Pimp My Learning

[Horse]

I'm bascially still messing around in the dark ages with lists of vocab in notebooks and boxes of cardboard flashcards spilling all over my apartment.

I've recently got Pleco which was a big technological leap for me. I've been wanting to get Supermemo, and have tried downloading Anki from their site but the file is corrupt or some such.

So please point this floundering Luddite in the right direction.

Supermemo/ZDT/Anki, what are your suggestions???

All input gratefully received.

Cheers

[roddy]

If you've got Pleco, I'd stick with the flashcard function there. The only reason I can see you wouldn't do that is if you absolutely must have something on your desktop.

[Horse]

Yeah, the Pleco flashcards are OK, but they don't give you a breakdown of where you're going wrong, and you can't customize your retesting can you.

I thought the spaced learning/retest function on Supermemo looked useful (?)

[wushijiao]

I'd say getting an iPod (or other sort of MP3 device) is the best way to pimp your learning.

With an iPod, you can:

-access all the great podcast for learners out there

-download tons of Mandarin podcasts

-edit (either types) of podcasts using free software like Audacity

-edit the English out of CD materials and make it into MP3 files, saving you lots of wasted time listening to English

Also, I'd suggest that review via listening (hopefully to words in their natural contexts) is more important and effective than review via flashcards. Although good flashcard systems are nice.

[gato]

Horse, maybe these threads on using the Pleco flashcard system will help:

http://plecoforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1513&p=10764#p10764

Pleco v. 2 Flash card question

http://plecoforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=1809&p=13673#p13673

Flashcards - spaced repitition question