Using flashcards cf Skritter

[MMarks]

This is really a general question. I am using both Pleco and Skritter for flashcards. I prefer Pleco except for one thing: if I fill a catagory in Pleco and want to test myself, it says (now) 313 questions to go. I can do it at my own speed, but I am always aware that I can't finish this file in one sitting. I realize it's really the same in Skritter - in both cases I am actually up to date, but Skritter shows me 0 to do, whereas Pleco says 300 or 400 or 500 to do. I find the Skritter more exciting to do. The Pleco category size seems to weigh me down a bit.

Should I be doing things differently? I would prefer to have my vocabulary all in Pleco and add my new vocab there: Pleco has all the different tests I could want, has audio, has all the dictionaries.Skritter has its own not-so-good-for-me definitions, e.g. in Pleco I can click through the dictionaries for other meanings, but Skritter shows me three pronunciations and five meanings for one character and I don't need them yet. It also has useless example sentences, at least on the Web, and highly peculiar mnemonics seem to crop up (I believe those are popular with some users though). In Pleco, I love the Chinese-Chinese dictionary and if I want example sentences from the dictionaries, there they are. (There is a Pleco clickthrough on the IOS app for Skritter which I use, but it obviously slows things down).

So the only thing I really prefer about Skritter is that it is somehow "sexier" to use! (I don't value the writing all that much, I think it's overemphasized, but I know it's a personal thing).

Thanks for any suggestions - I think I have 2 years left with Skritter iOS so no hurry, but I hope I made myself clear. I have been through the Help file once but as you know, Pleco is so complex that I wanted to ask here. Perhaps I should be playing with the settings I don't understand.

Margaret

 

[mikelove]

This is really a general question. I am using both Pleco and Skritter for flashcards. I prefer Pleco except for one thing: if I fill a catagory in Pleco and want to test myself, it says (now) 313 questions to go. I can do it at my own speed, but I am always aware that I can't finish this file in one sitting. I realize it's really the same in Skritter - in both cases I am actually up to date, but Skritter shows me 0 to do, whereas Pleco says 300 or 400 or 500 to do. I find the Skritter more exciting to do. The Pleco category size seems to weigh me down a bit.

Have you tried the "split category" function? (tap on the (>) button next to a category in Organize Cards) That will shrink them down to more manageable pieces, pretty much the same thing that Skritter does automatically in the background.

Thanks for the rest of your post - we're not really trying to compete with Skritter (in fact we're working on a number of possible collaborations with them) but it's nice to know that our flashcard system is still holding up well

 

[MMarks]

Thanks very much - I am trying it out.

I really should not be so negative about Skritter - it's a great service. I do find the progress visuals quite motivating. As long as it's words I know well, I can ignore the example sentences. But just using the new app on the iPod, I found I was seeing these weird mnemonics when I accidentally clicked on the wrong place, and it must have affected my brain. I know there are books with mnemonics in them but I prefer to think about the radicals and phonetic elements. Perhaps I'm getting too old for this!

 

[MMarks]

Is the split category function limited to a particular size? I selected one category, which has 161 cards in it. I can split it into categories of 81. I wantd to split it into 30, but it insists on 81. In the test, it tells me there are 66 to go.

So is it the case that I can choose several categories and it will split them into groups of. say 80, and when I've finished a test of 80 and start a new test, it will be a different 80?

 

[MMarks]

Sorry, overlooked 'split now' - question withdrawn.