New Feature: Flash Cards (Smart Review)

Announcements
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Sorry for the frustration – we do need to clarify some of these considerations on the site as we go forward.

We definitely encourage you to use the Manage Phrases page as much as possible to fine tune which phrases show up in your Smart Review, especially if you’re seeing a lot of phrases you have mastered. It’s important that you feel you’re being challenged and not wasting your time while doing the review.

After you’ve done that, then the remaining phrases that show up in your Smart Review should be ones you really want/need to focus on.

If you’re still seeing a backlog, then that means you might want to slow down working through the Units for a while. Of course, there’s no sense flying through them if you’re not retaining the material. I consider regular Smart Reviews more important than the speed at which you go through the Units.

That’s an advantage to studying on your own with our platform vs. being in a classroom – as long as you can stay self-motivated, you are empowered to move through the Units at the rate that works best for your personal learning, and you’re the one responsible for what material you’re focussing on.

No, the speed is not taken into consideration. If you needed to step away for a few minutes or were interrupted, we wouldn’t want to take that as a signal that a particular phrase is more difficult for you than the others. The most important factor is just whether you mark a flash card as right/wrong the first time it appears in a Smart Review session.

It’s also worth mentioning that the first time you start reviewing a particular phrase, it will return to your Smart Review within hours, then days, weeks, then months, (following the “Spaced Repetition” model). So although it may seem like you’re not getting ahead of your backlog, just know that as you become more familiar with those phrases, they will all be spaced out much further into the future than when you’re first getting started.

I have personally been working through some Units (for my own learning, and of course, to continuously test the functionality). I find that the Smart Review really forces me to slow down, sometimes only doing a Unit or two per week, while spending the rest of the time on the Smart Review. So don’t feel bad if you sometimes just spend your entire study session inside the Smart Review tool, since that’s where the learning happens. (The original lesson where the phrases are introduced can be considered merely an introduction to the overall grammar and/or concepts of the Unit.)

Does that help clarify anything at all? Let me know if we can make this more practical, perhaps with a video walkthrough etc., which we have been planning to get to for a while.

Thanks for all your feedback, and keep it coming!

Abraço,

Joel

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Joel
I guess like many others I am 100% complete in the Units. As a result I have about 2700 words and phrases which never seem to reduce much. Does it bother me? Not at all! Even in my 77th year I learn some new English so I will take my time with Portuguese. Even some of the slang attracts me.
I am quite happy to keep the simpler stuff under review… I take the view that constant repetition of ALL parts of a language is the way to learn and I dont care how long it takes. Isn’t it nice when you just know what “a janela” is without actually translating? I am not fluent in Portuguese but I am fluent in many phrases which help me on a day to day basis. Is it a surprise that I have little problem getting a beer whether it be in a bottle or on draught? Ou para conseguir minha mesa favorita perto da janela na sala de jantar do Restaurante Fialho no Pinheiro!..Como sinto falta disso durante o lock-down.
I do about one hour minimum a day on the Flash Cards. I do sometimes go to the units mentioned in the notes at the bottom left of the cards when a construction demands more explanation.
To each his own is my overall mantra but I wonder whether taking the number still to review off the Flash Section would help those who are demotivated by the task ahead.
Cumprimentos
Mac

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43

Great attitude, Mac! And glad to hear about the progress in speaking Portuguese, sounds like you’re doing just fine. The goal is to be able to function in all the day-to-day situations you want to be able to navigate, and with confidence. That’s much more motivating, practical, and realistic, than aiming to master a bunch of aspects of the language that you’ll never use. Of course, for everyone, that balance is different, and a huge advantage we have over children when learning a language, is that we can take full responsibility for our own learning by constantly filtering, adjusting, and finding shortcuts.

