The NEW Best Anki Settings 2024! New FSRS vs Anki default algorithm (SM-2)

This is a video about the new FSRS (Free spaced repetition scheduler) algorithm that was recently implemented into Anki. I go through how FSRS compares with Anki's default algorithm SM-2 (SuperMemo 2) including what the best settings for you are! This includes how to optimize and individualize Anki settings for whatever you're studying, what max interval and retention you should use, and more! Let us know in the comments what you think about the two algorithms and which one you'll be using!
Outline
00:00 Intro
00:15 New Anki version 23.10
00:55 outline
01:45 Anki's default algorithm SM-2
03:45 Components of memory
05:16 Pros and Cons of SM-2 algorithm (Anki default)
06:57 Intro to FSRS algorithm
08:27 How FSRS works - comparison with SM-2
10:29 Simple version of FSRS equation
12:35 FSRS vs SM-2 and other spaced repetition algorithms
14:35 FSRS parameters differ by content
15:48 Pros and cons of FSRS
18:40 My personal experience with FSRS
19:22 How to enable FSRS
24:01 Do I need to use all 4 buttons?
25:20 What retention should I use?
26:30 What max interval should I use?
27:42 FSRS Helper Add-on
29:09 My current settings
29:56 How to create high quality cards
31:04 Thank you
Links (as mentioned in the video):
- Add-on breaks: www.theanking.com/breaks
- The Best Anki Settings and Algorithm Explained: • The BEST Anki Settings...
- (Jarrett Ye articles linked within this one. This one is great too!) Spaced Repetition Algorithm: A Three‐Day Journey from Novice to Expert: github.com/open-spaced-repeti...
- How to Make High Quality Cards Free Mini-course: www.theanking.com/free
Other helpful links:
- ABC of FSRS: github.com/open-spaced-repeti...
- Tutorial for setting up built-in FSRS: github.com/open-spaced-repeti...
AnkiHub (collaborative Anki decks): www.ankihub.net
Online Anki Mastery Course: courses.theanking.com/?...
VIP/Patreon (support us, get individualized help, early access to videos, etc): www.ankingmed.com/vip
Website: www.AnKingMed.com
Instagram/Facebook/TikTok/Twitter: @AnKingMed
Recommended Supplies (controllers, computer accessories, etc): www.amazon.com/shop/theanking

[@expertium2255]

Great video! I’ll add some more info: 1) As AnKing mentioned, the term “retrievability” refers to a single review and its value if predicted by the algorithm. The term “retention” refers to a *group* of reviews, and its value is measured from review history. However, this terminology isn’t universally used by all researchers, so if you decide to read papers about spaced repetition, don’t be surprised to see different terms. And if you don’t care about the inner workings of FSRS, then you don’t need to worry about terminology anyway. In some parts of the video AnKing says “retrievability” instead of “retention”, or vice versa, but eh, whatever. 2) Around 7:00 and around 18:00, AnKing mentioned that FSRS only takes one review per day into account, the very first one. I’m sure a lot of people are wondering what’s the rationale behind that. The problem is that short-term memory doesn’t seem to follow the same laws as long-term memory. LMSherlock, me and other community contributors have been trying to come up with a way to incorporate same-day reviews into FSRS, but so far we’ve made little progress. Also, I think AnKing made the whole “there is no learning phase” thing sound way worse and way scarier than necessary. Sure, in Anki the first review doesn’t affect the Ease factor, whereas in FSRS the first review affects Difficulty and Stability, but it’s just how FSRS utilizes review data rather than some sort of fatal flaw. It certainly doesn’t mean that FSRS is worse than SM-2, or that you have to become insanely self-conscious when using FSRS. The only 100% guaranteed way to screw FSRS up is by pressing “Hard” instead of “Again” when you forgot something. This is the *only* scenario where switching from the old algorithm to FSRS is not recommended. 3) If you are confused by the graph at around 8:45, basically, the idea is that if the algorithm predicts that there is an x% probability that you will recall this material, then you should recall this material x% of the time. Think of it that way: whenever a weather forecast bureau predicts that there is a 90% chance of rain, it should rain on 90% of those days. If it only rains on 50% of days when the bureau said “90%”, their predictions are poorly calibrated. You are also probably wondering why this is considered to a good graph when the blue line isn’t aligned with the orange line and is jagged as heck. That’s because in AnKing’s case, most of the time his cards have a high probability of being recalled, and this probability rarely falls below 80%. So most of the graph is based on very limited data, and only the rightmost part is based on a lot of data. This isn’t a quirk of FSRS itself. Also, on the x axis you see average retrievability, and on the y axis you see retention, but I feel like I’m going to fry people’s brains if I try to explain all the details, and this is already a very long comment. 3) The benchmark is based on 5 million reviews from 70 Anki users. However, recently Dae provided LMSherlock with a dataset that has 740 *million* reviews from 20 thousand users, excluding same-day reviews. That’s 150 times more reviews than before! But running all algorithms on all this data will take a lot of time, at least a week. I’ll make a post on r/Anki once it’s done. As for “2 buttons vs 4 buttons”, have re-analyzed it based on the new data, and found that FSRS is more accurate for users who only use 2 buttons. This DOESN'T mean that using two buttons is inherently better than using four buttons in all conceivable scenarios, it just means that predicting the probability of recall is harder when more buttons are involved. A more-in depth analysis: imgur.com/a/4Kk0FtH Something that wasn’t mentioned in the section about benchmarking is that even with the default parameters (without optimizing them for every user) FSRS is still more accurate than SM-2, and I really doubt that the results of the new benchmark will be different. 4) "Free Days" has recently been renamed to "Easy Days", and the description has been changed slightly. That's because it doesn't actually make your days 100% free, and users were confused and thought that this feature is broken. 5) The shape of the graph that shows how workload changes with desired retention depends on a few things: your FSRS parameters, the ratio of Hard/Good/Easy aka button usage, and on the amount of time spent per each button. Because of that, we can’t use the same graph for everyone, and that’s why “Compute optimal retention (experimental)” feature exists. 6) Please do not use any add-ons that modify cards’ intervals together with FSRS. Best-case scenario, they won’t do anything since most of such add-ons modify the Ease Factor, which is not used when FSRS is enabled. Worst-case scenario, they will result in some weird bugs. Also, I highly recommend checking out the links in the video description, especially “ABC of FSRS” and “Spaced Repetition Algorithm: A Three‐Day Journey from Novice to Expert”.

