Hello! I am very new to Anki. I’m using it for my MCAT in a couple short months so I’ve been very stressed since this occurred recently.
Basically, after adjusting my settings to what was suggested in an MCAT video, I noticed my Anki started acting differently in 2 ways as far as I could tell:
When using Anki for around a month (on an Asus laptop), cards used to increase the red number at the bottom when I sorted a card as “hard” and decrease the red number when I clicked “good.” I really loved that it did this because I can see the “hard” cards soon again in the same study session. Now, it no longer does that.
And for some reason, the message I get after finishing the cards in a deck for that day changed. It used to always just tell me this: “Congratulations! You have finished this deck for now. If you wish to study outside of the regular schedule, you can use the [custom study] feature.”
Now, it basically says something with much more words along the lines of come back within however many minutes to study more cards? It also says something similar like this: “Congratulations! You have finished this deck for now. There are more new cards available, but the daily limit has been reached. You can increase the limit in the options, but please bear in mind that the more new cards you introduce, the higher your short-term review workload will become. One or more cards were buried, and will be shown tomorrow. You can [unbury them](javascript:bridgeCommand(‘unbury’)) if you wish to see them immediately. If you wish to study outside of the regular schedule, you can use the [custom study](javascript:bridgeCommand(‘customStudy’)) feature.”
***Please understand I prefer Anki not to make me come back later to finish my daily review. I liked completing cards due each day in one sitting like before because of a busy schedule.
I’m also attaching screenshots of most of my current settings (Anki limits my uploads) under “options” for my decks. Hopefully it can provide some context. I do not remember/know my previous settings. I also don’t know where else to get assistance right now and none of my friends know. I’d play around and look into it more but I just don’t have the time on top of being a full-time student/working. Please let me know if you have any questions, your help is deeply appreciated! Thank you.
Both of those differences are most likely due to you changing your Learn Ahead Limit from the default of 20m. You can change that back in Preferences. (If you don’t remember doing that, there’s an AnKing add-on that changes it for you when you accept its settings.)
The only other thing I see in your settings is that your FSRS parameters are a bit unusual. Are you a 2-button grader (only Again and Good)? That would probably explain what I’m seeing, and you don’t mention other concerns about your the scheduling, so I can leave you to it. If you’re using all 4 grading buttons, I’d have bigger concerns.
Be sure to come back monthly to re-optimize your parameters.
Ok, I just turned FSRS on today due to a suggestion from a friend. I do use all 4 grading buttons by the way. If that is an issue, I can reduce it to two (likely again or easy/good).
I changed Learn Ahead Limit to 20m again. I’ll observe what happens as I continue studying the cards due tomorrow.
I understand Anki has a programmed algorithm to help remember certain cards. However, I did forget to mention that I noticed Anki also changes the timing above “good,” "hard,” “good,” and “easy” with every card. I’m only confused since I never used to see such long amounts before. There are some more screenshots at the bottom.
Do you know how I can prevent losing the two features I mentioned (1. how pressing hard on a card increases the red number/pressing good on a card reduces it and 2. how to finish all cards due for each day in one sitting without having to return?)
Having someone to guide me through this means a lot, I appreciate the efforts to try resolving this.
As I said, that’s the Learn Ahead Limit. Read the link to understand the feature, but –
The “red number” is a counter of how many Learn/Relearn cards are available to study right now. If you put a card on a step delay that is longer than your Learn Ahead, it isn’t available to study yet, so it won’t be counted there. If you advance a card through the steps and graduate it from Learn/Relearn to Review, it won’t be counted there.
That’s the specific purpose of the Learn Ahead Limit.
I absolutely was not suggesting you reduce to 2-button grading. Please continue using all 4 buttons – just make sure you’re using them correctly, and grading your cards honestly and accurately.
The concerns I have are based on your actual parameters.
How long has it been since you last re-optimized?
How many reviews does FSRS count during optimization? [If you don’t remember, you can click Optimize Current to see, and then close without saving.]
Show us your Stats > Answer Buttons for the decks in this preset.
Yes, that’s normal. Every card is scheduled based on its own review history (and the FSRS settings for the preset its subdeck uses, and Fuzz Factor), so you shouldn’t expect every card will show the same button intervals. To tell you why any particular card is being scheduled the way it is, we’d need to look at its review history, in Card Info.