This is a good point, and is partially why we don’t yet show a number of phrases to review before you reach the end of a Smart Review. In the future we could test turning that off by default, then just having a toggle in the settings for those who do want to see the number. There are many impactful things we can do to reduce overwhelm and motivate… it’s just a matter of time and knowing what we should tackle first. (Eg. some light gamification or allow users to see their Smart Review daily streak etc)

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Thank you Joel, for taking the time to explain this and for the good advice. Having adjusted my expectations I’m now thrilled to have reviewed all 200 or so phrases over the course of a week. And have to say it is very motivating when you finally remember a phrase without having to think it through! It’s also a real eye opener to recognise how some phrases can slip from your memory quite easily if they are not being repeated.

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@joelrendall - I would like to see the option to select flashcards by unit so that I can practice areas I struggle with. The more phrases I learn, the larger and more unmanageable the list of phrases gets.

It would also be nice to be able to export all my phrases to a spreadsheet for reference. I often end up with a phrase stuck in my head and prefer to avoid using Google translate to check what it means if I can’t remember it.

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Thanks for that feedback, @Hawa. I agree it would be great to limit Smart Review by Unit(s). We will take a look at an export option in the future too.

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I am now into Unit 3 and Smart Review seems to be getting rather long. On any given day I have 40-60 items to review. While I like review, it does take 30-45 minutes before engaging anything back in the units.

So, is it best to stay current on Smart Review before engaging new content? Or are there better approaches?

Also, is Smart Review structured like Anki in terms of frequency of review of any particular term?

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Tracy.
I wouldn’t worry about using Smart Cards at this early stage in your learning. If I were you I would complete all the units before embarking on them.
Otherwise I fear that you could become disincentivised very quickly.
But a word of warning too. When you have finished the units you will find that the smart cards have thousands of review items,
I still have 2971. Does that concern me? No ! Learning is a long term project. It takes years not months…actually after 76 years I still very occasionally learn something about my native tongue.
Stick at at!
Mac

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Olá, @tpzen. I merged your post with another thread about the Smart Review, where other members have already been asking questions and sharing their feedback on how best to use it, so it could be helpful for you to go through the previous posts. @mac.cummings has also offered good advice already!

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Thanks for merging the strings @Joseph. It would be helpful if you could please share a link to the other string because I’ve been following this string but can not find the other string for some reason:) thank you!

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You’re welcome, @peterjduffy. Actually, all the posts are right here! They were moved in (it was just those last two by tpzen and mac that were in a separate topic before).

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Hi All,

I just wanted to put something up on here as the Smart Review topic seems to be the most commented on because of the confusion. I know that @joelrendall and @Joseph have tried to explain it in many different ways ( and I think Joel brought this up way back when they were first released) but especially for the new users this is such a vital tool, I wish it was here when I first signed up 8 months ago, I think it is one of the best features.

This is I guess a little more directed to the newer users but also for all of those for who are constantly looking at the number of phrases left to review…

I am currently studying to teach English as a foreign language and one thing that I have found very interesting is that doing my qualification to teach English has actually helped my Portuguese! Certain things for me have just clicked in my head now and realising how the Smart Review works was one of them.

When learning a language we need to see a new item or structure between 5 to 16 times before it starts to hold and even after that the new vocabulary and structures need to be recycled otherwise we forget them. We idealy should see something 5 to 10 min after we have learned it, then 24hrs, then 1 week, then 1 month, then 6 months. This repeition and intermitent spacings help us remember long term while taking in new info at the same time.

So I think it is crucial for new users and all users to use this great tool once a day or at least for 30min each time you log on and it doesnt matter how many phrases you have left to review, I use it every day and drop the number by 100 or do 30min and I am still in the high 2000s and it never goes down more than 2700ish and higher than 3000…and that is fine.

The numbers that have been making a big difference are in the Manage you Phrases page where I now have less then 1000 left in my New tab and majority in my long term memory tab! These are the numbers that matter.

So my advise is use it every day for 30min or drop the number of phrases by 100 (if you have the time of course) and you will see when doing your lessons how much of a difference it makes when reviewing units and in your day to day use.

