the option that Anki has to custom study "NEW CARDS" and then select a range of days.

If someone's current aim is to improve as much my understanding while listening and reading, do you guys have any tips? I am aiming for making passive comprehension as low effort of a task as possible.

[drp9341]

I'm asking this because right now I have 200 reviews due.

When I have 20 new cards and 60-70 reviews, (that's been the average recently,) it takes me around 90 minutes to complete it if "I do it right." Some things I do: I'll repeat a card if I even miss one letter. I'll go on Wiktionary to add some declensions to the card. I'll check if a word perhaps has another meaning. I'll basically repeat everything until I get bored, or until I feel satisfied with the amount I've learned, and will just fail any cards I haven't then "studied really hard" so that they'll appear within the next three days.

What do you guys think of this?

The biggest negative is it causes me to miss more days. How bad does it mess with the algorithm?

All depends of the strategy. I use Anki to as notebook+memory tool.

Right now I have 245 reviews plus 28 new cards. No problem at all.
I have been using Anki for about 7 years. I found that I can make it as hard/easier as I want.
However, the simpler, the more effective.

Currently, I have a bunch of Polish/French/Italian decks. It takes me about 1.25 hour to go through my decks. I don't strive for perfection ever. I am satisfied if I a get 85-90 % correct. If I am getting higher than 95 %, then I know that I am not learning anything. Too easy cards are worthless. Once in a while, I skipped all. Missing a day doesn't bother me. I don't care if the algorithm is messed up.

I used Anki a lot like you after month 4 of my Polish learning / extreme immersion. The first three months I just followed the default schedule and it worked like magic.

I'm happy to know that there are others on this forum who are sort of inconsistent like I am and still have success!

[einzelne]

Perhaps if my listening skills were better I would be able to review tons of vocab and grammar passively!!!

I'm not in the position to give an informed advice since I can't stand ANKI (I prefer to organize my review sessions in a different way) and I don't know your current level of Polish, but if I were you I would simply build your review sessions around listening/reading/repeating of 1) texts and dialogues from textbooks 2) adapted books 3) unadapted audiobooks.

90 minutes for 100 cards, it's a lot. I think even ANKI fans would tell you that.

[lusan]

Perhaps if my listening skills were better I would be able to review tons of vocab and grammar passively!!!

I'm not in the position to give an informed advice since I can't stand ANKI (I prefer to organize my review sessions in a different way) and I don't know your current level of Polish, but if I were you I would simply build your review sessions around listening/reading/repeating of 1) texts and dialogues from textbooks 2) adapted books 3) unadapted audiobooks.

I used Anki that way when I studied Polish. For French, I have 2 decks as L2>L1 for reading, L2>L1 for Audio card.

90 minutes for 100 cards, it's a lot. I think even ANKI fans would tell you that.

For a single language, I would agree. For several language, it is another story.

[Ccaesar]

If you want a both in one solution, I recommend trying "Remnote" basically it's a notetaking programme developed by people who loved Anki. So you can take notes, connecting and linking ideas, and make flashcards whenever and of whatever you want. I have come to like it! I use it mostly for taking notes from things I read or articles I figure might be useful to have, for instance if I want to learn or acquire a new skill.... But I also use it for language learning.

[jackb]

So you can take notes, connecting and linking ideas, and make flashcards whenever and of whatever you want.

Thanks for pointing out Remnote (https://remnote.io). It clicked as soon as I read this sentence. It's an app that helps you organize information and creates flashcards if you need it.

[白田龍]

I use SRS to give me some minimal familiarity with words and expressions so that when I see them later, in context (not only the sentence context, but the larger context is of great importance), I can figure out what the author meant.

So I design my cards with this goal in mind, making them as simple and fail-proof as possible. I want to reduce the time as spend SRSing as much as possible.

[lusan]

If someone's current aim is to improve as much my understanding while listening and reading, do you guys have any tips? I am aiming for making passive comprehension as low effort of a task as possible.

As per advise from Cavessa: I took the 7 seasons of Buffy the vampire killers and I watch NO SUBTILES 1 or 2 episodes every days till the end. It took 5-6 months. After that, I was able to watch dubbed serials without problems. Just listen and pay attention to the drama. Of course, I paired it with ALL Polish available Agatha Christi's and HP's novels. Results - Now I am free to enjoy French news and watch dubbed French serials.

During this period -2years-, I religiously did my anki cards from words that I got from the first 2 episodes of Buffy and from HP novels. I find it so effective that I keep watching movies and reading French Thrillers as well as watching French news. My favorite author currently is J-C Grange. I average 1-2 missing words/page.

Something similar should work for Polish. Though I didn't do it. It was a random walk but if I were interested in Polish, I would probably take Czas Honorus + Dom or something like that. I was unable to find anything appealing dubbed in Polish. Most great serials have a flat boring lecktorem that put my to sleelp. Ranczo might be a good try if you one can bear it. With the pandemia and social conditions in Poland, my interest has wane and I placed my energy into italian. I used Anki to keep alive 2 difficult Polish aspects: Perfective/Imperfective verbs and basic grammar. Everything else I stopped. Probably next year, I will be visiting Gdansk and, surely, 3 month before, I might pick up an elementary Polish course together with a L1>L2 Anki deck- to review and not shame myself in front of my in-laws!

In other words, a lot of Listening+Reading should do the job.