Different Spaced Repetition Systems have different advantages. The two systems I've used are Mnemosyne and Anki. I used Mnemosyne first, and then explored Anki during my 30-day French Language challenge, thinking I might convert my Mnemosyne deck to Anki. Anki is, after all, somehow more "hip" and "fashionable" than Mnemosyne. However, for several reasons, I decided to stick with Mnemosyne for my Japanese deck.
One of the big advantages which Anki has, is a lot of cool statistics, much better statistics than you get with Mnemosyne. However, you don't have to switch to Anki to enjoy this feature. Anki can import a Mnemosyne deck, and then give you the statistics for the imported deck; that means you can get Anki statistics and still do your reviews on Mnemosyne. Just re-import the flash cards when you want fresh statistics. It would be a pain if you like looking at your statistics every day, but I don't need to look at such detailed statistics that often.
To get Anki statistics for Mnemosyne, using Anki version 0.9.9.4, first make a new deck. You'll need to give it some name, it doesn't really matter what, it can be some temporary file and you can delete it later if you want. Once you're in the "Welcome to Anki!" screen, with 0 cards and 0 facts in the deck, go to File->Import, set "Type of file" to "Mnemosyne 1.x deck (*.mem)", click "Choose file..." and select your Mnemosyne file. On the line where it says "Model:" you should see a button with a little picture of a pencil writing on a paper. Click that to open a "Model Properties" window. Highlight "Field 1: Front" and make sure "Prevent duplicates" and "Prevent duplicate entries", down at the bottom of the window, are UN-checked. This is so Anki won't stupidly delete some of your Mnemosyne cards. Do the same after highlighting "Field 2: Back", then click "Close". Back in the Import window, you're finally ready to click "Import". If your Mnemosyne file is big, Anki will freeze for a while. I currently have over 9000 Japanese flash cards and it takes about one minute on my computer.
If you want special language-specific statistics, like the very-useful kanji statistics, you'll need to adjust the import screen slightly, switching the "model" from "basic" to "Japanese" (or whatever).
Once you're done importing, browse Anki's statistics displays at your leisure. They're under the "Tools" menu.
This technique also lets you make use of some of Anki's additional plugins. Like, the "Kanji Info" plugin which gives you info about the Japanese characters in your deck.
Here are the statistics for my Japanese deck at this time.
Total number of cards: 9084
Mature cards: 8746 (96.28%)
Young cards: 338 (3.72%)
Unseen cards: 0 (0.00%)
Averages... The cards/day numbers are off because they're based on Anki's algorithm, not Mnemosyne's algorithm.
Average interval (average time between reviews for each card): 233 days!
Average reps: 188.7 cards/day
Avg. Reps next week: 120.7 cards/day
Avg. Reps next month: 66.7 cards/day
Kanji Statistics:
"Kanji" is the Japanese word for the Chinese characters. If you set the model to "Japanese", Anki can scan the deck and check which kanji appear throughout it.
2052 total unique kanji
Jouyou (important kanji everyone should know): 1826 of 1945 (93.9%)
Jinmeiyou (some other important kanji): 60 of 287 (20.9%)
Non-jouyou: 166
Jouyou levels:
Grade 1: 80 of 80 (100.0%)
Grade 2: 158 of 160 (98.8%)
Grade 3: 199 of 200 (99.5%)
Grade 4: 195 of 200 (97.5%)
Grade 5: 181 of 185 (97.8%)
Grade 6: 171 of 181 (94.5%)
Junior High School: 842 of 939 (89.7%)
Here are the Jouyou kanji I'm missing, by grade.. (if you don't have Japanese or Chinese fonts, these'll look like gibberish)
Grade 2 : 汽鳴
Grade 3 : 帳
Grade 4 : 芽極郡巣脈
Grade 5 : 益査承像
Grade 6 : 郷誤后鋼就蒸宅脳補論
JuniorHS: 亜井浦雅塊嚇郭潟且緩缶艦偽戯虐虚駆虞偶遇隅慶顕孤弧呉娯洪溝綱郊剛墾懇咲嗣璽湿釈襲循盾遵嘱娠審衰繊禅塑租粗阻喪託丹鍛衷駐脹朕沈抵逓邸陶騰篤屯悩濃覇舶搬藩盤罷膚譜舗捕邦撲繭免耗癒誉揺謡慮虜猟倫隷麗錬
FURTHER READING
Wanna learn a language? How about ten languages? Sentence Mining is the way to go. Read about how to use sentence flash cards in the most cutting edge language-learning technique known to man, a technique which makes heavy use of Spaced Repetition Software.
Are flashcards taking too long to review? Try Drilling Flashcards Without Music. I discovered this when I was experimenting with a fast from music for several weeks. My flashcard review efficiency really went up.
When I came back from my 30 days in Japan, my deck was swamped with scheduled cards, because I obviously wasn't doing reviews of Japanese flashcards while I was in Japan itself. Read about how I coped with over 4000 due flashcards in my article, Dealing With A Neglected SRS Deck.
