@bezdomny @Lizardosity we’ve got a tone card improvement issue open that addresses these concerns. It will make it into a future update.
@Farham Color differentiating definition vs reading is a feature we will add. It was part of some of our previous clients for the same reason you just mentioned.
I don’t think anyone has addressed this issue yet, so I’m going to repeat myself. The Learn mode needs a lot of work in my opinion. I don’t actually feel like I’m learning anything, as all I’m tested on is the writing (no tone, definition or reading part), and the writing part requires me to write a word using raw squigs I’ve at this point seen twice. This is a format of Skritter that has never been responsive or easy to use. If you make one mistake it’ll mess up the entire character, with no option to delete strokes, thereby completely nullifying the point of learning to write a character. All I remember is a bunch of chicken scratches on a screen and supreme frustration.
I don’t understand why the learn mode does not include tones, definition and reading. I also feel like I’m missing out on one of my favorite parts of the old Skritter, learning what individual characters of words mean and how they make up a word. I’m relatively certain they’ll show up in reviews and I’ll learn then, but that probably won’t help me to learn a character better from how it’s built up.
Learning new words was my favorite part of Skritter before. It was like a treat for myself when I got to add new words and discover new characters. Now it’s more of a chore, something I SHOULD be doing, even though I’d rather be having fun doing something else.
Could you explain a bit more what you mean? Previous versions of Skritter didn’t spend any time teaching anything, or at least there aren’t any teaching moments built into the apps that I’m aware of. When a new item was added, new cards were added to the queue based on the parts you are studying. Adding the item 你好, for example, would mean that four parts are added to the queue for you to study.
None of these things were taught, they are just presented in the queue with a “New” badge on them, and the rest is entirely up to you.
The theory behind Learn mode, in comparison, is to provide you with some practice with an item before the cards go into the study queue. Any new item from a deck is presented with a preview card that shows characters, reading, definition, and (often) an example sentence and you’re given an option to learn the writing for the item or to skip the item and move to the next one.
After the preview card, you’re given three modes to practice writing of the character, while also being exposed to the audio, and the meaning(s).
By end of these practice sessions you will have written the character(s) at least three times, and also have been exposed to the audio, pinyin, and definition four times while solidifying the character(s) form in your head.
Often, when I’m learning characters that are new to me. I will do each part of the learning mode practice multiple times before moving to the next phase. If I’m struggling to write a character on the final part of learn mode, it generally means that I don’t know the character well enough yet, and should probably practice writing it a few more times before moving on. Rather than going back to previous practice cards, I either two-finger tap on the screen to see the whole character or press the stroke order button and trace a few times again until I’m comfortable.
We’ve built Learn mode to be writing-focused for now, since that is what Skritter is best at. The general idea is that after spending some time focusing on writing the time, you’ll have a stronger familiarity with the characters, which will help you answer reading, definition, and tone prompts with greater a degree of accuracy in the future (either in Test or Review modes).
We’re certainly looking for ways to improve Learn mode in the future, so I look forward to hearing from you and others about how we can make it even better!
Hello Skritter saavies,
I’m fueling the debate with a question i did not find the answer in your previous messages : how/where do you DELETE the lists you DON’T want to add to the review mode ?
Example : i “learned” the first section of the list called “Reduced, reused, recycled” but i eventually don’t want to study it anymore.
In the original version of Skritter, we could choose which list to study or not. Is this feature gone ?
Ben
Hey Jake, thanks for your detailed response. I should have been more clear. In the old modes, when a new word was added (almost always), first you would be presented with the writing, then the tone, then the definition and then the pinyin. If I added a new word manually while still having reviews in the queue, it would go through all of those cards first, maybe even twice, and then back to regular reviews. If the word contained a character I didn’t already know, that would also get it’s own set of writing, tone, definition and pinyin practice. This was great. I LOVED learning new words this way. Writing is primary yes, but I use Skritter for actually learning vocab definitions as well. The previous way was great because I learned all forms of what made up a word, and the individual characters too.
