Add new flashcard to 'front of queue'?

[ben_gb]

Hi,

My scenario is that I have a big queue of about 2500 flashcards (built up from my chinese text books and words I've come across over the past year or two), many of which are currently 'unseen' (i.e not yet been tested).

Often, I find that while being tested on a flashcard, it's not "sticking" in my head. To get around this I find that adding extra flashcards containing full sentences, phrases or sentence extracts which use the problem word will help me remember it, and also help me to know how to use it in different situations. The thing is that I want these new flashcards to appear as soon as possible. At the moment, when I add them they just go to the end of the queue, and so won't be come up for testing in a long time.

So, my question: Is any way to add a new flashcard so it is forced to be at the 'front' of the queue (i.e. so it comes up in the current or next session)?

This would also be useful in a situation where you come across 'important' new words which you need to start remembering straightaway, rather than just tacking them on the end of the queue.

I currently use the frequency-adjust mode, and prioritze by "created" order.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Cheers,
Ben

 

[mikelove]

You're using the "limit unlearned" option, right? At the moment, the best way to add a card to the "pool" for that is to create a special category, put the card by itself in that category, then do a session studying just that category (so it'll only show you that one card). You can mark the card correct or incorrect, it doesn't matter - either way Pleco will now consider that card to be in the pool of unlearned cards to test you on.

(we definitely need a better interface for this, though)

 

[ben_gb]

You're using the "limit unlearned" option, right? At the moment, the best way to add a card to the "pool" for that is to create a special category, put the card by itself in that category, then do a session studying just that category (so it'll only show you that one card). You can mark the card correct or incorrect, it doesn't matter - either way Pleco will now consider that card to be in the pool of unlearned cards to test you on.

(we definitely need a better interface for this, though)

Yes, I've set "limit unlearned" to 20, and my usual number of cards for each session is 40. Would not using limit unlearned make a difference to this issue?

Actually, I use the limit unlearned because I was concerned that if I didn't set it, the new cards would tend to 'crowd out' the ones which are due for revision, but maybe I don't need to worry about this...?

Ben

 

[mikelove]

It would, but I still think it's a good feature and worth turning on - we're planning on making it more central to the flashcard system in future releases. With it disabled, old cards would indeed get crowded out by newer ones.

The way the "limit unlearned" system tells whether a card is in the pool of cards you're currently studying is by checking to see whether or not you've studied that card before - if more than 20 cards that have been studied before are also "unlearned," it'll still show you all of them, it just won't draw in any new / never-before-studied cards until the number gets below 20. So the upshot of this is that once you've found a way to test yourself once on that card, that will then make it available in future tests even if "limit unlearned" is turned on. Which means if you follow those instructions to create a session with just that card (forcing the software to test you on it, even if it's not in the pool), that should then make it available in future "limit unlearned" tests.