On spaced repetition: If you have to learn stuff very quickly, you can get the software to ask you earlier than scheduled. I personally used Phase 6, which is a German program, but this should be possible in Anki too.
I do have brought a copy of Phase 6 ten years ago and it’s basically crap that created without much thought into how learning works. I would recommend you to switch to Anki.
Phase 6 does not to good prediction of review dates because as far as I remember it doesn’t ask how well the user knows a card. The whole idea that something that has to be reviewed 6 times successfully is permanently in memory is also ridiculous. The whole 6 boxes thing doesn’t make any sense when you have a computer.
That said you don’t learn faster by reviewing things earlier than scheduled. You are just wasting valuable time that you could use to learn new words.
It’s true that the Anki developers have good reasons for selecting the time intervals the way they do. I’d also agree that for long term language learning Phase 6 is sub-optimal. But there’s two ways this particular situation is quite different from the usual situation: Having to learn stuff fast (basically cramming) and the fact that these words need to be in the active vocabulary, not the passive one. That is, being able to use them in conversation, rather than just remembering when asked for. I don’t know how strong these points are, but from my subjective impression it was quite useful to have shorter time intervals than usual.
The marginal benefit of learning more words diminishes, which is a reason in favour of learning the important words better.
One of the core principles of learning is that good learning is deliberate practice. If you review a card to early and it’s easy to remember the card you are not getting your full deliberate practice and if Wozniak is right, that leads to worse learning.
There no evidence that reviewing cards before they are due does anything useful. A carrot doesn’t grow faster when you pull on it. Cramming before an exam produces memories that are gone after the exam.
If you want stronger memories, mnemonics is a valid tool. It’s also possible to get strong memories by making connection between concepts and use emotion.
I recently started to have cards that ask for IPA pronunciation of words (in X-Sampa). That provides more added knowledge than reviewing a card 3 times before it’s due.
I do have brought a copy of Phase 6 ten years ago and it’s basically crap that created without much thought into how learning works. I would recommend you to switch to Anki.
Phase 6 does not to good prediction of review dates because as far as I remember it doesn’t ask how well the user knows a card. The whole idea that something that has to be reviewed 6 times successfully is permanently in memory is also ridiculous. The whole 6 boxes thing doesn’t make any sense when you have a computer.
That said you don’t learn faster by reviewing things earlier than scheduled. You are just wasting valuable time that you could use to learn new words.
It’s true that the Anki developers have good reasons for selecting the time intervals the way they do. I’d also agree that for long term language learning Phase 6 is sub-optimal. But there’s two ways this particular situation is quite different from the usual situation: Having to learn stuff fast (basically cramming) and the fact that these words need to be in the active vocabulary, not the passive one. That is, being able to use them in conversation, rather than just remembering when asked for. I don’t know how strong these points are, but from my subjective impression it was quite useful to have shorter time intervals than usual.
The marginal benefit of learning more words diminishes, which is a reason in favour of learning the important words better.
One of the core principles of learning is that good learning is deliberate practice. If you review a card to early and it’s easy to remember the card you are not getting your full deliberate practice and if Wozniak is right, that leads to worse learning.
There no evidence that reviewing cards before they are due does anything useful. A carrot doesn’t grow faster when you pull on it. Cramming before an exam produces memories that are gone after the exam.
If you want stronger memories, mnemonics is a valid tool. It’s also possible to get strong memories by making connection between concepts and use emotion.
I recently started to have cards that ask for IPA pronunciation of words (in X-Sampa). That provides more added knowledge than reviewing a card 3 times before it’s due.
Both Anki and Mnemosyne have cramming plugins.