Hey guys,

I'm wondering how Skritter analyzes the completion of a list. In my study progress it will often tell me that I am done with a list and simply reviewing words, but just a few minutes later I will be hit with a traditional or simplified version on a word that is considered new.

Since I am focusing more on traditional characters I would rather not wait days for the traditional variant to appear when I choose study all. Is this because the traditional/ simplified are considered the same word?

As far as reading and definition are concerned I can understand how that would be the case, but if I'm trying to learn how to write both traditional and simplified then I don't see how a list can be considered complete if I haven't even seen one of the words yet.

Here is an example. I picked the cartoon character list for kicks. I have ran into 忍者神龟 many times, but only after two hours of studying did the traditional variant 龜 come up. Long before that the list was moved into my review section.

What do you guys do about this problem? I'm still pretty new to Skritter, logged about 30 hours so far, and still trying to learn the best way to optimize my time.

The traditional version was probably pushed back because Skritter tries to space out related items so they're not right next to each other. Like, if you just saw the writing and we then we asked you for the reading, you'd get it right, and then Skritter would think you knew it really well if you got it right the first time.

Same thing for traditional characters. They are added together, but when you do one form, it pushes the other form back, saying, "You'll learn this once the other one is far enough out not to interfere." So your list is considered "done" because everything has been added, but some of the things you've added haven't been studied yet because they've been spaced back.

Does this make any sense?

yeah, that makes perfect sense. And actually after reading some other people's posts I will just do my studying a little differently if I'm preparing for a class. I just didn't want to over review words that were not due yet by running through the one lesson set individually.

I'm sure it doesn't help that a lot of the words I'm adding I already know how to write. The second I get them right I would assume they get pushed back pretty far.

Yeah, Skritter's scheduling has a special case for items which you never get wrong: they get pushed out very quickly. The idea is that you don't have to waste time telling Skritter which words you already know--just get them right a few times in a row and they're basically gone.

Here are the average intervals if you hit 3, or 4, each time:

Grade 3: 1 week, 3.26 weeks, 10.65 weeks, 34.75 weeks, 2.17 years, 7.09 years, 10 years

Grade 4: 4 weeks, 26.2 weeks, 3.29 years, 10 years

So you only need to press 4 three times in three years, or four times ever.

I'd quite like to be able to disable that special case.

At the moment I have to be careful to always mark new words wrong at least once, even if I can remember them from when I added them, or because they are related to another just added word, or something.

Maybe its just paranoia. Still, I'd rather not risk pushing something back too easily.

I'd second wispfrog's request. The special case makes sense for those who have been studying for years, but I usually study an item for several weeks to get context before adding to Skritter. Thus I might get it right the first time, but it doesn't really reflect a deep knowledge of the character.

I always have to be careful to mark it wrong the first time and would really like to not have to worry about it.

(Also might be paranoia on my part...)

I also support wispfrog's and jcardenio's point. I would love to have the following 2 possibilities:
1) Have a special "Review-Session", where I could tell Skritter, let me review all items, which are scheduled for review in x or more years, e.g. 5 years or 8 years. If, during the review, I mark it as forgotten, to re-start this item from the scratch.
2) Sometimes, I come along a character during review, where I still remember the word and it's definition, but I'm not to sure about one character itself. I would like to re-start this character completely or partially, e.g. the definition part. Same is true, when I browse through some list and I see words, which I don't remember clearly. In this case, I would like to re-start this word.
I do not see any function today, where I can re-schedule items manually - or am I not aware of something?

For jcardenio's and wispfrog's possible paranoia: if you get the character right the first time because you've just been studying it in preparation for adding it to Skritter, or you've just seen a related word, then it's scheduled for one week. Presumably you then stop your pre-Skritter prep study of it, or don't focus on the related words.

But then say you still remember it after one week with no study. That's a pretty good memory of it you've built already, but it could be a fluke, sure. In any case, Skritter will give it to you in another 3-4 weeks.

If you can still remember it without any other study for that long, then it's very likely a very easy word for you that you don't need to worry about. Most likely, you'd get it wrong at this point and it'd go into the normal track scheduling. If it was still something you were going to forget but you fluke-remembered it twice after no practice, then it'll be another few months, but eventually you'll get it.

It's possible that you really needed to learn that word solidly now and not later (upcoming test?). Then you'd want to pay more attention, or you could also study the list or section on its own, which will put more effort into pulling in distantly scheduled words for review.

If I were you, I'd keep in mind the way it works for new words, and mark it wrong when you realize you don't know it for a week, but not stress it if you miss it. If the word isn't time-sensitive, it's likely a good thing in terms of total time efficiency for learning, even if you do get it wrong after that first week.

Roland, I can see the use case for the review session mode, but it doesn't seem like a hugely popular one to warrant building. Do others disagree?

If you realize you've missed a component character during review, then you should star it, and when you've starred enough words, do a starred words practice session. There's no manual re-schedule system: we decided that would be too complex and too inviting to over-tinker.