[@Badbooo123]

Oh wow ty

[@cs7623]

So is hitting hard bad? I like to hit hard so I see the card sooner cause sometimes I feel the good interval is way far out

[@expertium2255]

@@cs7623Hitting "Hard" is not bad on it's own. Hitting "Hard" *when in reality you FORGOT* is what creates problems.

[@AnKingMed]

@cs7623 it’s bad if you’re using it as “again”. If you didn’t know the card, you should always do again. If it was actually more difficult for you and you need to see it sooner, that’s when to use hard

[@cs7623]

@@AnKingMedok great thanks Yea I only use again if I have zero clue about the card but I’ll use hard if i would recognize the answer on a MC test but just couldn’t think of the word or was on the tip of my tongue

[@MitigateOurRuin]

So, I've been using FSRS for 2-3 weeks and was answering my cards 99% correctly, I re-optimized a few minutes ago and it dropped my cards due today from ~350 to ~125. That's insane. I had my desired retention at 0.93.

[@l.m.sherlock]

Have you optimized it in 2-3 weeks ago? I haven't known that someone could achieve 99% retention.

[@MitigateOurRuin]

@@l.m.sherlockI'm not super sure why it was giving me the cards that often. I had my desired retention at 0.93 initially. After re-optimizing yesterday, my percent correct was ~94%, so it is working - maybe it needed more history to better deliver the cards. I think I'm going to re-optimize probably once a week with how that went from now on. I'm in love with how few cards I'm now having to do - this has given me my life back lol.

[@twothreeoneoneseventwoonefour5]

@@l.m.sherlock it depends on the material and what the person does with remembered stuff. I had 99% retention in my Japanese vocab deck with 10k learned cards over the years (sm2 algorithm) with 250 interval modifier * 1.2 additional modifier. If I wanted 90% retention I could probably do a lot higher numbers than that. (I don't have particularly good memory though)

[@Yupi214]

Which anki versions have frs??

[@twothreeoneoneseventwoonefour5]

@@Yupi214 latest lol

[@briefly7526]

Thanks! You are doing a great job for us and for the future of SRS. I can't express my gratitude

[@agent.807]

it will be really helpful if you make an anki beginner video, as a new user, I really don't understand anything

[@Jonne337]

me too :(

[@MusakkafAyat]

same :(

[@jacobhargreaves9191]

He has, check out some of his older videos on the old Anki scheduler, its logistically pretty much the same as FSRS. Also, just learn as you go! Making high quality cards is way more important (imo) than having all these settings tweaked to perfection, and this is a skill that takes time and practice.

[@Yeeeeeehaw]

Great content as always!

