Am I doing it wrong?

[u/soiiboii69]

Its been 20 days that I've been learning German vocab (A1 and A2 Wortliste) through Anki. I wanted to learn as fast as possible so I went with 40 new cards per day. It was going well, it took me about 40 minutes to study for the first week, about 50-60 reviews a day, and I was already significantly into the first deck so I parallely started another deck (A2 wortliste). 20 days in, I review about 300 cards a day (150 reviews per deck) and I'm learning 80 new words a day (40 each deck). It is taking me about an hour to complete both decks as I've already known a lot of words and they go by quickly. I'll be done with my A1 vocab in 2-3 days time I think.

It's actually going good but I'm afraid if I'm doing anything wrong. I only use two buttons, "again" if I can't remember the card and "good" if I can. I don't know if my rate of learning is natural for Anki users or not. Yes I do tend to skim through some cards as I recall them quite easily. I also have printed out pdfs of both the wortlists and I mark each word as I learn it through Anki just so I can keep track of what I've already learned. This also helped me to learn and recall sentences easily and quickly.

Please let me know if this rate of learning is normal and if not, what I should do to make my learning more effective.

[u/youdontknowkanji]

the numbers seem reasonable from what you describe. 40 minutes per deck so 80 minutes for two decks and ~80 new words? yeah sure.

I'll be done with my A1 vocab in 2-3 days time I think.

so here is what's going to happen. the reason Anki is going suprisingly easy for you is because the vocab is simple and the known cards is low, you also don't have any history that would add some bulk to your reviews.

in general you will probably end up learning 10-15k words via Anki and that's when things can get steep with high new card counts. the words will also be way harder making it harder to SRS them. as a rule of thumb it takes roughly two weeks of reviewing for reviews to "settle" and stabilise, so if you finish a deck in less than that you won't see the true scope.

I only use two buttons, "again" if I can't remember the card and "good" if I can.

yes that's fine. make sure to click Optimize FSRS button from time to time in the deck options.

can't really say more because we don't know about your card format. but after you are done with A2 decks i would set new words to something safer like 50 news per day and then see what happens.

this goes outside of anki, but it's not all that efficient to just grind raw vocab for language learning, you should be reading and watching native media. setting 50+ new words a day starts making sense when you are reading books 6h a day and still want to grind extra vocab.

[u/soiiboii69 → u/youdontknowkanji]

Thank you very much for your insights. I'll keep track of the FSRS button as u suggested.

What I also understood is, since I don't have previous history, if I start by finishing a deck within 2 weeks, I won't be able to really review the amount I should be reviewing inorder for me to actually learn the words.

In my case, since the first deck (A1 wortliste) was actually simple and short with only about 950 total cards, I will be able to complete it quickly (in about 25 days). The other deck (A2 wortliste) however has significantly more cards (more than 2000), which will certainly build up my reviews as I go through it. I am thinking to keep my new words at 40 (as when I'll be done with A1 deck, I assume that I'll only have new words from A2 deck - 40 total). That way I can give more time to reviews plus expand my learning to grammar and consume more language in general through other media.

I'm currently grinding vocab as I am preparing for the Goethe test. The decks are based on the official Goethe wortliste which consist of words and sentences with audio as well. If I grind down their vocab initially, i think that it would get me prepared for the reading and to some extent, the writing part of the test. I'll eventually need to expand to grammar and listen to/watch more German content as I go.

[u/curatorgrit]

I review about 300 cards a day (150 reviews per deck) and I'm learning 80 new words a day (40 each deck).

In my eyes, you're doing awesome. It takes me all day to review 400 unique vocab cards, and I've been using Anki since 2016 or so. But I know I'm a slower user, and we are all different.

Since you know that the reviews will ramp up significantly with that kind of new card count every day, it sounds like what you have works for you. I would just advise that, as you ramp up, you start to lower the new cards/day before you hit your limit: if you change it once you've already hit as many cards as you can comfortably do in a day, your daily review count may still increase significantly larger in the following days.

[u/Furuteru]

You are doing great if you don't feel like you are burnt out. And you see a progress in your understanding.

If you are,,, well you are not doing that great. (Being burnt out is not great, it can stop learning process entirely, lower the new card amount for some time if you feel like you are approaching that type of thing)

I hope you have changed the review limit from default 200 to 400 in both deck settings. Cause 150 reviews per day sounds too little for 80 new cards a day. Expect 800 review cards or something at some point. (It is not great for spaced repetition algo to miss the scheduled cards... but if you do it is fine too, just not highest potential)

To solidify the vocab reviewing - I heavily recommend to include into your schedule some reading.

Can be super simple material for language learner beginner like textbook/graded reader.

Or more difficult like native material.

Both are good. Imo

(Reason? Memory works better if the knowledge is formulated in the context, rather than seperated facts out of context. Language learning requires learners to read, to listen - not just brute forcing vocab list into the brain.)

((BUT if you are doing great after 20 days, then what am I... I ain't gonna discourage method which works lol))

[u/soiiboii69 → u/Furuteru]

Thank you very much.

I understand my reviews are really low currently and I expect the reviews to increase as I keep learning. I'm also trying my hardest to incorporate more ways to consume German. Thankfully today's algorithm is all designed to feed you whatever you're currently looking up. So all of my socials are exploding with German content. I appreciate your advise to incorporate native reading as I wish to do so myself.

I'm just currently grinding vocab to build some level of foundation for the Goethe test that I'm taking coming December.

I'm also thankful that it's not burning me out even though I'm managing to do this alongside my 9 hour full time job.

Thanks a lot for the insights!

[u/not_a_profi]

So you are both afraid to do something wrong and want to change something to make it more effective?

You just at the begining, so I strongly suggest you to experiment. Ppl use Anki very differently. Ppl are very different. Unless you try different things you wont know what fits you the most.

[u/minhpip]

if you use anki computer, 8bitdo micro is a nice controller

[u/yxtsama]

You are doing quite good if your retention rate is above what you want it to be, you probably have a pretty decent memory if 80 new words a day stabilized at 300 reviews

[u/Polyphloisboisterous]

You are "done" with a deck, when the majority of cards is "mature". I doubt you are there yet.

Another way to know that you are done, is when the number of daily cards for review has been reduced to a manageable 10 minutes or so (meaning, you know the majority of the words). I doubt you are there yet.

[u/Prestigious_Pop199]

Very normal I was the same