Best way to cram using Pleco? (Help with settings for long-session repetition)

I'm preparing for the listening/reading portion of the TOCFL exam in a few weeks. My Chinese background is weird, because I did a Master's degree at a Chinese university that required reading specialized professional Chinese texts, and I read Japanese. Right now, it's mostly my general Chinese vocab that is way too limited to pass.

I have a great flash-card set provided by someone on these forums for TOCFL levels 3 and 4, but I need to do intensive review every day. Much of this is refreshing vocabulary I learned years ago in school. I need to add 100-200 cards per day, and I have several hours per day to put into studying.

My problem is that the two settings I've tried in Pleco aren't working well: "Simple" is closer to what I want, but it seems to give me random cards each session regardless of what I've studied before. "Spaced Repetition" sounds perfect, but it only tests me on a card once each session. I want to repeatedly test a card until I've mastered it (for that session), then have the card show up with some spacing in future sessions.

Can anyone recommend the best way to test cards repeatedly in a single session, slowly build up a set of cards I've mastered, and have difficult cards reappear in future sessions?

Feel free to correct me on my understanding of the app; I am totally new to this aspect of Pleco.
 
Here's what I've tried so far:
  1. I created multiple tests, one for adding new words and two for reviewing words.
    1. For every test:
      1. Command Settings:
        1. Repeat Incorrect Cards: Y [Key to Anki-style short-term repetition]
        2. Time: During Test
        3. Delay before repeat: 30 seconds
        4. Second Repeat after: 30 seconds
  2. Test 1 - "New Cards" [Intended to add new cards to tests 2 and 3]
    1. Card Selection Settings:
      1. System: Repetition-Spaced [Good for slowly learning new cards, bad for intense review.]
      2. Day type: Hours
      3. Points per day: 100
      4. Prompt to continue test: Y
      5. Card is learned if: score>=200
      6. Limit new cards: Y (count: 100)
    2. Card Categories Setting: Set to TOCFL Level 3 vocab list.
  3. Test 2 - "Review" [To review all cards already added by Test 1]
    1. Card Selection Settings:
      1. System: Frequency Adjusted [Good for intense review as it slowly removes cards you learn]
      2. Don't repeat cards: N
      3. Card is learned if: Score >= 1000 [Allows easy cards to be removed from review cycle]
      4. Limit new cards: Y (0 new per day) [Limits to cards already reviewed]
    2. Scoring Settings: Scoring Options - Only change 1x per hour: Y
  4. Test 3 - "Hard Review" [copy of "Review" focused on cards I got wrong]
    1. Same as Test 2, except -
    2. Card Filters
      1. Score Filter: Enable
      2. Range Start: 0
      3. Range end: 100 [keeps any easy cards out]
      4. History Filter: Enable
      5. Include if Card: not correct in row >=2 [keeps out cards that I only tested once, or that I have recently gotten correct multiple times in a row]
 

Shun

状元
Hi BlurstofTimes,

I think with Pleco 3.2, it's possible to achieve the learning mode you are aiming for. Here is a suggestion:
  • Work with different profiles to configure the different learning phases separately
  • Keep using the same scorefile for all profiles. Start a new scorefile at the beginning, so you have a clean slate for all cards.
  • Split up each flashcard category with Sequential ordering into subcategories of about 50-100 cards (This is done in Organize Flashcards.)
  • Profile 1 (first contact with cards): Card selection system "Random", Repeat Incorrect Cards during tests enabled, no Card Filters
  • Select one new category for studying with Profile 1
  • Run through Profile 1 with the same category at least twice, in both English-Chinese and Chinese-English directions, so Pleco will have five kinds of cards in the statistics in the scorefile:
    • Cards that were answered correctly four times and never incorrectly
    • Cards that were correct three times and incorrect once
    • (and so on)
    • Cards that were never correct and incorrect four times
  • Profile 2 (for repetition of subcategories already studied with Profile 1): Card selection system "Random", Repeat Incorrect Cards during tests enabled, Card Filters: Set record filter to Include card if number of incorrect > 0. Increase the Repeat Incorrect Cards during tests delays a bit.
  • Study the same subcategory with Profile 2 once in the English-Chinese and Chinese-English directions
  • Profile 3 (for repetition of subcategories already studied with Profile 1 and 2): Same as profile 2, but with Card Filters: Set record filter to Include card if number of incorrect > 1. Increase the Repeat Incorrect Cards during tests delays a bit again.
  • Study this and other, previously studied subcategories with Profile 3 once in the English-Chinese and Chinese-English directions
  • Profile 4 (for repetition of subcategories already studied with Profile 1, 2, and 3): Same as profile 3, but with Card Filters: Set record filter to Include card if number of incorrect > 2. Increase the Repeat Incorrect Cards during tests delays a bit again.
  • Study this and still more other, previously studied subcategories with Profile 4 once in the English-Chinese and Chinese-English directions
  • and so on

The higher your Profile number is, the more previous split subcategories you can include in a test. The only thing you have to change after changing between profiles is to select the right subcategories you wish to study and switch between the Show Definition and Show Headword learning modes. I would use a Self-Graded test and write your answers on paper or a tablet with a pen. The Fill-in-the-blanks testing mode gives you an unwanted clue as to the length of a card's headword, and written on paper, it's more like a real test. Perhaps you should start with two separate subcategories with Profile 1, then move to Profile 2 for both separately, Profile 3 for both, Profile 1 for a third subcategory, then mix, after that, Profile 4 for all of them, then move to another set of subcategories you study separately, and so on.

I like this method for the full control it gives you. I will definitely give Pleco's new flashcard engine in a future release a good try, but Pleco 3.2 should already serve you fine thanks to its flexibility.

Hope this helps,

Shun
 
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