How to grade yourself in spaced-repetition software
When you review a word or phrase in spaced-repetition software, you have to give yourself a grade. The grade is very important — it tells the SRS how well you remembered the word or phrase. This information is used to schedule the next review of the word or phrase.
“Active” items/cards
Here’s when you should use each grade:
| Anki | SuperMemo | When to use |
|---|---|---|
| Easy (4) | Bright (5) | You gave the correct answer quickly. |
| Good (3) | Good (4) | You gave the correct answer, but it took you a bit longer. |
| Hard (2) | Pass (3) | You had to think for a very long time or your answer was not completely correct. |
| Again (1) | Fail (2) | Your answer was wrong (or you gave no answer), but when you saw the correct answer, you thought “I knew it! I almost said it!”. |
| Bad (1) | Your answer was wrong (or you gave no answer), but when you saw the correct answer, you recognized it. | |
| Null (0) | Your answer was wrong (or you gave no answer), and you didn’t even recognize the correct answer. You didn’t remember ever seeing it before. |
The most important difference is that between passing and failing. A grade of Hard/Pass or higher means that you remembered the item/card. A grade of Again (in Anki) or Fail and lower (in SuperMemo) means that you forgot the item/card.
If you use your SRS regularly, the vast majority of your grades should be Good and Easy/Bright. About 10% of your grades should be failing grades (Again/Fail/Bad/Null).
Sentence items/cards
With sentence items, there is no concrete answer that you should give. Instead, the “answer” is your understanding of the sentence. Therefore, the rules of grading are a little different:
| Anki | SuperMemo | When to use |
|---|---|---|
| Easy (4) | Bright (5) | You understood the sentence very well. You feel that it’s easy for you. |
| Good (3) | Good (4) | You understood the sentence, but you found it somewhat challenging. Perhaps you understood it incorrectly at the beginning, and then you changed your mind. Perhaps a tense or preposition in the sentence is a little surprising and you’re not sure if you’d get it right if you were writing the sentence yourself. This should be the most common grade. |
| Hard (2) | Pass (3) | You understood the sentence, but it was hard and maybe your understanding was a little incorrect. |
| Again (1) | Fail (2) | You “almost” understood the sentence. When you saw the explanations in the answer field, you thought “I knew it!”. |
| Bad (1) | You didn’t understand the sentence. | |
| Null (0) | You didn’t understand the sentence and you don’t even recognize it. |