[@jakartax1x-rq8kv]

When I started using Anki 5 years ago, I was shocked to find out it was using a primitive algorithm like SM-2. For the creator of the algo THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR DOING THIS FOR US! For the creator of Anki THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR BEING OPEN-MINDED TO TRY IT!

[@semihdere917]

Tyvm for devoting your precious time sir

[@nathanbeckett7504]

Thank you so much!

[@bencarusomed]

Thank you so much, you rock

[@SnowInHere]

Amazing content! Thank you ever so much for helping us out like this!

[@JohnSmith-op4gd]

Thanks for the video. I am excited to try FSRS. I've tried Anki and other SRS many times over the years, but was always really unhappy with the Anki algorithm. I think I was actually the one who coined the term "ease hell" like 14+ years ago in forums. At the time I would grumble that SM2 made no sense, and needed a pile of tweaking to work well. And a bunch of people on the forums always shouted me down, saying I was just using it wrong. Cards that initially were tough soon became easy, but they just kept coming back. It was easier to just manually skim through the lists than deal with scheduling. I'm really hoping this helps with that.

[@jaiminparmar3255]

Hey so i have been doing anki since last 4 months quite religiously but i also find default settings bad so tweaked it to my own liking and also i did not use buttons properly, like i use to press easy way too often and never pressed again (because i thought seeing the same thing again in the same day is pointless). So i have kind of spoiled the data that fsrs wants to potentially feed on. Also it's not like i was happy with old algo i still felt im doing reviews way too often. So my question is how do i approach fsrs now? I don't want to algorithm to feed off old data cause i know it's spoiled. How do i make fsrs start learning my patterns from here onwards and optimise based of that for new cards and old ones remain unaffected? Oh I forgot to mention, i have done tge experiment of let it feed off my data and intervals were bizarre to use the mildest word possible. Like it showed 3 months on easy button for a brand new card. So i switched profile and opened a previous backup so as to get back to where i was before everything. Thanks in advance

[@azamuzdenov3609]

This is a really important thing.

[@vanshgulati9333]

Thank you!

[@walidaouiz9608]

4 minutes into the video i couldnt find a better explanation to stability than anking , loving the star talking angel xD

[@Hasan_Al-Anbari]

Very helpful video

[@MichaelCampbell01]

19:25 for the how if you want to skip the "why" and background.

[@zahiessam3003]

Wowwwww sooo excited

[@AnKingMed]

Let us know your thought! Which algorithm will you be using??

[@michaherman8722]

FSRS team here. SM-2 is so outdated, that we had to set specific learning steps to work around its flaws with ease hell.

[@dventurimramos]

FSRS team

[@emmanuelarias2562]

Te amamos rey

[@tweety11226]

@Anking, do you have any tips on what should an intern study before they start dermatology? Should they start the Dermki deck? Lastly, what qbanks and derm books are you using for each block? I would love to see a derm video :). I know you're killing dermatology residency. Thank you for all that you do for med students and residents.

[@nickmosca9930]

What settings would you recommend for your Anking MCAT Deck with these settings? My goal is to have everything down come May 10th

[@tssmoove]

Thank you for the explanation! I was wondering what stats should I be most mindful of, is retrievability the same as true retention? Why are those percentages sometimes different for me? If I'm saying I want a 85% retention, is that the same as an 85% retrievability?

[@expertium2255]

True Retention is measured from review history, retrievability is predicted by the algorithm and depends on the parameters.

[@mr.medtech731]

So can I just switch from using the old anki to this new FRSR without having to do anything? I have like 600 Step 1 cards that I have already gone through in the last 2 weeks. Is it safe to just jump into it without changing any settings?

[@truthteller2711]

Hey Anking thanks for the video! May i know how do i figure out how my daily reviews will change if i adopt the FSRS algorithm vs Anki so i know how much how a difference it makes? Thanks!

[@expertium2255]

Typically, you will have to do 20-30% fewer reviews for the same level of retention. Higher desired retention = more reviews. In Anki 23.10.1, when you change the desired retention, it will tell you how the interval length will be affected.

[@tanuljain7767]

Amazing video, had a doubt: Will FSRS also work for me as a new beginner, starting every card from scratch.

[@AnKingMed]

Yes!

[@seanlowitz]

I've been using it for the past few days with 93% retention. the intervals seem quite long

[@andrewcorrell2349]

With FSRS, do you still need to reschedule cards to the next day that you don't get to by the end of the day?

[@SupremacyGamesYT]

Surely number of cards affect your memorization, because you're piling stuff on yourself. Should I be reviewing only a certain amount of cards per day? thanks for any advice.

