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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:

AnkiSuperMemoWhen 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:

AnkiSuperMemoWhen 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.