I agree. At minimum, there needs to be some way to tell the SRS algorithm that you want to be presented with things more frequently than the “average user”. The retention rate in the prior iOS version roughly provided that in a “bulk” sense, while the 4 grade options provided that at a fine-grained level.
I, personally, find that I have forgotten things more quickly than the SRS algo settings believe I have. (This manifests itself by Skritter showing me something I haven’t seen in many days, I immediately remember that it’s something I should know, but have completely forgotten it…and it happens a LOT.)
Unless the SRS settings auto-adapt the interval length, it’s just assuming a one-size-fits-all-brains approach, which is, as @mikemills said, “nonsense”.
“you either know a word or you don’t” - that’s nonsense
Totally agree. Since how well I know the word directly correlates to how long it’ll take to see it again in review, I need those 4 options to feel like I have some amount of control over my learning process. Sometimes it takes me 5-10 seconds to remember a word. Do I “know it” or not? If I’m reading a newspaper or article maybe, but not if I need to answer a question in conversation. I mark those as so-so because I do know it, but not to my personal standard of fluency. Similarly, when I get 五 after studying Chinese for 2 years, or a word I’ve learned from some other source but which nonethless appears in an HSK study set, I need a way to say “please for the love of God, I never need to review this again.” Those I mark too easy. Probably if there were more categories I’d find ways to distinguish those cases as well, but four is comfortable enough for me and I have grown to deeply associate them with different stages of learning, as it seems others have as well.
There was nothing stopping anyone from just using 2 of the 4 buttons before. Frankly, I think you need a better argument for changing this than “I’ve decided your model of learning doesn’t fit mine anymore.”
I absolutely agree, it does make NO sense at all to reduce these options except maybe to reduce complexity for the developers. If you don’t want to use the “easy” and “not sure” options then that’s fine, but even if just 10% of users use it that needs to be supported. I personally will not use the new App if it cuts out essential features like this.
It’s an open issue that will be fixed in an update this week.
While we are still discussing the best path forward for the grading buttons, you all make good points that we are absolutely factoring into our thought process. However we improve the situation, be that the return of 4 buttons, more adaptive/adjustable intervals, or some other solution, our aim is not to dumb down the experience or make the SRS less adjustable, but to make it more predictable and better at long-term retention.
Hey @mikelimassol, what kind of phone do you use and what version of Android are you on? Is there no sound at all, or just no sound in a specific area of the app?
when i first used the app on release day it had sound, the i unistalled cause of the bugs. i reistalled again 2 days ago and it had no sound at all. i am using the note9 android 9.
To be honest I was surprised that the option to grade yourself on a scale was removed. In your video you basically stated that if you didn’t like the new modes of studying not to worry because the old way would still be there. But it doesn’t feel like the old way without the scaled grading. I can see how using two choices when learning new words in the learn mode might make sense. However for review mode it should make for a much better learning experience to use scaled grading. I really don’t understand why it was changed.
I have a new bug. When I add new words to my “Miscellaneous” list they are not getting copied over to the new beta app. I added 5 new words to the list over the last few days, and when I go to the beta app it shows the list as having all of the words complete (and only 124 words in the February section, whereas the website shows 129 words in February). I forced a re-sync and they still are not showing up. I use the “Miscellaneous” list to add words that I come across and want to add to my study schedule but this is not allowing me to do so.
Seems like something easy enough to reproduce. We’ll investigate. The good news is that your new items are safe on the server for you. We’ll see what we can do about making them appear in the app, too!
@mikelimassol Would you be able to shoot us an email at team@skritter.com (including which version of the legacy app, and which cards it keeps crashing on)? Hoping we can resolve this for you soon so you aren’t crippled with your studies while you wait for the next beta update!
First I want to say - great progress on the beta. Came back to beta after a while and I really enjoy the new section approach to the lists. Feels like you know where you are when progressing through a loong list, and it takes out the pressure of having to go through your big pile of review items before reaching new vocabulary (without using the + button).
And the visual design is also getting better and better!
Could you please tell me if there is an option to test just section-wise (and/or the last learnt section) instead of having to choose a fixed number of words to test? I currently do not know where these X words are taken from. Is it random from the whole deck?
Would be nice to test section based.
You can tap into a specific section and access the Test mode, sure! We’re also discussing ways to select a subset of specific words to Test on as well, however it’s not possible yet.
Thanks for your swift reply. If I do this from within the section, I still can choose only a certain number of words, sometimes more than the section has words. If I choose a higher number, will the words still be just from the section?
If you open up a section with say 10 items, and choose TEST, the START TEST button will show 40 items to test, because we have 4 different ways to test an item (Definition/Reading/Tone/Writing).
If you toggle all of them off apart from one, you will see the number goes back to 10. If only 10 items items are selected, the top filer will give only one option (All cards). If it goes above 20, you will have more options. Make sense?
P.S If inside a section and you pick test, it will only test words from that section, and will not go on to the next.
P.P.S, if you only want to use Skritter to study say tones, you can turn off the other cards in your study settings, and therefore, when you go into a section, the number of items in that section will match the number on the START TEST button (unless items are banned inside that section).