[@mikem6350]

Anyone able to use bluetooth controllers well after this update? It seems like the algorithm does some weird clicks that prevent my controller from submitting its action to the Anki window. This is on Mac. I've tried different controllers, apps and settings, but for some reason it keeps making me go back and click on the Anki screen again in order for my 8bit controller to recognize the window again. I had to reinstall the version from august for it to go away.

[@AndrewMohama]

I take step 1 the 1st week of April (3 months away). Feeling like my deck is occupying too much time that I would prefer doing practice questions, so this seems like a great idea. But is 3 months of time good to use this for? Am I potentially screwing up by changing it at this point?

[@kaesche1608]

I have the exact same question, my deck is only for short-term memory (3 months) and i want to know if i should change to FSRS or stay with my settings

[@spiegelElectro]

Bumping this thread as I am in the same boat! Pls answer Holy Algorithm D:

[@kairu_b]

I'm using 2k/6k core and I have the same question lol. Idk if I'll switch to FSRS 🥺

[@jaiminparmar3255]

Hey so i have been doing anki since last 4 months quite religiously but i also find default settings bad so tweaked it to my own liking and also i did not use buttons properly, like i use to press easy way too often and never pressed again (because i thought seeing the same thing again in the same day is pointless). So i have kind of spoiled the data that fsrs wants to potentially feed on. Also it's not like i was happy with old algo i still felt im doing reviews way too often. So my question is how do i approach fsrs now? I don't want to algorithm to feed off old data cause i know it's spoiled. How do i make fsrs start learning my patterns from here onwards and optimise based of that for new cards and old ones remain unaffected? Oh I forgot to mention, i have done tge experiment of let it feed off my data and intervals were bizarre to use the mildest word possible. Like it showed 3 months on easy button for a brand new card. So i switched profile and opened a previous backup so as to get back to where i was before everything. Thanks in advance

[@ilanbocian1291]

Thank you for this! How do I change the settings for decks that I have been doing for a while without messing up my progress on the deck?

[@michaherman8722]

Just enable FSRS. No progress will be changed, new reviews will calculate interval using new algorithm.

[@ilanbocian1291]

Thank you!! @@michaherman8722

[@RickB222]

Make sure the “reschedule cards on change” tab is toggled OFF

[@hulkmahmut]

@RickB222 yes do what he says. I selected that button and boom, all my due cards, learning cards are gone. Yes, they have not been deleted but anyways I think I made a big mistake and don't know how to fix.

[@flutterin4595]

Yeah... I am still too confused FSRS helps you to calculate procentage of what your potential retention should be IF you want some kind of result. But that is where it gets confusing. I am not learning for an exam at all... therefore I really don't know my goal at all

[@expertium2255]

Are you referring to desired retention? There are a few ways to choose it: 1) Just leave it at 90%, it works fine for most people 2) Check what your retention was before switching to FSRS and use that number as desired retention aka "hey algorithm, just give me the same retention as before" 3) Use the "Compute optimal retention (experimental)" feature

[@trenchclique6057]

I would like to know how the FSRS system works for very short reviews. For example, I have an exam in about 1 month. Is it worth using the FSRS or is it better to use the default algorithm? The only thing I do is modify the maximum interval so that I review the cards 4 - 5 times before the test and it has worked well for me.

[@lazydictionary]

If you are modifying the max interval to such a short length, then either system would work. I'd just use FSRS and stick with it.

[@trenchclique6057]

@@lazydictionary But the question would be: With more repetitions my % of correct answers will be higher, since I will see the cards many times in a short space of time. To what extent will this higher % of hits affect the FSRS system? Because it depends on the number of revisions and the % of successes/errors. The old algorithm is not influenced by this, as it calculates by maximum interval and difficulty modifiers.

[@lazydictionary]

@@trenchclique6057 just optimize your decks like every month, especially after you switch from the short max interval to long intervals. The algorithms will figure itself out. Don't overthink this too much. There's only so much you can min-max.

[@ariadna3291]

Why I do not get the FSRS Enable Button? ISSUE SOLVED: Had to Update ANKI. Just wanted to say that with the latest version the Progress Bar Add On does not work.