With the new mode, the ONLY thing I’m being tested on is writing. The tone, pinyin and definition appear, but I’m not tested on this. Just on writing. Of the three forms that appear two are pretty much exactly the same (trace the character) and one is so unusable, I get immediate negative feelings towards the characters, the app, and Chinese in general when I have to use it. Furthermore, I found out that today the individual characters ARE showing up in reviews but because I’ve never learned them before I’m forced to mark them as “forgot” which seems a little unfair. I may know what 相簿 means together but I’ve never studied 簿 by itself.
I feel like this could be a settings thing. Mark what things (writing, definition, reading, tone) you actually want to learn under Learn mode, and then those cards can show up in Learn mode for those of us that want it.
Also, please please please make raw squigs a setting instead of a requirement. I cannot stress how much this takes away from my experience.
Oh, I also had a question about Test mode, which may have been answered somewhere else. If I test on vocab, will the answers I give (forgot vs got it) affect the rate that these cards come up in reviews?
I appreciate your detailed reply. The learning experience can certainly be improved and we’ll take all of your comments and thoughts into consideration as we deploy updates.
Having Learn mode use global Study Settings for Raw Squigs probably makes the most sense in hindsight. Stay tuned!
raw squigs is the reason im using skritter.
Cool. If I had to use it for everything, I’d stop using Skritter. We each have our own preferences in this, which is why it was a setting before.
back with a 2nd basic issue for the app (using android) :
I surprisingly can’t find those features anymore
with the new app it will be nice if there was a toggle button to disable/enable writting and tone reviews of sentenses on the fly. the same way we disable enable all the review types(writing, tone, reading, definition)
Sorry, the ability to create and edit decks will be back in the apps soon. In the meantime, you can make changes to decks on on the website.
We’re improving how the mobile app handles these changes today and the next build or two should handle item and section updates a lot more gracefully. No more logging out and in! 
Thanks for your reply and listening to my complaints and suggestions. Change is difficult, especially when I liked the old ways and feel like I was learning better with that.
Any progress on making the pinyin optional on writing cards? It doesn’t show up on tones anymore which is good, but I’d like that setting to apply to writing cards too.
Also, my question above about the test mode. Do the cards I test on in test mode affect their appearance rate in reviews?
Yes, a reveal pinyin button will be added soon for when you’ve got hide reading turned on.
No, they currently do not. We’re debating whether they should (as a user setting), since it currently fills the role of when you want to review recent material or overstudy–it’s a safe space where you can study as much as you want and not worry about pushing out things you’d want to see in a day or two otherwise. Like if you’ve got a 聽寫 you’re cramming for.
Great! I used to use that function as a kind of English to Chinese test and I’m excited to have that back.
I wonder if there’s a way before each Test session to say “I want this to affect reviews” or “I don’t want this to affect reviews”. I can see for people specifically studying for a quiz on a certain chapter or as you said a 聽寫 would find it useful for it not to affect reviews, but for me I would like to be able to test on material I’ve just Learned, so that I can weed out the ones that I know (maybe I know the characters really well, or maybe I’ve studied it before but not in Skritter, or maybe it’s just a word that clicks with me) so that they don’t bog down my reviews.
I am having issues with the iOS (iPad) versions both the original and the beta.
The original version doesn’t allow me to just study one list anymore. It constantly tests me on all my lists even though there is only one list in my queue (The Outlier list).
The beta version does allow me to study only the Outlier list but is doesn’t add any sections after week 6. What is up with that? I now cannot study the full Outlier list at all unless I use the web site which is a hassle writing on a touch pad.
Beta version just got a new release which should fix the Outlier list issue you mentioned. Get the latest build and go into the deck, which should update things for ya!
When will the dark mode be polished a bit? Still some minor issues there. Btw, would be nice to add some customization for the colors in the dark mode. For example I would like to pick a blue color instead of that vibrant pink color.
Also glad to see the 4 grading system got back
whats the new version?