One of the big advantages which Anki has, is a lot of cool statistics, much better statistics than you get with Mnemosyne. However, you don't have to switch to Anki to enjoy this feature. Anki can import a Mnemosyne deck, and then give you the statistics for the imported deck; that means you can get Anki statistics and still do your reviews on Mnemosyne. Just re-import the flash cards when you want fresh statistics. It would be a pain if you like looking at your statistics every day, but I don't need to look at such detailed statistics that often.
To get Anki statistics for Mnemosyne, using Anki version 0.9.9.4, first make a new deck. You'll need to give it some name, it doesn't really matter what, it can be some temporary file and you can delete it later if you want. Once you're in the "Welcome to Anki!" screen, with 0 cards and 0 facts in the deck, go to File->Import, set "Type of file" to "Mnemosyne 1.x deck (*.mem)", click "Choose file..." and select your Mnemosyne file. On the line where it says "Model:" you should see a button with a little picture of a pencil writing on a paper. Click that to open a "Model Properties" window. Highlight "Field 1: Front" and make sure "Prevent duplicates" and "Prevent duplicate entries", down at the bottom of the window, are UN-checked. This is so Anki won't stupidly delete some of your Mnemosyne cards. Do the same after highlighting "Field 2: Back", then click "Close". Back in the Import window, you're finally ready to click "Import". If your Mnemosyne file is big, Anki will freeze for a while. I currently have over 9000 Japanese flash cards and it takes about one minute on my computer.
If you want special language-specific statistics, like the very-useful kanji statistics, you'll need to adjust the import screen slightly, switching the "model" from "basic" to "Japanese" (or whatever).
Once you're done importing, browse Anki's statistics displays at your leisure. They're under the "Tools" menu.
This technique also lets you make use of some of Anki's additional plugins. Like, the "Kanji Info" plugin which gives you info about the Japanese characters in your deck.
Here are the statistics for my Japanese deck at this time.
Total number of cards: 9084
Mature cards: 8746 (96.28%)
Young cards: 338 (3.72%)
Unseen cards: 0 (0.00%)
Averages... The cards/day numbers are off because they're based on Anki's algorithm, not Mnemosyne's algorithm.
Average interval (average time between reviews for each card): 233 days!
Average reps: 188.7 cards/day
Avg. Reps next week: 120.7 cards/day
Avg. Reps next month: 66.7 cards/day
Kanji Statistics:
"Kanji" is the Japanese word for the Chinese characters. If you set the model to "Japanese", Anki can scan the deck and check which kanji appear throughout it.
2052 total unique kanji
Jouyou (important kanji everyone should know): 1826 of 1945 (93.9%)
Jinmeiyou (some other important kanji): 60 of 287 (20.9%)
Non-jouyou: 166
Jouyou levels:
Grade 1: 80 of 80 (100.0%)
Grade 2: 158 of 160 (98.8%)
Grade 3: 199 of 200 (99.5%)
Grade 4: 195 of 200 (97.5%)
Grade 5: 181 of 185 (97.8%)
Grade 6: 171 of 181 (94.5%)
Junior High School: 842 of 939 (89.7%)
Here are the Jouyou kanji I'm missing, by grade.. (if you don't have Japanese or Chinese fonts, these'll look like gibberish)
Grade 2 : 汽鳴
Grade 3 : 帳
Grade 4 : 芽極郡巣脈
Grade 5 : 益査承像
Grade 6 : 郷誤后鋼就蒸宅脳補論
JuniorHS: 亜井浦雅塊嚇郭潟且緩缶艦偽戯虐虚駆虞偶遇隅慶顕孤弧呉娯洪溝綱郊剛墾懇咲嗣璽湿釈襲循盾遵嘱娠審衰繊禅塑租粗阻喪託丹鍛衷駐脹朕沈抵逓邸陶騰篤屯悩濃覇舶搬藩盤罷膚譜舗捕邦撲繭免耗癒誉揺謡慮虜猟倫隷麗錬
FURTHER READING
Wanna learn a language? How about ten languages? Sentence Mining is the way to go. Read about how to use sentence flash cards in the most cutting edge language-learning technique known to man, a technique which makes heavy use of Spaced Repetition Software.
Are flashcards taking too long to review? Try Drilling Flashcards Without Music. I discovered this when I was experimenting with a fast from music for several weeks. My flashcard review efficiency really went up.
When I came back from my 30 days in Japan, my deck was swamped with scheduled cards, because I obviously wasn't doing reviews of Japanese flashcards while I was in Japan itself. Read about how I coped with over 4000 due flashcards in my article, Dealing With A Neglected SRS Deck.
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1 comments:
I must says that's a most impressive deck although I'm surprised you haven't got all the Jouyou Kanji with so many cards, aiming for 10000 cards? :D
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