[@MedicineRunner]

Just not sure I want to change with one more didactic semester to go in PA school. I’ve managed straight As with 88-90% retention. Side note: PLEASE fix symbols as you type add on (or get a replacement) for the newest update. I use it heavily and have for years 😕

[@AnKingMed]

We released a new version: ankiweb.net/shared/info/1957191470

[@MedicineRunner]

@@AnKingMed YES thank you 🙌🏼

[@goat8614]

Congrats! I would love to know what kind of decks you have or examples of some cards that you make! I’m starting PA school next week 😩

[@Trucker_2_doctor]

22:04, is it necessary to continuously optimize or will one optimization suffice? (I saw in the documentation that optimizing every few months is ideal but I guess thats individual)

[@jurgendieter5238]

Once a month is what the developer recommends

[@FlyingUnosaur]

​@@jurgendieter5238is there any downside to doing it more frequently?

[@belphegor_dev]

I'm hope there's an option to automate this in the future ​@@jurgendieter5238

[@esaieboukalo]

are there someone to help me I make the change and when I want learn my flashcard on the buttons we see for again 10m, hard 23m, good 5d and Easy 10d (It's way too spaced for me) are there some to help me to get the same like in the video please 🙂

[@Trucker_2_doctor]

Will this be of any relevance to someone just using the decks for MAXIMUM 1 semester (approx 4 months but sometimes even shorter - I mostly do cards based on passed exams) then suspend the decks when I'm starting a new course? Or will be I be better of staying on SM2?

[@expertium2255]

It might be a little bit better, but both algorithms are designed for long-term learning.

[@byronfreemanDO]

I would imagine that *after it adapts to your learning patterns* it would pay off even over a semester. Not sure how much better it would be though

[@julioken4710]

Hello, I usually use press the "hard" and "good" button for reviewed cards and "again" and "easy" ones for new cards. With SM-2, I am usually doing 300-400 cards/day and FSRS rescheduling reduced it to 30. Is it correct? Feeling really worried about that

[@expertium2255]

The number of reviews per day depends on your desired retention. If it's lower than your retention was before switching to FSRS, then it's not surprising. For example, if your retention was 95% before, and now your desired retention is 90%.

[@hoodleehoo]

Free days is no longer in the addon directory. Any idea why? Is it no longer available?

[@briannalandazuri2113]

Does anyone know how to download the FRSR helper add on??

[@clemenseausle7850]

So I can study with those settings for an exam which is in one month or should I change some of my settings or just use a whole other learning mode? I’m still new to Anki so I’m not sure😅

[@David-gj6dc]

The idea of the retention setting is that when a given card comes up you have that % chance of recalling it. So even if you have a card that jumps from say a 14d interval to a 60d interval and your exam is soon, if your exam is in two weeks you would theoretically remember it with a greater probability than your desired retention because the retention probability applies to the 60d internal, not the date of your test. So target whatever retention you think is acceptable for your exam and that is all. If you are really worried that your parameters will not be accurate enough to use FSRS initially you can just stick to SM-2 until after your exam. You just might be reviewing more often than you need to, which only costs you a bit more time if you're just looking at 1 month.

[@jasonwild]

I have 2.5 months until MCAT. I want to have finished all 3300 cards in this premade sketchy deck by 2 months. It works out to roughly 65 new cards a day if I account for the fact that I won't be doing reviews on Sunday and no new cards on Saturday/Sunday. Do I need to do anything to the setttings/algorithm to have these cards learned to 90% by then? Also how do I set it so I don't do reviews on Sunday and don't do new cards on saturday/sunday?

[@zombieshavebrains]

If you use FSRS do you need to delete straight rewards? I've pretty much done all my reviews with straight reviews so they only have two button reviews. If i switch over is it going to take a couple months for the algorithm to figure out what i'm supposed to be doing?

[@benw-l7k]

He mentions in the video he still has it incase you wanted to switch back to SM-2 in the future

[@asspelican]

Just so I understand you then recommend not using 36500? and range should only be between 365-1825 days? Second question I have, does that mean that each preset is extremely important? I have to configure my settings for each preset carefully? Like if im studying a language I should have specific preset for that, and different for mathematics? Do I have to go through and optimize each preset if I have many presets or can I do all at once? If I say have a deck that sort of catches everything into one for tidiness, will the parent preset affect the subdecks? thanks for help!

[@expertium2255]

>Just so I understand you then recommend not using 36500? and range should only be between 365-1825 days? It's not super important, but yes. >Second question I have, does that mean that each preset is extremely important? I have to configure my settings for each preset carefully? Like if im studying a language I should have specific preset for that, and different for mathematics? Having the same preset for language and math won't break anything, it's just inefficient. You should have two different presets. Thankfully, optimizing the parameters for each preset is simple and can be done with a single button press. >Do I have to go through and optimize each preset if I have many presets or can I do all at once? Right now, you have to click "Optimize" for each preset manually, but in the next version of Anki (which will be released this month, hopefully) there will be an option to optimize parameters in all presets at once. >If I say have a deck that sort of catches everything into one for tidiness, will the parent preset affect the subdecks? When you review a card, the parameters corresponding to the preset of the *subdeck* are applied. Suppose you have a parent deck A with preset A* and a subdeck B with preset B*. When you review a card, parameters from preset B* will be applied.

