I tried the "save me" option after Christmas when my reviews due where up to 7000, now I think that it might not have been such a good idea and I'm wondering how usefull this function really is (since it messes with the order that you are supposed to clear your reviews).

I still have some reviews left and I want to clear them, but gradually. I want to focus on other things now as well, if my reviews where added from lists I would just deleted them by removing the list and then start adding the list again, but now the bulk of my reviews are added from the queue so I can't do that.

Therefor my idea of a better solution for the "save me" buttons function would be to take all the reviews due and make a list out of them, then one could choose at what pace one wanted to clear them or one could even table them for now and come back to them later.

What do you guys think of this?

I've never used the "save me" button as I just bite the bullet if the review queue has gone up. Don't let the size of the queue cause you any pressure ; just spend as much time on it as you like and before you know you're back to 0. I don't believe in de delete option either ; I would rather analyze what caused the queue to go up as much as it did to avoid it to happen again. I'm in it for the long term and don't change focus a lot.

I had 7000 reviews, the problem is that I keep getting new words all the time and the spacing between words that I actually need to study was to wide.

Plus now I want to start adding more words that I need to study. And spending hours every day going through old reviews that I mostly find too easy also makes it not so fun to Skritter.

If I could put them in a list I could re add them gradually while at the same time adding from new lists.

It would give me more control and that's what I want.
Nick is it doable?
Could the option to make a list out of the reviews due be added to the site?

The number of items due is just a number, you can ignore it if you like. The only reason it bothers us is that it makes us feel guilty for not doing our homework, but in the end it's purely psychological.

When I have thousands of items due (it happens pretty regularly) I like to scroll down the practice page so I can't see the number of items due. It makes it easier to keep going. Every once in a while I'll scroll up to see how much progress I've made.

James

What you describe is not really very feasible with the underlying system, unfortunately. It's much easier to make a subset of words to study than it is to study all words minus a subset, just the way everything is indexed. So I would recommend, if you want to work on a specific set of words for one reason or another, study the list those words are in or make a new list to work on them. So whichever list has the words that you need to study, or cram on the individual sections.

Are the majority of words being reviewed in one list, separate from the words you want to study? You could also delete that list from the study page, then add it back later on. Or delete some of the words, going to the specific sections and selecting the rows you want to remove. Either way, you'd have to remember to come back and add the list again later if you want those words again.

So in summary, I'd recommend studying individual lists or sections, temporarily deleting lists, or as James said, just hacking your way through the reviews until they're all gone.

Also, if the words are too easy for your taste, you might try lowering your retention rate in the study settings page. Then the system will space reviews out more. And remember if you are prompted for something and you know you know it, you can just hit the forward arrow to skip it. This will mark it as correct. That way you can really fly through all the reviews you feel solid on.

I don't know if you understand what I would like. I would like a list that I can then remove and then re add. Just like you explained. The words that where added from lists are not a problem, I already did that.

Right now the save me button is not very useful.
What I was suggesting is instead of spreading your reviews out over several days like it does now, it would put all of your reviews due in a list that you then can add as fast or as slow as you might want.

Most of my words where added through the queue, so there is no easy way to delete them and then re add them. I have to delete them manually and then re add them manually, I don't want to do that. And I still want to study these words, just not now.

YouJing, same problem here after the Chinese New Year. I'm exporting my 5,000 items due by way of My Words > Export > Next To Study before I start chomping away at the work tonight.

From here I could easily paste the items into a list or my queue and add them as I please. I think that's a bit silly seeing as they're already lined up so nicely in the items due, I just wanted to look at my 5,000 items before getting dirty with it.

I agree the 'Save Me' function is not worth much, but I think they give you a fair warning about that...

Ah I see what mean. Well Thomas has a good idea. Try exporting your next due, using those vocabs to make a list, then delete them. That should do what you want.

My next project actually involves making those queue words accessible as part of a list. Will be a little while before that's done, but that should get rid of problems like these in the future.

Would that delete the words? Given that they where originally added from the queue?

Would it be easy to make a function that does this? (export then make a list)

Also now when I add stuff I always make a list first, that way I have more control of what is being studied.


How will this queue list work? One big list for all your queue words or monthly lists or?

Will in include all the words already added or just the words that are in your list now?

Yes that would delete the words, no matter what list or queue they were added from previously.

Nope, not really. Such a feature would pretty niche, especially when it can be done with the more general tools we've already built. Everything that's added needs to pull its own weight and be worth the time and space it costs.

Basically lists will become more queue like in that you will be able to easily add to the end of them and will automatically add from them when you put more in. Also, words from different sources (such as MDBG or Zhongwen) will have different queues.

I'll do what I can to recreate peoples' queues as closely as I can, though it may not be perfectly the same or in the right order. We will see how it goes!

I found lowering the target retention rate quite useful actually.