Khatzumoto over at AJATT tells the story of how he found “little and often.” It is the concept of doing something in small chunks consistently, rather than a several hour session occasionally. This lines perfectly with using SRS. Instead of holing up for several hours at the library for a few nights, it is much more efficient and fun to study in bite size few-minute pieces per day.
Most classes I average under 5 minutes per day to review Anki cards. Usually when I wake up, a few minutes before class, right after getting back from a meal, before going out, a quick break between reading and watching a movie, etc. There are tiny little cracks in the day that can be filled with quickly reviewing Anki cards. It can be done in one swoop all together, or microscopic two-card-per-session divisions. Completely up to you. I like to stop whenever it becomes frustrating and ceases to be fun.
How often to study? Everyday is a fair goal. “I never have the time!” is heard often. However, they have time to cram for 12 hours in 2-3 days before an exam. Where did all this time come from? (See: Inflating Effort). It is more efficient to spread 2 hours (for very difficult courses) over a few weeks than 6X that amount in two days. Everyone can spare a few minutes a day to study. 15 minutes less Facebook time per day to prepare for courses. This is fair considering all the time saved in the long run.
As I type this I realize what Khatzumoto also discusses: how people want to travel the path of least resistance. They have time to watch 4.5 hours of television per day, yet the 20 minutes worth of homework goes unfinished or spread out over several hours because of half-effort. SRS is a great cure for this. Studying is far more manageable and fun with quick little wins(LINK HERE) than an ambiguous few-hour boring session at the library. SRS is quantifiable. Anki shows exactly how many cards were studied and added each day. Setting a minimum personal goal will lead to another “Win.”
A few years ago I read the results of a study on BBC. The study analyzed the factors that made projects most successful for men and women. Men that kept a consistent log of their activities managed to achieve more and keep the project. Women that discussed their project accomplishments with people close to them also achieved more and continued their project. I have experienced this with keeping a log for the gym, and my Victory Wall. It makes sense for anyone to keep a log of their activities like the Victory Wall. I rarely discuss it, though I know it is important to keeping me going. Women may find talking about their accomplishments would help remain consistent.
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[...] DAT PAT is a solid source of PAT problems. When studying I utilized little and often and studied them in 10 minute sprints broken up into sections. Some days one section, some days [...]
Can you tell us a bit more about your “Victory Wall”? I am really interested!
Hi Guay,
Sure! The idea came from a bit in this post over on AJATT: http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/chinese-project-notes-10-big-developments-anki-text-to-speech-cantonese-victory-calendar
I just took a big long piece of white paper and made these unmarked columns:
Date | # cards reviewed for Korean | # cards added for Korean | Subjective feeling of how I did immersion that day for Korean (-, checkmark, or star) | # reviews for classes | # new cards added for classes
I made enough columns for each day the rest of the semester, and by the end it was an impressive sight. It looked like a big scroll near my window and I was proud of it. It helped with motivation because at the end of the day I had to answer to the wall.
One thing I would change though would be to not set minimum limits for # cards added/reviewed. What happened was I would avoid it all day and then at the end of the day I would do 10 reviews so it would be acceptable to put on the wall. It became silly with several-day streaks of “10 reviews.”
Eventually I realized the deeper problem of motivation had to be tackled so I began figuring that out. Will be posting something soon on motivation in general.
Wow, thanks a lot!
I wish I had more people like you in my circle of friends.
I guess you would say I am a bit overwhelmed by all of this. I have been using ANKI/SRS for language learning (with a great deal of success) and am just starting to try to use it for chemistry. Your website has inspired me a great deal, and I hope that I can learn how to use it for all of my classes.
I also want to say I appreciate your writing style and your minimalist design. It is easy on the eyes.
P. S. Last night, I told my friend that the Front Right is the best place to sit. He wasn’t so sure, but then again I can hardly convince anyone of the importance of using SRS so perhaps it’s my fault!
(Sorry for the long diatribe…)
Haha have you been having luck with sitting in the front of the class? It helps so much it’s ridiculous. Even the 2nd row has a noticeable fall-off.
Using SRS for chemistry is strange. It took my awhile, and I am still learning and figuring out new things. Following the basic ideas of “as short as possible” even if it means splitting a concept into 4+ cards, all with different facts, on it is important. My early models for cards were these long elaborate sentences with 3+ facts per card. Ridiculously ineffective. It’s faster to just split it into several cards for easy digestion. How has it been going for you?