# Exceptionally High Card Difficulty with Low Desired Retention FSRS **URL:** \ **Category:** FSRS\ **Created:** [September 22, 2026, 8:25pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/exceptionally-high-card-difficulty-with-low-desired-retention-fsrs/71179 "2026-09-22T20:25:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Toucandor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/58956e/32.png) [@Toucandor](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/Toucandor)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2026, 8:25pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/exceptionally-high-card-difficulty-with-low-desired-retention-fsrs/71179/1 "2026-09-22T20:25:31Z")
Hey all, hope you’re well. I’ve been struggling relative to my peers with extremely high card loads (1000ish per day) and a difficulty graph that looks a bit crazy: ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/anki2/original/3X/7/b/7b7408f881695688f62eee1c5558c553441cd058.png) My FSRS parameters are below: 0.0189, 0.1206, 0.7065, 11.1721, 5.7419, 0.4749, 1.9340, 0.0015, 1.4031, 0.2675, 0.4882, 1.2963, 0.0416, 0.2323, 1.3760, 0.2288, 2.7818, 0.9123, 0.2826, 0.2771, 0.2664 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/anki2/original/3X/0/7/07876723938f5c7977d38ca80321def48e0fa01b.png) This card load is unsustainable, so my question is: is there a way to reset the difficulty of cards while keeping the current intervals? Or perhaps another solution to this problem other than just grinding through? I’ve done the latter for multiple months on end, optimizing the whole time intermittently, and my card loads are simply not going down. In fact, I was forced to lower my retention from 85% to 80% in order to keep up. I understand that my current situation may be due to utilizing the learning phase quite poorly early on at the start of last year (i.e. using again very frequently during learning steps). Moreover, I only really use again and good–which has likely resulted in an unimpeded steady increase in card difficulty. I am open to other solutions as well if you have them! ---
**Author:** ![ZornHadNoChoice](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/forums.ankiweb.net/zornhadnochoice/32/28874_2.png) [@ZornHadNoChoice](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/ZornHadNoChoice)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2026, 9:26pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/exceptionally-high-card-difficulty-with-low-desired-retention-fsrs/71179/2 "2026-09-22T21:26:14Z")
It’d help if you export the stats as a pdf and attach it here. ---
**Author:** ![Danika\_Dakika](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/forums.ankiweb.net/danika_dakika/32/17815_2.png) [@Danika\_Dakika](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/Danika_Dakika)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2026, 9:41pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/exceptionally-high-card-difficulty-with-low-desired-retention-fsrs/71179/3 "2026-09-22T21:41:53Z")
There’s more I’d like to see in your Stats too – at least Retention, Card Counts, Future Due (with backlog), or else the whole PDF. > [@Toucandor](#): > > is there a way to reset the difficulty of cards while keeping the current intervals? No. There’s no way to “reset” card D because FSRS calculates it for each card based on its history. But D isn’t something you need to be concerned about. All that graph is telling you is that most of your cards can’t be distinguished from each other on the basis of D. [Yes, a big factor leading to that is that you’re only using 2 grading buttons, and there isn’t as much variety in the data.] > [@Toucandor](#): > > In fact, I was forced to lower my retention from 85% to 80% in order to keep up. If your retention results [`Stats > Retention`] weren’t keeping up with your Desired Retention (DR), then that was the right thing to do. Lowering DR allows Anki to schedule your cards for longer intervals, allowing for a lower chance of remembering each card. But it looks like your retention results are probably even lower than 80%. > [@Toucandor](#): > > I understand that my current situation may be due to utilizing the learning phase quite poorly early on at the start of last year (i.e. using again very frequently during learning steps). Yes, that’s probably part of it. But old grading history isn’t an anchor that drags you down forever. If you’ve fixed your grading practices now, the situation should get better each month when you re-optimize. Are you also carrying a big backlog of overdue cards? ---
**Author:** ![Toucandor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/58956e/32.png) [@Toucandor](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/Toucandor)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2026, 2:48am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/exceptionally-high-card-difficulty-with-low-desired-retention-fsrs/71179/4 "2026-09-23T02:48:06Z")
Sorry for missing data on the first post! I appreciate you both and all you’ve contributed over the years. To answer your folllowup question–not a particularly large backlog, only 500 cards roughly. I’d love to attach a pdf of the stats, but I can’t upload files so I pasted a screenshot below: ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/anki2/original/3X/6/9/696b000c70d640300ba0cfdc1d7e6198f000bdd9.png) ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/anki2/original/3X/a/e/ae1994b2988a318012d0afd7839406b2f75ce50a.png) ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/anki2/original/3X/9/e/9ee1d799cc0e63f19ca8ecbab75a794fd0105914.png) ---
**Author:** ![Danika\_Dakika](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/forums.ankiweb.net/danika_dakika/32/17815_2.png) [@Danika\_Dakika](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/Danika_Dakika)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2026, 9:51pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/exceptionally-high-card-difficulty-with-low-desired-retention-fsrs/71179/5 "2026-09-24T21:51:02Z")
Sorry I missed your update! > [@Danika\_Dakika](#): > > > [@Toucandor](#): > > > > In fact, I was forced to lower my retention from 85% to 80% in order to keep up. > > If your retention results [`Stats > Retention`] weren’t keeping up with your Desired Retention (DR), then that was the right thing to do. Your Retention results show that 80% DR is probably fine for now. > [@Toucandor](#): > > not a particularly large backlog, only 500 cards roughly. I don’t see that backlog in your Stats, so you must have just caught up on it? That’s probably why you had so many cards due on the subsequent days. - You should focus on studying all of your due Review cards and graduating all Learn/Relearn cards to Review every day. If you can’t do that with your current workload, you need to let some of your cards be a backlog and use a [Catch-up deck](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/adressing-backlog/43842/2) to manage them while you keep up with your current cards. - How long has it been since you re-optimized your parameters? You can do that monthly. - You’re only getting 50% correct in Learn/Relearn. That definitely impacts your parameters. What are your learning/relearning steps? If you’re introducing brand new material in Anki, are you taking the time to learn it, or just churning the cards through Again over-and-over?