Since switching to FSRS workload has gone up dramatically

Anki FSRS
1

HI, I recently turned on the FSRS button since I kept seeing online about it giving people less workload and higher retention.

I turned it on, set my desired retention rate to 0.90 and clicked optimize.

Since doing that I’ve noticed some weirdness. Today I reviewed a card that I hadn’t seen in anki for 9.13 months, I graded it “good” but now the interval to when i see it next has shrunk immensely to 1.63 months?

UALIWXW
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I’m confused, I thought this was supposed to lower my workload?

Here’s another example. Last time I Saw this card was 9 days ago. If I click the “good” button it’s going to show me it in 2 days? What?

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2

The first thing I would wonder is what your retention results have been in the past. That’s what FSRS optimizes based on. FSRS isn’t a guarantee of a lower workload, but it generally will have you working less to learn the same amount.

It looks like you’re using an earlier version of Anki, so (unless you have the FSRS Helper add-on installed?) you can check that by looking at your Stats > Answer Buttons > Mature % correct. Check it for a longer period than the 1mo default. How does that compare to 90%?

Next I’d want to look at your parameters – if you can post them as text, not a screenshot. Click Evaluate in the FSRS section as well – what’s your RMSE and how many reviews did it count?

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Hey thanks for the reply, really appreciate how much support you’ve given me and everyone in the forum.

Here’s my mature % correct for the last year for the option group of the card in the First picture.

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FSRS Parameters: 0.0749, 0.2154, 0.5714, 2.1261, 5.7274, 1.2298, 1.4316, 0.0003, 1.3372, 0.0000, 0.7213, 2.1528, 0.0558, 0.3820, 1.8110, 0.2272, 2.8755

And here’s my mature % correct for the last year for the option group of the card in the Second picture.

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FSRS Parameters 0.1049, 0.2045, 0.5570, 1.0862, 5.5765, 1.0952, 0.8646, 0.0004, 1.3437, 0.1122, 0.6932, 2.2750, 0.0847, 0.4143, 1.7280, 0.2272, 2.8755

Huh, seems my retention rate in the past has been 60%~ and 74%~? Is that correct? I suppose that’s what happens when you take a 2 year break doing ONLY Anki reviews and not actually studying the language outside of it.

Are my reviews way shorter because it’s trying to boost my retention rate?

5

Yep, that’s the most likely explanation. FSRS recognizes that this material is very challenging for you, so it’s shortening your intervals to help you reach your stated goal of 90% retention.

Changing your Desired Retention is how you change your workload with FSRS. Lower DR = longer intervals = lower workload. This is especially true when you’ve chose a DR that is so much higher than what you’ve done before.

But since you’ve been on a 2-year break, you don’t have that many reviews in the past year. There’s a couple things you can check to get a better idea of what DR might be better for you.

  • Run “Compute Minimum Recommended Retention” in the FSRS section. What does that give you in each of the Deck Options?
  • Look at your retention for your entire history – choose “all history” at the top of the window. How does that compare?
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Running “Compute Minimum Recommended Retention” Gives me 0.75 on my harder deck and 0.79 on my easier deck.

When i click “all history” its showing around 66% retention

7

I’m not sure this will help but when I switched to FSRS, I noticed that the harder cards started to show up more often than before. I even think that they’re showing up too often (which makes learning extremely repetitive). and the difficulty suddenly went up crazy (and that only applies to the harder cards I think). no idea whether it’s good for remembering cards, I keep trusting Anki but sometimes, it becomes a bit boring (please note that these cards are hard but not leeches).

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Do you think i should lower it to something like 80/85%?

9

I think 85% is a good place to start. The difference of even a %-age point or 2 is often dramatic – and it’s always easier to lower DR than it is to raise it.

Do you have the FSRS Helper add-on installed? After you change your DR and save you can choose “reschedule all cards” from the menu. Take a look at your Future Due workload in Stats, and see if you’re happy with the change. If not – Edit > Undo, and you can lower it a little more.

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