Please offer advice on how to use the flashcards effectively.

[dightonjw]

I am currently using the beta, and I really like most everything about it. However, I am a bit unsure how to make the most of the flashcards function. I am used to Anki, and have used it for several years on and off. I have a script that scrapes vocabulary from youtube video subtitles, and builds Anki flashcard decks for me. I've enjoyed using this method, and I find that the workload is sustainable.

However, there are many cases where I hear a word for the first time and use Pleco to look it up. I've got a few hundred cards created this way, but I am unsure about what the best way to go about reviewing/learning them is.

Can someone with some experience provide some insight on what they've found to be effective, or point me toward a post that has a good description?

tl;dr: how can I effectively utilize pleco flashcards next to anki without reduplicating effort and wasting time.

I very much appreciate your time and considerate response.

 

[Shun]

Hi dightonjw,

the Pleco 4 beta has a Flashcard study method called "SM2" which precisely replicates Anki's functionality. Mike has also worked on a feature that automatically imports Anki decks, without any further user interaction. I haven't noticed that yet in the beta, though.

The main difficulty I see is how to mirror your Chinese Anki decks in Pleco without reimporting them in their entirety each time. Here, I am sure that Mike could help.

Once you have that cleared up, I think that you'll be using Pleco Flashcards effectively in no time, since all of Pleco's testing modes can quickly and easily be tried out and compared.

Hope this helps for a start,

Shun

 

[mikelove]

Honestly, we're changing a bunch of things about this in the next beta so I would strongly discourage you from trying to settle into a learning system based on what's in 4.0 right now. The SM2 profile in fact is going away altogether and being incorporated into "learning" (as a third option along with cycle / SRS, but with the same set of algorithm options SM2 has now) and I can't promise that that will transfer over perfectly neatly.

In general, though, the system that I personally recommend is closest to the one in the 'learning' profile with 'cycle all cards' instead of SRS, i.e., it'll take you through increasingly long intervals for a card as you learn it but then put in a pool where it gets reviewed regularly but not on any particular schedule. I think "reviewing every card you're supposed to know on a loop, regardless of its precise review history" is a better fit for how long-term memory works and how people study Chinese in practice than having every card that has exited the 'learning' stage have its own specially calculated review interval (which few people are able to review regularly enough to abide by anyway).

 

[JacobSussman]

Honestly, we're changing a bunch of things about this in the next beta so I would strongly discourage you from trying to settle into a learning system based on what's in 4.0 right now. The SM2 profile in fact is going away altogether and being incorporated into "learning" (as a third option along with cycle / SRS, but with the same set of algorithm options SM2 has now) and I can't promise that that will transfer over perfectly neatly.

In general, though, the system that I personally recommend is closest to the one in the 'learning' profile with 'cycle all cards' instead of SRS, i.e., it'll take you through increasingly long intervals for a card as you learn it but then put in a pool where it gets reviewed regularly but not on any particular schedule. I think "reviewing every card you're supposed to know on a loop, regardless of its precise review history" is a better fit for how long-term memory works and how people study Chinese in practice than having every card that has exited the 'learning' stage have its own specially calculated review interval (which few people are able to review regularly enough to abide by anyway).

Hello, Mike. Just made an account as I was wondering the same thing. It would be very helpful to be able to use flashcards in Pleco so I bought the bundle that included that capability and was trying to figure out how to use it on iOS and came upon a forum post today about it . Is there any rough timeline for when the new system will be live? I'm currently adding stuff to Anki and Traverse but Pleco would be so much more convenient.

 

[dightonjw]

Hello, Mike. Just made an account as I was wondering the same thing. It would be very helpful to be able to use flashcards in Pleco so I bought the bundle that included that capability and was trying to figure out how to use it on iOS and came upon a forum post today about it . Is there any rough timeline for when the new system will be live? I'm currently adding stuff to Anki and Traverse but Pleco would be so much more convenient.

Would be convenient for sure. I use Anki for things other than Chinese as well, but I would love to be able to consolidate all of my Chinese flashcards into Pleco so it could all just be under one system. Is really really good for a look ups and rapidly creating cards, Anki is just great for set and forget without a lot of settings.

I’m trying to figure out how to consolidate everything under pleco so I don’t have to use two systems.

 

[mikelove]

Hello, Mike. Just made an account as I was wondering the same thing. It would be very helpful to be able to use flashcards in Pleco so I bought the bundle that included that capability and was trying to figure out how to use it on iOS and came upon a forum post today about it . Is there any rough timeline for when the new system will be live? I'm currently adding stuff to Anki and Traverse but Pleco would be so much more convenient.

I'm afraid I don't have any timeline to share, we're really bad at making predictions about this stuff and we prefer not to disappoint people. We didn't think the more polished / usable beta we're currently working on would take nearly as long as it has; if you'd asked me to make a release date estimate for that at any point in the last year and I'd given you one, it would have been wrong.