1perfectionist

I would like to share a technique I use to fight a problem when something does not stick in my memory. When I just answered wrong to a question and I feel I need to improve my retention of this particular question, I sometimes do the following. I duplicate the question (with Ctrl+Alt+D in Supermemo 2006) and then I edit the copy of the question to give it a slightly different context. For a vocabulary question it would be adding or replacing the example sentence. The example sentences can be taken from a dictionary, searched in books or I invent them myself. Sometimes I need to read many of the existing examples to be able to invent a correct sentence. When I invent the examples myself it works better for improving the retention comparing to taking an existing sentence. Lets give an example of using the technique.
The original question:
Q: Is the water [...] (=so) hot?
A: that/this
Lets say I could not answer currently to the question. I would duplicate the question and edit the duplicated one into the following:
Q: Was the sun [...] (=so) high?
A: that/this

I saw a fascinating video: man vs lion:

I found an interesting math learning tool: www.ixl.com. I played with it a bit and I liked it.
My daughter, Anna, is going to 8th grade, we will try it with her.

This diagram visually represents the size of a cell .

I would like to present some useful tips for learning vocabulary questions in Supermemo. 
Let me first tell about my experience with Supermemo.  I have been preparing Q/A for Supermemo for me and my daughter for about 6 years. Mostly it was questions for learning English; but there were other kinds of learning too. I believe I have made some progress in the art of preparing questions and finding more optimal ways of using Supermemo. 

The first tip I would like to share addresses the problem of a question having multiple correct answers (synonyms). In the beginning; when I did not have much experience in creating questions; I was worrying too much that a question might have several different correct answers. I thought I ought to create questions in a way, that each question has one and only one possible answer.   In order to achieve that in vocabulary questions I decided to reveal the first and the last letter of the answer in the question. For example:

Q: [l…d] clothes are too bright or have too many bright designs

A: loud

I had been practicing this approach for some time; until I realized that I recognize the questions by [l…d] pattern only; without needing to read the rest of the question carefully. I also noticed that such questions were not improving my vocabulary much: I did not start to actually use the words I had been trying to learn that way.

So I decided to try another strategy: adding a list of synonyms in the question:

Q:
[…] clothes are too bright or have too many bright designs
-> garish, gaudy

A: loud

I added a list of synonyms at the moment of creating the question by copying the list of synonyms from a thesaurus dictionary. This approach worked much better for vocabulary learning: I started to actually use the new words in speaking and writing.

However the approach had the following disadvantages:

• preparing the questions took more time; since I needed to add lists of synonyms to the questions;
• sometimes the lists of synonyms were very long. The long lists were cluttering the questions and breaking the minimum information principle;

So I modified the strategy again to the following. First I create a question without worrying about possible multiple answers, like this:

Q: […] clothes are too bright or have too many bright designs
A: loud

Later Supermemo will present me the question for repetition.  Each time I answer it as designed (i.e. "loud"), I continue learning it without modification of the question. If I answer not as designed; but the answer is also correct (let say I answered "gaudy") I give myself "Bad" mark and modify the question; adding "gaudy" in the synonym list in the question:

Q:
[…] clothes are too bright or have too many bright designs
-> gaudy

A: loud

Thus next time I see this question I will know that "gaudy" is not the designed answer and I will have to think of another one.

One might ask "what if I answered not as designed but I could not determine if my alternative answer had been also correct?". That is another problem. I did not want to add an incorrect answer in the synonym list. Often I could not say for sure if the alternative answer had been correct; so I had to carry out a small investigation using dictionaries; internet, and advice of native speakers to determine that. It took time; but it allowed me to study language at a higher level of consciousness; so I think it was worth the time spent.

I hope this post will be helpful for someone.

I am planning to post more information on how I use Supermemo.  

P.S. See the discussion of this topic here:
http://wiki.supermemo.org/index.php?title=What_if_my_answer_is_different_and_still_correct%3F

We have been playing this game with my daughter recently.  

There are 2 players. Both think of a word and each writes their word down. Then the players show their words to each other and the game starts. The goal is to invent a chain of words connecting one of the two original words to the other one. Each word in the chain should be a correct word. We allowed any parts of speech and any forms of the words. Each word in the chain should be produced from the previous word with one of the following operations:

• adding a letter
• removing a letter
• replacing one letter with another one
• making anagram of the previous word (the anagram contains all letters of the previous word in arbitrary order)

Once a player has created a chain she tells the other player about it (without showing the chain). Then the game is prolonged for next 10 minutes to give the other player an opportunity to invent his own chain. In meantime the first player tries to create a shorted chain.

Finally the player who invented the shortest chain wins.

Example. I thought of the word float and my daughter thought of the word bit. A possible chain between the words is
float - flat - flap - flip - flit - lift - lit - it  - bit
The length of the chain is 8.

I invented a recipe of a lemonade. I tried and liked it. Perhaps it is a known recipy; however I post it here.

Ingredients

• 1 liter  water
• 1-3 tablesppon honey
• 1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
• 1 lemon

Preparation
 Whirl the ginger in a blender with small amount of water until it is mixed well. Add water. Squeeze the leamon and add the juice. Add the honey. It is ready now.

In fact it happened about a year ago. Our guinea pig Jessy, gave birth to three beautiful piggies:) The father was near by, helping her to clean the babies...

Hi readers! 

I did not use to write much blogs; but sometimes I have something to write; which I think could be useful for someone else. I will be glad if you read my stuff and send comments. I no one reads it - no problem  - may be I will read it for myself later; when needed.

I am probably going to write in several different areas I am interested in:

• Games
• Early Development
• Raw food
• Programming
• Supermemo
• may be something else. I am not sure now.