Another tip is to put a shortcut to the review cards on your phone’s homescreen, that way when you are riding the bus, sitting in a cafe, on the train or on the throne (you know what I mean) you can also jump on real quick and spend 5 or 10min or pass the commute learning.

Sorry for the long message but thought this perspective might help some peoples views on it.

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Great post @cameroon1985. Thanks for posting. I’m a newbie to language learning but your comments 100% concur with what i’m experiencing with this course: better to adopt a time-based approach to the flashcards, try and spend a certain amt of time each day on the flashcards, and don’t worry about the amt of phrases remaining.

The US state department says it takes in the region of 600 hours to become conversationally-proficient in a language. My goal/expectation (not counting time spent on the Units) is therefore to spend 600 hours on the flashcards. At an hour a day and allowing for vacations/life, by my math that’s just under 2 years to become conversationally-proficient (or 20 months if you want to be more accurate). (Sidebar - so far i’m at 115 hours) Does anyone else see a better approach pls?

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Thanks for the posts @cameroon1985 and @peterjduffy. This is definitely a great reframing of the Smart Review tool, and while the basic functionality is there (and I’m glad it’s working well for you), I know there is still much we can do to make it more motivating. Not everyone is as self-motivated as yourselves, and I imagine many overlook this feature as a source of overwhelm. On the other hand, it would feel dishonest of us to artificially reduce those numbers.

I think the best people can do is to really spend some time in the Manage Phrases area so that when they are doing the Smart Review, they are truly seeing the right phrases at the right frequency, and potentially eliminating less useful or mastered ones.

Going forward, we will keep thinking about how to make the Smart Review more motivating, as we also believe it is really a central hub to your learning, (and we’re betting a lot of new features we’ve had planned for a couple years now on it!)

Thanks again and keep the ideas coming, especially if there’s anything that comes to mind either to make it better for yourselves as more power users, as well as ways to get other types of learners staying on top of it.

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Joel. I have been posting since Jun/Jul to the effect that people should simply ignore (or not be fazed by) the number of items for review and am glad to be in the same clan as Cameroon and Peter Duffy.
AS to improvement. The smart review cards are good but they often feature more complicated structures and quite rightly so because that is part and parcel of learning.
I would like to see the cards contain alternative ways, more everyday ways, of saying things, featured under the i button.
On my daily process with the cards I often look at a phrase and decide how I would say it in a much simpler conversational way. It would help me to know that my “simpler” is in fact correct or even near correct.
Of course I know that the complication of my suggestion is that in any language there are several ways of saying the same thing and the logistics for change will be difficult. But a starting point would be for your team to come up with the most common, everyday, version and include it. That already happens with some of the slang.
Mac
PS I am amazed by the progress which the cards have helped me make…maybe .one day soon, Covid willing, I will get to try it out on some real live Portuguese folk again!!!

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And here is just one example of a sentence in the flash cards which I would adjust to the everyday…
Ele desempenha o cargo de Diretor de Recursos Humanos
Becomes
Ele tem o cargo etc
Ele e o Diretor etc

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Would it be possible to integrate the Flash cards with the Shorties. It would be useful to include vocabularies and expressions learnt in the Shorties for Flash cards.

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Just wanted to let you know that this is in progress. In the future you will be able to add anything from the Vocabulary and Expressions sections to your Flash Cards. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Don’t just switch off the number of phrases you have to review too early. I am glad that I know what is ahead of me. The sheer number doesn’t demotivate me at all. (And when the number is low it shows me that I am on top of things.

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Hi Joel- I recently started using flashcards. I have 577. However; I added many ‘I can’t wait to say these in Portuguese’ phrases from the translation app…:heart::heart::heart:! BTW. The Easter eggs are motivation to get through the backlog. I feel like I have 2 solid metrics to measure my progress :+1:t4: I have no idea how to prioritize my time on lessons or backlog review. Is there a best practice or rule of thumb for managing my time effectively?
Thanks✌🏽