[@asspelican]

@@expertium2255 Thank you so much for your detailed response I genuinely greatly appreciate it.

[@TimboSlice08]

It mentions updating it on Anki mobile also to prevent issues. How do I do that (or does the iOS app automatically update it for you?)

[@AnKingMed]

iOS should do it automatically

[@mateusgauza5710]

Hi! I am an ankihub subscriber and my question about the addon is: does the addon automatically update the settings?

[@AnKingMed]

No AnkiHub doesn’t change any settings

[@tristenmelvin1855]

What is the add on that he uses where it shows new, total and reviews on the homescreen?

[@mousa881]

heat map review

[@Gabeoverthinks]

I tried changing the parameters for a specific deck by setting the change to deck:”the name of the deck” but it ended up changing the parameters for my other deck to the same values as the one I was trying to change. Any help?

[@expertium2255]

Parameters are preset-specific, not deck-specific. You need mroe than one preset if you want to use different parameters.

[@Gabeoverthinks]

@@expertium2255 figured that out. I made a preset for that one specific deck i was trying to change and it worked!

[@sravyajayam9185]

I changed my settings to use the FSRS algorithm, and I'm not sure what happened but the 644 cards that I had due today dropped to 0. My future reviews also show 0 for the next several days. Did I do something wrong? I'm worried that I reset my cards somehow.

[@mar2ck_]

There's two possibilities: 1) You were reviewing your cards way more then you needed to so FSRS spaced them out to save you time. 2) You have a habit of marking cards you failed to remember as "hard" instead of "again". Since hard counts as a pass, FSRS thinks you know your cards better then you do.

[@brandoutmusic]

Just curious, but with these settings a new card has the "Good" interval set to like 8 days by default. Is that correct? I'm just wondering if that'll be bad lets say if I'm learning material on a Monday of an exam week since if I hit Good then I'll only see the card once before the exam. Do you think it's necessary to change these settings at all in that case or would you just recommend to hit Again then when it comes back around the Good interval will be at like 1d? Thanks!

[@William.-.]

The good interval default should be set to 1 day at least before the algorithm take over

[@brandoutmusic]

Ahh I see. Anking personally delated the 1d learning step so that his only had the "10min" but I originally had "10min 1day" I wonder why he said he personally doesn't recommend it because for whatever reason even my first "Good" interval is pretty long @@William.-.

[@lewisobrien3412]

Why does FSRS lack a ‘learning’ phase? Wouldn’t it make more sense for this to be included? Is this not possible to integrate into the algorithm?

[@expertium2255]

It's just not necessary. If you do reviews without letting FSRS use that review data, it will only make FSRS less accurate, not more

[@dorklymorkly3290]

@@expertium2255 without letting FSRS use that review data... That statement confuses me a bit, how is that even possible? Isn't the scheduler omnipresent/scient of what the user does?

[@dventurimramos]

How many times a month is recommended to optimize the parameters?

[@expertium2255]

LMSherlock, the creator of FSRS, recommends once per month.

[@user-wh2ch1xg6f]

What do you think of using this new algorithm on a deck that is mostly matured? I've been studying pretty intensely from the anking deck since day 1 of med school and have step 2 in about 6 months, so I'm trying to figure out if it's worth changing.

[@expertium2255]

No problem. There is only one case where FSRS doesn't work, and that is if you press "Hard" instead of "Again" when you forgot something; in other words, using "Hard" as fail.

[@tengkuafsaruddinrusyaidi586]

@@expertium2255 I'm sorry but can you help me? Does that mean I should.. Use Hard - When I won't be able to answer it but you felt like it's hard for you to recall Use Again - When I failed to recall the information even A SINGLE BIT Or should I press again only when I failed to recall everything?

[@expertium2255]

@@tengkuafsaruddinrusyaidi586 Hard - you successfully recalled this information, but it took you a lot of time and you hesitated a lot. Again - you forgot. Blackout, null, zero, this info just escaped from your brain.

