Scheduling inquiry

I am using Anki to learn German so I created a deck of cards with the German word and it’s English translation (Basic and reverse card), Now I just want to set the deck so I have three options 1m 10m and 1h, then after revising the card again after 1h I can see it again a day after then after 2 days then after 8 days and so one.

So to sum it I just want to study the card and it’s reverse twice a day before graduating it to the other day and so on.

Also would be preferrable if when reviewing I see the German card first then the English card.

1 Like

You can set the learning steps to 1m and 10m but, as far as I know, you cannot set the steps after graduating a card. But you can trust FSRS algorithm.

In Deck options, check Display order - New card sort order. One of the settings will work for you. But maybe you will need to change your Card template to ensure the Front card is German and the Back card is English.

If you mean you want the (first 3) answer buttons to have those intervals when the card is first introduced – sorry, you can’t. When you first see the card, Hard is the average of the first 2 steps, so you could have –
1m 10m 20m ← by setting your learning steps to 1m 20m
or
1m 30m 1h ← by setting your learning steps to 1m 1h

Either of those (or anything with 2 learning steps) will mean you study and grade the card (at least) twice on the day it is introduced.

[Are you trying to study both of them on the same day, or just generally you want to meet a word on the German card at some point before you get the English card for that word? Language learners often don’t want cards on the same day, so take a look at the burying settings.]

That should happen naturally as long as your German card is card 1 and your English card is card 2. If they aren’t, you can “reposition” the card types in the template editor. Card Templates - Anki Manual

They are in fact in that order, but for some reason some cards are displayed in the desired order (basic (German) 1st then reversed (English)) and some are not.

I have tried to get help from ChatGPT it gave me the code for an add-on that should help reach the desired order but me and him couldn’t successfully integrate the add on, it gave an error at the start of anki.

I was wondering if I should create another post with the code of the add-on.

I can’t imagine why you’d need an add-on to do this. It really is basic Anki functionality.

But let’s just verify we’re talking about the same thing. You’re talking about when cards are first introduced, right? Not about when they come back for Review?

I’d start by checking –

  • Are all of your notes using the same note type? I know you think they are, but have you checked?
  • Are your Card-2s using the same New-queue numbers as their siblings? There are times when they won’t be – based on an import, a reposition, an additional card type that was added later, etc. – but that’s easily fixable.
  • What do you have set for New card gather and order orders – on the deck you’re clicking to study?

I speaking about the review phase, and it was all cards made manually using the exact same template (basic card and reverse)

Oops! I’m glad I asked so we didn’t spend too much more time trying to solve the wrong problem!

For Review cards – after you start studying a card, it follows its own schedule. There’s no guarantee that both siblings will ever be due on the same day – even if you leave siblings unburied.

Generally studying your cards in the same order every time is considered a bad idea – Can I study my cards in a particular order? - Anki FAQs . But a the request of folks using certain types of cloze cards where they can’t be studied out-of-order, you can choose to set your Review Sort Order to “Order Added.”

That sort order will get you the closest to what you’re looking for. If both sibling cards are due on the same day, they will be shown to you in order. But in addition to the other downsides of using that sort, they’ll probably also be one-after-the-other, which seems like it would be awful.

1 Like

It does get me a close but some cards I guess randomly doesn’t follow the order.

Also the graduation period for the basic card seem to differ from the reversed card (the reversed cards usually get assigned a different review date from the basic card).

It’s very tiresome to be hones, what I want to achieve through Anki is very simple, and the app is very very customizable and doesn’t make any sense that I can’t achieve the desired scheduling and review order I desire.

SOMETHING IS WRONG.

Those maybe New or Learn/Relearn cards that are not controlled by the same setting.

That’s normal – due to Fuzz Factor – Studying - Anki Manual .

Aside from the caveats I’ve given you about reasons not to do this, and the fact that each card follows its own schedule – what is still not working the way you want?

1 Like

The review order is doesn’t follow the desired order.
The graduation period doesn’t work as intended beyond 2 days (I want it to be 1h 1d 2d 4d 8d…etc.) for both the basic and the reversed.

That’s all I want really. these two things.

Is there a way to stop this fuzz factor and do you think it’s a good idea to share the code for the add on that chatGPT written?

Yes. You can remove the code from anki and then build your own fork yourself. This will obviously increase maintainance burden on your end.

I don’t think addons could hook into that logic (but I know very little about ankis code), so addons probably won’t help you achieve this.

You can of course share it if you think it’s relevant. Doesn’t mean anyone will be able to help you with it though. It’s worth a try nontheless (probably best in a separate post).

As a sidenote: From a psychological point of view, your desired intervalls probably are very ineffective. Depending on the card difficulty you’d either see the cards to early (which increases your workload unneccessarily but is generally alright if retention is the only thing you care about) and the more your cards go into the future, the more likely it is to forget the cards (due to the forgetting curve and you seeing the cards too late). That’s something you should keep in mind if you really do intend to use anki the way you described.

Also see the link Danika_Dakika shared above if you didn’t already.

1 Like

Anki isn’t designed to allow users to choose exact review days; it’s designed to show you reviews roughly when you are about to forget, which is different for different cards. Removing the fuzz factor won’t change that; you’d have to change or supplement the core scheduling algorithm.

Speaking from experience, I suggest you choose another application instead of spending time fighting Anki and creating Anki cards you may not be able to use in other apps.

Odd, it seems like a very customizable app and I thought my intended schedule and reviewing order would be easily achieved.

Do you know of any other app that I might be able to customize to my liking.

P.S.
How does Anki know exactly when I would almost forget a card, isn’t that something different for different people?

If you’re using FSRS: It takes into account how you grade your cards (the four buttons from again to easy) and calculates how difficult that specififc card is for you. The intervals are based on a memory model which learns from your review history, if you reoptimize the parameters every once in a while.

From a psychological point of view this is much more effective than what you try to achieve here (which is important because Anki is all about effective learning).

Also see:

[quote=“BodhisattvaXIII, post:14, topic:54601, full:true”]
Odd, it seems like a very customizable app and I thought my intended schedule and reviewing order would be easily achieved. [/quote]
The appearance and content of cards and the addon system are what’s customizable; the scheduling is not very customizable.

[quote]
Do you know of any other app that I might be able to customize to my liking.[/quote]
There are so many flashcard apps, I cannot say. Search online for something specific to your OS (Mac, Windows, Android, etc.) and read the list of features before you invest time in it to make sure it does what you want.

From a couple of scheduling parameters you can set in preferences and how you rate cards. It knows roughly, not exactly.

No algorithm in the world knows your memory exactly. But it doesn’t have to. SM-2 and below use set rules that are bad for most people. FSRS adjusts itself based on your grading and your memory curve. That is the reason why FSRS is far superior compared to other algorithms used in the past (not just in anki but for spaced repetition in general – yes, including oldschool paper ones).

@linux-user @Danika_Dakika cant the custom scheduling feature be used to enforce the schedule I desire? if so can I create another post maybe on this forum on another JS forum?

Sorry, I didn’t see your last post until now. I don’t know about custom scheduling, but it would be complicated to remove fuzz and schedule specific review days, if that’s even possible.

Even if you have very little programming experience, if you can build Rust (there are instructions on the Anki github) or you’re willing to use an older Anki version, removing the fuzz is probably easier.

I’ve done it with an older Anki version: I just downloaded the source code, searched the scheduling python file for the word “fuzz,” then changed a few values to 0 or False. Building is the long, difficult part, but it may be easy for you if you’re on a modern, up-to-date operating system.