# Relationship between desired retention rate and actual retention rate **URL:** \ **Category:** Help\ **Created:** [January 6, 2025, 3:52pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/relationship-between-desired-retention-rate-and-actual-retention-rate/54029 "2025-01-06T15:52:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![possopo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/59ef9b/32.png) [@possopo](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/possopo)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2025, 3:52pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/relationship-between-desired-retention-rate-and-actual-retention-rate/54029/1 "2025-01-06T15:52:43Z")
hello, I may not have perfectly understood what FSRS is about because I have a very basic question : my desired retention rate is currently 90%. my real retention rate has been going up lately, it was at 89% last month, it’s currently at 92% for the past week and it’s still going up (maybe because I’m concentrating more when I review my flashcards). some say that a very high retention rate is a waste of time and graphs say the same. should I choose a lower desired retention rate (say 88 or 85) to bring my actual retention rate down to 90% or is FSRS doing the job automatically and the interval between two reviews will slowly get bigger because my percentage of right answers starts be really high ? thank you very much. ---
**Author:** ![sorata](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/forums.ankiweb.net/sorata/32/34115_2.png) [@sorata](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/sorata)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2025, 7:13pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/relationship-between-desired-retention-rate-and-actual-retention-rate/54029/2 "2025-01-06T19:13:59Z")
Have you optimised the preset recently? And can you try using “Compute minimum recommended retention”? ---
**Author:** ![possopo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/59ef9b/32.png) [@possopo](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/possopo)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2025, 8:19pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/relationship-between-desired-retention-rate-and-actual-retention-rate/54029/3 "2025-01-06T20:19:20Z")
I just optimized again (I did it three weeks ago for the first time). however, the minimum recommended retention is still around 91% which is really high considering my actual retention rate. do you think I should wait until FSRS understands that reviews need to be spaced out and not tweak with the desired retention rate ? ---
**Author:** ![sorata](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/forums.ankiweb.net/sorata/32/34115_2.png) [@sorata](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/sorata)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2025, 8:40pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/relationship-between-desired-retention-rate-and-actual-retention-rate/54029/4 "2025-01-06T20:40:04Z")
Just set `desired retention` to 91% and you’re fine. Setting it lower than that means you’ll be having a worse `workload/knowledge` ratio (at least if the simualtions are correct). ---
**Author:** ![possopo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/59ef9b/32.png) [@possopo](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/possopo)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2025, 9:15pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/relationship-between-desired-retention-rate-and-actual-retention-rate/54029/5 "2025-01-06T21:15:52Z")
OK, thank you. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/anki2/original/1X/8f1279ababc5879d54e4838989f606cfe55af8c7.jpeg) [@system](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/system)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2025, 9:16pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/relationship-between-desired-retention-rate-and-actual-retention-rate/54029/6 "2025-02-05T21:16:40Z")
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