Despite some skepticism and advice against it, I, as a medical student facing exams, find comfort in focusing more on topics that are frequently tested. Unfortunately, Anki doesn’t natively support prioritizing cards in its scheduling algorithms (whether it’s version 2, version 3, SM2, or FSR).
The only addon I found that sort of addresses this is “Card Scheduling Priority (customize intervals),” but it’s had compatibility issues with Anki updates. Plus, it doesn’t seem to work as expected for me; no matter how I adjust it, the scheduling intervals don’t change to reflect my priorities—shortest for most crucial topics, longest for the least.
Some users have recommended using subdecks (e.g., lv1, lv2, lv3) and adjusting the interval multiplier for each to simulate priority. This method seems less prone to breaking with updates, which have been frequent.
Could anyone share their thoughts or experiences on this approach?
I suggest using FSRS and setting different values of desired retention for different presets (FSRS works on a per-preset basis, not per-deck basis). Set desired retention lower for stuff you care less about, and higher for stuff you care more about.
When viewing the cards for the first time, mark the more important cards “hard” or “again”. Just keep in mind that this can ruin the fsrs optimization.
The whole point of FSRS is to do away with manual tweaking like this. Instead of tweaking a dozen of parameters, you only change your desired retention and that’s all.
hi, thanks for your suggestion, tonite I watched anking’s video and would like to give fsrs a try.
I am a med student (like many ppl using anki), such that under each disease name there are 3 subdecks say lv1, lv2, lv3. I saw that in the FSRS in the settings, is it the preset could be deck name? I could simply use deck:lv1 etc to set all subdecks named “lv1” to higher retention and all subdecks named “lv3” to lower retention?
ok, my plan now.
turn to FSRS.
for the decks,
i split them by alphabets into a-z, and in each deck, there are 3 levels of importance labelled lv1, lv2, lv3.
one could simply have a preset of lv1 to have 90% retention, lv2 to be 85 etc.
and now i mostly only deal /w 26x3 = 78 deck/subdecks, better than 1000+ decks (disease names, however i haven’t finished making so many chatpers into anki).
While less of a problem than it was in earlier Anki versions, adding hundreds of decks may cause slowdowns, and very large deck trees with thousands of items can actually break the display of the deck list in Anki versions before 2.1.50.
Instead of creating lots of little decks, it’s a better idea to use tags and/or fields to classify your content. Tags are a useful way to boost search results, find specific content, and keep your collection organized. There are many ways of using tags and flags effectively, and thinking in advance about how you want to use them will help you decide what will work best for you. Adding/Editing - Anki Manual
I handle priority at the simplest level by spending more time on the decks which have higher priority for me. For example I am studying various aspects in the subject “Chess” (which is the parent deck). Within that I have subdecks (e.g. tactical puzzles, opening moves, opening variation names). For example, I do 20 cards a day from the “tactical puzzles”. I list my goals each week, so for this week, the goal is:
Chess positions: average 5/day for 6 days
Puzzle rush reviews: average min 20/day for 6 days
Opening moves reviews: average min 15/day for 6 days
Variation names reviews: average min 5/day for 6 days
Checkmate patterns: average min 5/day for 6 days
General knowledge: average min 5/day for 6 days
Another way in which I use subdecks is where there is a natural ordering for the content. For example, in learning the opening moves, there is no point learning what the correct move is on move 12 if I go wrong at move 3. So, I divide my chess moves deck into subdecks by the general opening (e.g. French Defense, King’s Gambit), then by colour (white or black to move), then by move number “move 1”, “move 2”, “move 3” etc.). I will choose the opening I want to study, the colour, and then learn the deck for move 3, then the deck for move 4 etc.
