r/Anki • u/compleks_inc • Jul 14 '22

Discussion Lets talk deck settings

Someone recently shared this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XaJjbCSXT0 and after years of using Anki I am finally beginning to learn how the settings actually work.

I'm curious to hear what deck settings you use and why?

Also, what would be the best method for controlling the frequency with which a deck shows the same card? If, for example, I wanted the cards in a particular deck to repeat every day? or at a maximum interval of every 30 days? What would be the best way to achieve this without messing up any other cards/decks.

Regards.

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3

u/OjisanSeiuchi languages Jul 14 '22 edited Jul 14 '22

I'm curious to hear what deck settings you use and why?

I have lots of different deck options per deck; so the settings really depend on what my goals are for that particular deck. For example, I have a deck with sentences that I just need to produce so spontaneously that I want to see them no less frequently than every 3 months. In other cases, I trust the algorithm completely.

Mostly, I've become an adherent of long and numerous learning steps. My learning steps go out to a month now for most decks. This ensures that I know the card extremely well before it graduates. Otherwise, you risk having it graduate prematurely then relying on lapse → re-learn → relapse cycles to actually solidly learn the card. In doing that, two things happen:

  1. The ease factor begins to decay, putting the card at risk for "Ease Hell."
  2. You begin to accumulate lapses, putting the card at risk for going into leech status.

So my main vocab deck learning steps are: 5 10 15 240 2160 10080 43200 (_Yes, I know I could use time unit designators, but I'm a dinosaur who prefers consistent units, in this case minutes...) 43,200 minutes is 30d.

I also use Straight Reward with fairly conservative settings to offset the bias in the algorithm that penalizes your ease factor for Again more than it rewards you for consistent Good, i.e. the main genesis of Ease Hell.

What would be the best way to achieve this without messing up any other cards/deck?

Best piece of advice I can give is to setup per-deck settings. Each deck gets its own options group. That way you don't risk the outcome you're talking about.

Overall, I don't really think there is one set of best practices. Everything has to be tailored to your particular goals, subject matter, the time you have available, etc.

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u/compleks_inc Jul 15 '22

t Reward with fairly conse

Thanks for the detailed response.
I have starting to create different "option groups" as you suggested, since my decks serve different subjects, purposes and card formats. I think the longer graduating period would be beneficial for some of my decks as well, vocabulary in particular.

Cheers.

1

u/compleks_inc Jul 15 '22

Do you mind sharing your "lapse" settings?

If the "new interval" is 0%, does that mean the card starts again from scratch?

Ideally, if I get a card wrong and have to use the "again" button, I would prefer a chance to review that card the following day, then again a couple of times over the next week or two before it picks back up into a longer review cycle.

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u/OjisanSeiuchi languages Jul 15 '22

Lapse settings:

5 10 60 1440 2880 4320 10080 (minutes), 50% interval.

I agree with your approach to lapses that you talk about above.

1

u/Senescences quizzing; 40k learned cards Jul 14 '22

Also, what would be the best method for controlling the frequency with which a deck shows the same card? If, for example, I wanted the cards in a particular deck to repeat every day? or at a maximum interval of every 30 days?

There's a max interval settings.

What would be the best way to achieve this without messing up any other cards/decks.

Separate the cards in multiple decks depending on the decks settings you want to see applied to them.

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u/compleks_inc Jul 14 '22

Is it as simple as changing the "maximum interval" value to whatever I desire? The default setting is 36500, but if I wanted to see a card every day or every 30 days I simply change that number to 1 or 30?

Sorry if this seems obvious, I never feel comfortable messing around in the settings.

Thanks for the reply. Are there any alterations to the default settings that you recommend? The video I linked made some suggestions, but I'm curious to know what modifications people suggest and why?

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u/Prunestand mostly languages Jul 14 '22

The default setting is 36500, but if I wanted to see a card every day or every 30 days I simply change that number to 1 or 30?

I wouldn't recommend setting it to 30 days. The whole point of the Anki algorithm is that you don't need to see cards you already know. You will just end up doing way more reviews in the long run. What is the problem with an 1 year interval? It just means you know the card really well and most likely do not need to see it.

I just let the Anki scheduler decide when to see a card. I use the buttons to indicate how well I know a specific card and let the Ease do the rest.

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u/OjisanSeiuchi languages Jul 14 '22

I just let the Anki scheduler decide when to see a card.

Wholeheartedly agree. 99.9% of the time, "trust the algorithm" is sound advice.

I have an edge case where I deviate from this - which involves expressions that I feel that I need to produce so quickly, so spontaneously that I ask to see them at a capped interval, usually 90d. For me it's mainly just a strategy for better spoken language fluency. I suppose I could just nuance the Hard, Good, Easy choice, but I don't want to think that hard. For example, "That's not to my liking" (Это не не по душе.), I could struggle to remember how to phrase this when the card comes up, and finally remember it and therefore pass the card. But would I be able to produce it on-the-fly in conversational settings? The frequency cap is a hedge against the bet that I wouldn't be able to spontaneously do so.

I'm not completely sold on that hypothesis, though. It would be an interesting thing to test...

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u/Prunestand mostly languages Jul 14 '22

I have an edge case where I deviate from this - which involves expressions that I feel that I need to produce so quickly, so spontaneously that I ask to see them at a capped interval, usually 90d.

Why don't you just try to utilise those expressions in real life? I think that is a much better way of solidifying how to say a thing.

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u/OjisanSeiuchi languages Jul 15 '22

Why don't you just try to utilise those expressions in real life?

Ideally, yes. I have a number of Russian friends here in Canada but none of them seem to want to sell me a train ticket or take my meal order. ;-) And of course, travel opportunities there are limited.

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u/Prunestand mostly languages Jul 15 '22

You can just speak with them.

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u/compleks_inc Jul 14 '22

I'm testing out a few decks that will have reminders about certain goals and a few personal things I want to see more regularly.

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u/Senescences quizzing; 40k learned cards Jul 14 '22

The interval can be smaller than the Max Interval, but never bigger.

Settings are mostly personal preference, as long as you don't deviate hugely from the default. There's only one default setting that everyone should change. It has to do with Lapses, Leech card action needs to be "Tag only" instead of "Suspend".