vocab _and_ sentence collections in supermemo?

bonehead   Friday, July 26, 2002, 17:44 GMT
do you think it best to split pure vocab into its own collection in supermemo, when attempting to learn a new language, or throw everything into the one collection? i see pros for both, but i'd like to hear opinions from people who've used supermemo. i've just bought it and am anxious to try it

any other advice for someone who wishes to learn german with the help of supermemo appreciated as well
Tom   Saturday, July 27, 2002, 09:19 GMT
I put everything into one collection. I think it would be too much trouble having to open the right collection depending on the kind of item I want to add.
What do you think would be the pros of two collections?
Also, what are the vocab items you're talking about?

I am learning German with SuperMemo. See this topic:
http://www.antimoon.com/forum/2002/122.htm
bonehead   Saturday, July 27, 2002, 18:08 GMT
> What do you think would be the pros of two collections?

well, now that i've thought about it some more, i don't think there really is a pro to two collections. it was more of, keeping things together (words, sentences) but now i think it'd be better to mix everything up to keep things dynamic

> Also, what are the vocab items you're talking about?

i just meant single word translations

also, would you be willing to share your german collection? i've started one but i'm not sure if i'm doing it the best way. it's difficult for me, as a beginner, to make sure the sentences i put in are translated correctly

and i'm not consistent. sometimes i put a german sentence, with the english answer, and sometimes i put an english sentence with a german answer. and the same for words. i don't think this'll be a problem though?

any advice you can give to a shining new beginner would be helpful
Tom   Saturday, July 27, 2002, 22:00 GMT
<<<<
also, would you be willing to share your german collection?
>>>>

Sure, but I wouldn't recommend that you use it, for various reasons. One would be that it has explanations only where I need them. You would need them in different places than I.
If you're interested in taking a look at my collection, send me an e-mail.

<<<<
i've started one but i'm not sure if i'm doing it the best way. it's difficult for me, as a beginner, to make sure the sentences i put in are translated correctly
>>>>

If I were you, I'd first read 30-40 pages in simple German, looking up words, and trying to understand as much as possible. (I assume you are a zero-beginner).

It's not worthwhile to add very basic stuff to SuperMemo, because you'll be seeing it all the time anyway in books and other sources -- if you plan to learn with any intensity. The purpose of SuperMemo is to ensure artificial repetitions of things you don't see frequently enough to remember them.

When I started using SuperMemo to learn German a few months ago, my passive vocabulary could have been around 1,000 words. I was not a complete beginner.

I definitely recommend the "Leichte Lektueren" series from Langenscheidt. These are short, fun mystery stories for German learners. There are three difficulty levels. A few months ago I started from level 2. Now I'm at level 3.
I can't recommend these books enough. They've really eased my entry into real-life written German. You can probably order them from Langenscheidt's website at http://www.langenscheidt.de.

Anyway, to answer your question: I wouldn't add a sentence to my SuperMemo collection if I didn't know what it meant.

<<<<
and i'm not consistent. sometimes i put a german sentence, with the english answer, and sometimes i put an english sentence with a german answer. and the same for words. i don't think this'll be a problem though?
>>>>

I wouldn't recommend adding English-German sentence items. Right now, you know only one way to translate the English sentence into German. In two months, your German knowledge will be much greater, and other translations will start coming to your mind. But as they will be different from the "correct" one in the answer field, you will be forced to fail the repetition.
I'm sure you're going to run into problems with your approach.