Jan 08, 2017

SRS Woes

I’m not going to get too much into what SRSing is in this post since I just want to unload some issues I’ve had with it recently. In short it stands for Spaced Repetition System. It’s a method that has existed for a while, and has been popularized by services like Duolingo. Look it up. I’m doing the more DIY approach, which has worked very well for the most part, but over several months has declined.

It started out very game-like. Fun, easy, and potent. Recently it has become a little like pulling teeth. Okay not that bad, but certainly not “fun” as consistently as it used to. I often find myself doing only a few reps a day. I never outright stop. I haven’t stopped for more than half a year now. That’s what is truly important, but I’m not where I want to be at this point. I need a way to get my pace back up, which means I need to get myself to have fun with it again. This primarily involves analyzing where I’m making it un-fun.

I’ve recently been trying a new approach: Be less punishing on initial failure. The most punishing aspect of my RTK deck reps is the fallout of initial encounters with kanji. I have a tendency not to review/choose stories before my first encounter while SRSing, which invariably results in a poor grade at first. This is far too punishing.

The fun-ness of SRSing for me is blowing through reps like a BAMF. It only can happen on days where I’m on a roll with kanji that have strong stories behind them and a good frequency of mature cards. The algorithm doesn’t work if that’s all I’m encountering, so my new strategy is bolstering the positive reinforcement aspect. Add more reward to strengthen the initial association and keep forward momentum from the get-go. I’ve tried it for a week now and it has yielded mixed results. Certainly some improvement, but I need a bit more. I’ll post more as I continue experimenting.