I’ve been using the Android beta, and the overall function is fine.
However, after you complete the reviews for the day, you are not given any sort of efficient method to review/reinforce words that are incorrect.
My General Flow:
Add new words from a deck
Review that section a number of times repeatedly to get a feel for new words
Go to the home page and review words.
After reviewing the words, I will get some score (Let’s say, 80%). Great. Now, how do I review the 20% I got wrong? Sure, I can go into individual sections, but then I waste my time studying words I know mixed with ones I don’t, and once you have 30+ sections/decks, you can’t effectively find the words you are getting wrong.
Furthermore, the homepage is essentially empty and serves no purpose after you complete your reviews for the day. This is inefficient design.
It seems it should be fairly easy to simply create a way to “Keep Reviewing” words that you got wrong in the review - just replace the homepage, greyed-out “review” button with a new one that loops over words you got incorrect, or something. Right now, I find myself exporting words I get wrong into a DIFFERENT app because there is no efficient way to focus studying on words you are getting wrong across a blend of different lists.
Yes, reviewing incorrect cards is our next big feature, and we’re excited to get that out to users as a top priority. Let us know any other feedback you might have. Cheers.
Totally agree, I am new to skitter (but not new to study chinese) and was quite surprised to find out that if you get a character wrong, you simply move to the next one without having a chance to redo the failed character later! I even thought there is something wrong with my app settings.
Hope this issue can be fixed soon. With only 100 characters on my current list, this is not a major problem, but will surely be later on.
Bottom-line, the efficiencies of the original app’s learning algorithm work great. Removing any of the original functions from the new app is no improvement.
We must be able to review old words while adding new words and make sure the algorithm presents only those words “that are either already forgotten or soon to be forgotten”, a promise made and kept by the creators of the original app.
Otherwise, it is just as easy to go back to pen & paper, “testing” ourselves from existing word lists. But that way wastes time on known words. The expense of Skritter is justified primarily by its unique learning algorithm.
An update to my original comments: I have heard from Jeremy since, and am much reassured about the usefulness of future versions of the new app to more advanced users. Review capabilities will eventually be available for individual lists as well.
I know I replied via email, however I thought I should post a snippet of what I wrote to you here so other people can see as well.
The app is available in the App Store and isn’t in beta, however that doesn’t mean it’s “complete” and there are still many features we’re working on. We don’t want to give the wrong impression that if something isn’t in the app yet, that it’s not planned or won’t be. We’re working on adding the ability to review just one list or a subsections of a list! I do see how it’s not working for you since you have so many items due, and even if you didn’t-- it’s quite efficient the be able to just review a particular list without being bogged down by other due items from other lists.
I also thought I should mention that besides being able to review just a single list at a time, there will also be a focused test mode as well which will just show words that had been marked as incorrect.
We want to make sure that the new app is more powerful and not at all a hindrance or step back from the previous version, so if there’s anything else at all please let us know.
You could also consider to provide an option for the review mode: “persistence of showing you previously marked incorrectly vocabulary during the review”. Like a focused test mode inside the review mode. The reason being that, when limited in time, one might rather do a few rounds in review mode to work through the stockpile (which should anyway - more prominently - Include those incorrect words anyway), rather than spending her/his time in a test mode.
Just my personal opinion as a user merely using learn and review modes so far.
I think what you say accurately describes the current state of the app. If you get something wrong, it will become due again immediately. If you use normal review mode (as opposed to continuous studying), it will show up again in your next review session. I’m not sure exactly how priority works, but for me, things I got wrong in recent sessions show up very early in the upcoming review sessions, usually first.
Anyway, I want to highlight this since you commented on a discussion more than four months old and a lot of things have happened in the app since then!