[@tengkuafsaruddinrusyaidi586]

@@expertium2255 thanks a lot man. I've been reading all of your replies and it sure helped me a lot

[@tengkuafsaruddinrusyaidi586]

@@expertium2255 and how about good and easy option? How to differentiate when I'll use them. I kinda wanna know the details to it as well as the FSRS requires a precision answer from myself

[@EvManDudePerson]

So I'm assuming add-ons like Straight Reward won't be relevant anymore with FSRS, but what about add-ons like Load Balanced Scheduler and Free Weekend? Those don't work with 23.10 SM-2 anymore either, does anyone know if they will be updated?

[@expertium2255]

The FSRS Helper add-on has both of those features.

[@AnKingMed]

Our VIP exclusive weekend and holidays addon works (and is better than free weekend anyway). The FSRS helper addon can replace free weekend and load balanced scheduler

[@EvManDudePerson]

@@expertium2255 Yep, my b. Should have finished the video before asking!

[@EvManDudePerson]

@@AnKingMed Thanks for clarifying!

[@dario3864]

I always press "again" on a card that I'm seeing the first time just to make sure I see it twice in the first day before sending it to tomorrow. If there is no learning phase in FSRS, will this affect long-term scheduling? In SM-2 the ease factor is permanent, ie. it doesn't matter how often I press "good" for that card, it will not change, but I didn't get how FSRS behaves in these cases. As far as I understood FSRS assumes that the retrievability is 100% when seeing a card for the first time, but how does it change long-term if I get a card correct (ie. good) lets say 4 times after hitting again?

[@expertium2255]

You can add one more short learning step, say "10m 30m".

[@dario3864]

⁠what does that do?

[@expertium2255]

@@dario3864 your second learning step is the interval after you press "Good". If your step is just "10m", then when you press "Good" you won't see the card on the same day again. If your steps are "10m 30m", then you will see the card after 10 minutes if you press "Again" and after 30 minutes if you press "Good".

[@iaeeniaeen1898]

For the section on computing optimal retention (around 23:13), isn't your explanation backwards? i.e., the computation isn't saying that you only "need" to retain to 79%. Instead, it is saying that given the constraint that you are only willing to invest 30 minutes/day on your deck of 10k cards, 79% is the realistically-achievable retention rate to target. Dropping the target retention rate is still going to mean that you retain less of the information in your deck, which may not be what you "need".

[@byronfreemanDO]

Do I need to download on add on to use this? I am not seeing the option to enable FSRS in my advanced settings.

[@918Osteoguy]

Not sure if this is the problem, but you could double check what version of Anki you have. Newer versions like 23.10 have the FSRS option built into the options menu found by clicking the gear icon. Older versions of anki may or may not have it? I had to upgrade mine this morning.

[@Ali.shdifat]

Update anki

[@danielgleason1067]

Why do I only get reviews once a day instead of multiple times a day?

[@seanlowitz]

is this an add-on? I can't find the enable fsrs button

[@expertium2255]

You need Anki 23.10 or newer.

[@zahiessam3003]

if i have about 20k cards in the review process, should I use the schedule option or not

[@lukechanner5232]

Make a backup, try it, report back! A self made deck I made with 300 cards added over 150 as due today so it might not be best.

[@zahiessam3003]

@@lukechanner5232 I guess the same, I'm not at ease of time for that bulk of cards

[@Ali.shdifat]

May I ask? with that number of reviews, how many cards are due daily?

[@zahiessam3003]

@@Ali.shdifat 350 average

[@strudelstudentreview]

Wake up babe, new Anking video just dropped

[@nicolasmuro2290]

I just started using Anki and I think I have it all set up (with the pre-made decks and everything). My question is, every time I learn a new topic I have to unsuspend every card on the deck about it and so on, until eventually I have the entire pre-made deck unsuspended (with every topic that comes with it)? Is that the goal? Wouldn’t I be doing sooo many cards a day?

[@bonkersdonkers7381]

sadly, that is the goal lol

[@merlinferber1684]

Excellent explanations. Very good work, thank you very much for your time. Also skipping the deep stuff on the algorithm was very much appreciated. Only critic: please dont move your head around so much, and maybe ask a befriended graphic designer to make the colors / grafics of your videos a little more pleasant / modern.

[@mohammedsaif2332]

How to get fsrs on ankidroid?

[@expertium2255]

You can use the alpha version. FSRS isn't supported in the stable version *yet*.

[@muctebanesiri]

irrelevant question but how do you make videos like this?

