Flashcards - how long to go through 1000?

[crj]

I am trying to go through the HSK Level 1 Flashcards, but I just get a bit discouraged that there are soooo many. Can anyone help me manage my expectations please?

1. How many flashcards (self scored, flashcard gives character, answer gives pinyin and definition) can you get through in 30 minutes on average?
2. How long does it take you to get through 1000 flashcards?

I am wondering if I set aside 30 mins to one hour a day, realistically how many days I need to go through 1000, etc...
Then repeat, and repeat and repeat

Based on some answers, I am thinking of breaking them down into smaller groups - but probably just random groups (I saw that other forum with great ideas about grouping them in clever ways, but I will have to wait for someone else to do that)

General vague estimated answers and comments all appreciated!

Thank you so much!!

 

[johnh113]

Dear CRJ,

I go through 150-200 an hour, but I already know most of the characters. Starting our, maybe you could do 50 in a half-hour? It will probably take you a couple months to get through all the cards at least once. I always thought about breaking the cards into smaller groups but never did, even with the later HSK groups which are much bigger than the HSK 1.

John

 

[crj]

Thanks!
I already know most of the cards too, I am just reviewing them.
I manage about 100 at a time, but had this feeling (for some silly reason) that this was too slow. It seems most people are at that level.
Now I just need to work on consistency and doing it every day
Thanks again!

 

[mfcb]

yes, i think with 200/hour you are in the normal range. sometimes i do 200 in half an hour, but after that i need to rest at least an hour

 

[ben_gb]

I wonder if there is a point at which there's no benefit in doing more cards, or doing them more quickly?

What I mean is, does one's brain get overloaded with so many cards, if you try to view hundreds in one session?

On some days I'm being offered around 200+ cards in a session (using rep spaced), but I'm not sure if I would be remembering them better if there were only 50 or 100 to cover...?

Ben

 

[Lurks]

Settings for flashcards is a bit of a mine field. I'm not that happy with how mine is going but I don't really know what to change to fix it.

I'm averaging 196 repetitions per day. I only do it 5 days a week half hour on the train to/from work. So that's nearly 140 cars in one of the half hour sessions. I'm not clear what you're calling a session though. I think of a session as a fixed period of time. I do 50 cards at a time, with a review at the end for the ones I got wrong. Self tested just like you.

I got through HSK1 like that in a couple of months maybe, but I also had another word list with a bunch of my own stuff which is now almost as big as the HSK1 list.

I've toyed with limiting the number of unlearned cards with frequency adjust but it's just not really working as I think it should. I keep getting shown the same cards I've said I know over and over again and don't see a single unlearned new card. I think the lack of feedback on what is 'learned' and when you do actually have a card learned makes it quite hard to figure out what I should tinker with...

Anyway, if you switch to similar settings as I describe here you'll definitely not be being overloaded by too many cards at one time I reckon.

 

[mikelove]

What threshold have you configured for "learned"? The Statistics screen should give you a count of how many cards the system considers to be "learned" in a particular category (or across all of your cards).

 

[Lurks]

If that's in response to me, it's about 1500 but my db did get toasted on the update... I read elsewhere someone making a comment about turning off the max unlearned setting. I did that and it came back instantly to exactly how I expected it to work. Obviously I had gone into the settings and thought "oh that seems like a good idea" and it wasn't.

 

[mikelove]

Hmm... well the problem could be that the "learned" threshold was too high and your cards were taking a very long time to get past it; if you set it to something lower, say, 500 score (or 3 correct in a row) that might help keep the new cards flowing.