Hello :)

I've found the mnemonics system really helpful - I'll never be able to say "怎么样?" again without thinking "how tree sheep"! It's also good that you can view just the mnemonic, without giving away the rest of the answer.

However, how does this affect the grading system? Ideally, having used the mnemonic should decrease how well Skritter thinks I know the character, until I can write it without. Does Skritter do this or not? I'm not sure if I'm penalising myself too much if I change the grade to "So-so" if I used the mnemonic.

Apologies if this as already been asked - I tried to search the forum but couldn't find the answer.

Don't worry about it. In time you'll forget the mnemonic (I had hundreds, now I remember, er, 3, I think). It'll all come naturally!

Thanks. But I'm more concerned that my writings will be pushed back too soon if Skritter doesn't know I had to look at the mnemonic for help...

If I look at the mnemonic or the pinyin for a word, I always mark it as wrong. This might be a little harsh, but I find that it makes it so I actually learn the word.

And Byzanti is right, the more Chinese you learn, the less you need mnemonics. I have forgotten almost all of mine.

Ah yes, you're both right. I read your first post a bit fast. If you can't remember the mnemonic or the character then mark it wrong.

Remembering the mnemonic is just a substitute for remembering the character.

Ok, thanks. I'll keep marking myself down unless it turns out that Skritter incorporates this feature itself.

Since people like to use mnemonics in all sorts of ways, we aren't planning on making checking mnemonics automatically mark things wrong, as that would be more annoying to the people who use mnemonics more as hints than answers than having to manually mark yourself is to people who do it the other way. It really is up to you how to grade when you check a mnemonic--no way of doing it will break the scheduling (except maybe putting 4s every time!).