I recently deleted several thousand words (because I had learned them too fast and I wanted to relearn the more slowly). Now something weird is happening when I go through these words again and relearn them or mark them as learned.
Many words that I have not marked as learned yet have reappeared in the study queue. It seems that when I relearn a word, some of the words that are in the same section of the deck are also marked as learned. I just tested this: I marked the word “gread panda” (new HSK 5, section 951-1000, 6th word) and the 2nd word in that section (“watch attentively”) appeard to the study queue. Similarly, adding the word “aquatic product” (new HSK 5, section1001-1050, 4th word) also added the word for sushi (2nd word in the same section). I’ve tried this several times now. It doesn’t matter if I learn the word by practicing it or by just marking it as learned.
I’m not sure if this is related to the fact that these are words that I’ve previously learned but later deleted. I’ve noticed that Skritter doesn’t totally delete words when they deleted. First I was quite surprised that the words I relearned didn’t come up the next day (since Skritter remembers that I’ve practised them before and they might be due only after several weeks).
I guess I should have just banned the words I wanted to remove from the study queue (and not delete the deck and later reactivate it). I wish there was a way to “unlearn” a word
(as if I’ve never learned it). I quite often learn too many words a day, but there is no way to cancel the learning process.