I’m new to Anki and encountering a bit of difficulty with reviewing cards. I need to intensely study Math for my university entrance exam in 4 weeks, so I want to review basic formulas and concepts daily, and whenever I have free time.
I have created a new deck (e.g., “MŨ - LOGARIT”) and added about 2 cards to it. I’ve checked the main screen, and the new, learning, and due card counts all show 0 0 0 after I’ve finished a study session.
When I click on the deck to study, Anki displays the message: “Congratulations! You have finished this deck for now. If you want to study outside the regular schedule, you can use the Custom Study feature.”
I’ve tried going into “Custom Study” and selecting options like “Study all cards in random order,” but I want Anki to automatically present cards for me to study every day, without having to go into “Custom Study” each time.
I have already tried adjusting the Options for my deck:
Set “New cards/day” to 9999.
Set “Maximum reviews/day” to 9999.
I couldn’t find the “Maximum interval” option as instructed in some guides, perhaps because I’m using FSRS (I saw a message about FSRS and “This setting is shared by all presets”). I also saw a screen titled “Easy Days” with sliders, but I believe that’s not related to the main interval setting (referencing the image I’ve attached).
My questions are:
Given my goal of intensive exam preparation (needing to review cards frequently and continuously for 4 weeks), what specific settings in Anki do I need to adjust so that it always shows cards for me to study when I want, without having to manually initiate “Custom Study” every time?
If I am indeed using FSRS, which parameters (e.g., “Desired Retention”) should I adjust to achieve this continuous review goal?
Is there any other way for Anki to consistently present cards for review automatically every day, even when the current number of cards is small (like my case with only 2 cards)?
There is this add-on which adds buttons to rebuild filtered decks
An Anki add-on that adds “Rebuild All” and “Empty All” buttons to the bottom of the main screen, to rebuild or empty filtered decks at once. By default all decks are emptied and rebuild. By changing the configuration you can limit the effect of these buttons (despite their names) to rebuild only some decks (the config options are “rebuild all except for” and “rebuilt only these”). https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/104518886
and 2. You could increase your Desire Retention to >90% to see them more frequently
Make a big filtered deck with all of your small decks and study them grouped together rather than making a filtered deck for every deck
Food for thought – 4 weeks is plenty of time to learn a reasonable number of cards [although you don’t say how many you have/plan to have] using regular spaced-repetition settings. You’re proposing to use a spaced-repetition system for a 4-week cram session – which won’t be enjoyable, might not be very effective, and requires you to cut off many of the parts of Anki that make it great.
If you’re choosing to use Anki, there must be a reason, right? You should at least consider giving the basic principles of spaced repetition a try. You can learn the same amount with considerably less time/effort, and focus your extra efforts on just the things your struggling with, instead of on everything.
If you’re determined to start cramming now anyway – Filtered decks are the best way to do that, because you’re going to study cards outside of their regular schedule. So you don’t have to change anything about FSRS, daily limits, max intervals. Just set your search filter to get everything.
Having the Filtered deck(s) drain of cards as you study, and then Rebuilding them is also a good way to make sure you’re getting to all of your material relatively equally. [If you’re not going to use the tools to spend less time on things that don’t need your attention, spending equal time on everything is probably better than some random process that has you spending the wrong amount of time on the wrong things.]