[@cameronchappell8265]

Returned missionary anki users UNITE

[@SuperMrgentleman]

The biggest downside I see here is the absence of a learning phase. I have dramatically different retention from 1 to 3 days, and often forget or make mistakes once I move from "I saw this yesterday" to the interference that occurs with seeing the card with other competing new cards. I also use Anki with my young daughter and sometimes like to simply show her new cards several times before actually asking her what the cards are to help her confidence and will mark them "again" repeatedly during the learning phase for 1-3 days, especially since we often don't have time to get cards at a 1 hour interval to a 1 day interval before the end of a day. I recognize there's something to be gained with how a card is treated initially, but for my use cases it may not be worthwhile. I typically just mark new cards I know immediately the first time I see them as "easy" with an immediate 7 day bonus and 300% ease to propel them forward.

[@paullahoud5783]

If i may ask, what are you using anki to teach your daughter?

[@SuperMrgentleman]

@@paullahoud5783 I started with pointing discrimination around 18 months (here's a picture with 12 things, point to the shovel). Just before 2 years old yaught her upper and lowercase letters, letter sounds, numbers 1-20. Then moved into naming common items, animals, places, emotions, occupations with "Montessori cards" I adapted to Anki. Also working through "Everything Your Preschooler Needs to Know" which is largely nursery rhymes and songs with a handful of basic facts. Now working on a couple sight words as part of a phonics approach.

[@expertium2255]

@@SuperMrgentleman according to Wozniak, the developer of SuperMemo algorithms, spaced repetition doesn't work for children who are younger than 5-7 years.

[@Badbooo123]

​@@expertium2255 I wonder why

[@SuperMrgentleman]

@@expertium2255 Yeah I've read that but I believe it's n=1 from which he's concluding that, so here's my n=1. From what I can tell (so far) her forgetting curve is basically like an adult for a lot of things- for a number of particular things, like human emotions (happy, bored, disgusted, scared) and geographic features (gulf, island, isthmus) she seems incredibly sharp (perfect?). I fully acknowledge that she's probably encountering the vocabulary, letters and numbers frequently that she's learned in her environment, so that can affect her actual retention when I test her. Also her brain may undergo synaptic pruning or something else at some age after 2, so maybe this curve will change. In any event she's presently getting a lot out of the program and knows a lot and also enjoys them enough to ask to do them and asks for more new cards so I think I'll continue until it appears futile.

[@yannickhs7100]

Hi I am lost, how do I get the FSRS settings in the first place ? They don't appear in my options tab

[@expertium2255]

You need to install Anki 23.10 or newer.

[@torhovs]

I use FSRS for 3 months, and it totally useless, because green button send my cards for 0.5-10 years further, despite even today I'm didn't learned answers strong enough. And a real interval should be couple of days, and not years!

[@RickB222]

Don’t optimize then. Use the defaults…..

[@MichaelCampbell01]

"may be" some addon breaks... indeed.

[@AnKingMed]

You can track them here: www.theanking.com/breaks

[@melisdemir5261]

Can someone summarize the whole video lol

[@dorklymorkly3290]

FSRS removes ease hell and is generally superior to the standard algorithm. With one exception: If one presses "hard" instead of "again" if one actually forgot a card. Desired retention is overall retention of the decks cards you wish to attain. The higher the value, the shorter the review intervals get (more card reviews per day) The lower the value, the longer the review intervals get (fewer cards per day ) Don't set the desired retention too high or too low. Optimal is 0.80 to 0.95, which is 80 percent or 95 percent retention. Anything higher than 95 still works but you will potentially have to review many cards per day. Anything lower than 80 works too but below 0.70 the workload starts to increase again because one forgets more cards and they have to be relearned. Press the optimization button in the options once per month.

[@dorklymorkly3290]

Also, FSRS becomes better and better over time (if one presses "again" properly, instead of hard on a lapse) , on a short timescale it's not necessarily that better than the default. Basically, at this point there is no reason to use the default anymore unless you have that habit of "hard" instead of "again".

[@dorklymorkly3290]

"no strings attached mini course" Says it wants a name and an email, those are strings to me. What, you think I'm gonna commit fraud on your free offer or something? What do you need my email for? Just add the link if it's "no strings attached". >everyone is doing it tho Yeah and I also tell this "everyone" who does it. Cause it sucks and is a lie. Next time state that you want an email and name signup instead of no strings being attached, please.

[@AnKingMed]

Shoot me an email at [e-mail] and I can manually add you without any email subscriptions but the service we use requires a name and email on order to create an account and login and see the course. (You can alternatively just click unsubscribe on the first welcome email and you won’t get any further). This wasn’t intended to be a trick or anything sorry!

[@belphegor_dev]

Just make a dummy email for this. Almost every sign up on the Internet requires an email.

[@that1nigglet]

Ankihub should have a thing where you can download a setting profile. Not that I can't do it, but still.