FlashCards v0.93

FlashCards v0.93

Installation

FlashCardsv93SWJ

Install FlashCards.prc onto your palm pilot with your HotSync manager.

FlashCardsv93SW

This version of FlashCards is bundled with a Java interpreter. To install this version, copy all PDB and PRC files onto your palm pilot via your HotSync manager. In addition, there are two subdirectories: palmos3and4, and palmos5and6. Install the the PRC and PDB files in the subdirectory that corresponds to the PalmOS version on your palm unit.

PalmOS versions

PalmOS 3.0 through 5.0, 5.2, 5.4: You can use FlashCardsv93SW for older versions (PalmOS3.0), and most recent versions. Note that FlashCardsv93SW does not work for PalmOS 5.3 devices( use FlashCardsv93SWJ).
PalmOS 3.5 through 5.4: You can use FlashCardsv93SWJ.

About FlashCards

FlashCards is a cleanly designed, Leitner-based flashcard application. It automates the flashcard learning process, and streamlines creation and editing of flashcards with stylus or keyboard.

If you have any questions or suggestions please contact me at support@pinedesk.biz. I am open to any feedback. You can track the progress of this project at its blog, and at its homepage.

Program Description

There are five main screens in FlashCards. A brief description of each of the screens follows:

List of Decks

The screen displays the names of all of the decks, as well as a summary of the percentage of the deck learned. The right most column estimates when you should retest yourself in the deck.

Add a new deck, tap on the 'Add' button.
Move one deck into another; to do this, tap-and-drag one deck on another.
tap on a row in the table to go to 'List of Cards' panel.
from the file menu: Register!

List of Cards

The flashcards in the deck are displayed, as well as which level each question is in. If you have enabled the 'study answer side too' option then level for each side of the card is displayed.

Change settings for Learning:

Learn both sides of the card
After learning the lowest level, start over again (instead of going right to the statistics screen).
Turn on the auto timeout feature to make let FlashCards flip to the answer after a preset timeout. You can choose in 1/2 second increments up to 3.5 seconds.
Turn on 'optimal learning'. This will prevent you from studying cards that you already know if the card isn't scheduled yet. This helps to keep you from moving a card from the first level to higher levels, only to find out ten minutes later, you haven't memorized the answer.

Delete a card.
Delete the deck.
Edit a card.
Add new cards.
Go to 'Learn Deck' screen.
Go back to 'List of Cards'

Edit/Add Card

Add words to the answer and question sides of a card. You must have a minimum of one entry for each side. Additionall entries will be displayed as subtext when the answer side of the card is displayed on the 'Learn Deck' screen. See the section on Adding and Modifying Cards for more information

Tapping on an entry in the table of words allows you to re-edit the text.

Learn Deck

From the List of Cards screen you can quiz yourself on the questions by pushing the 'Learn' button at the bottom of the screen. The upper left corner displays how many cards are left to be tested. You are quized on cards in the lowest level cardfile, and any cards from the higher levels that need to be reviewed again (if any of this sounds confusing please review the Leitner Cardfile System). To speed up the review process the hardware buttons perform some of the functions of the buttons you see on the screen:

When showing a question

Pushing the left most Palm button (Calendar) ends the learning session and goes to the 'Statistics' screen.

If you have a particularly long question that cannot fit on the screen, a small down arrow will appear in the lower right hand corner of the screen. You can use the Up/Down buttons to page through the entire question.
Pushing any of the other buttons is equivelant to tapping the 'Continue' button, which jumps to the answer side.

When showing an answer

Pushing the left most Palm button (Calendar) ends the learning session and goes to the 'Statistics' screen.
If you have a palm with four buttons at the bottom of your palm (for Addresses, Contacts, ToDo lists, and Memos) the following keys do:

Contacts is equivelant to pushing the 'Missed' button.
ToDo is equivelant to pushing the 'Right' button.

If your palm has the 5-way pad the following keys do:

Left is equivelant to pushing the 'Missed' button.
Right is equivelant to pushing the 'Right' button.

If you have a particularly long answer that cannot fit on the screen, a small down arrow will appear in the lower right hand corner of the screen. You can use the Up/Down buttons to page through the entire question.

Statistics

A histogram displays how many questions are in each level graphically (numbers of questions in each level are listed underneath the bars of the graph). The lowest level is the left most bar; the highest level is the right most bar.

A summary of the % Learned before and after the last session are listed underneath the graph.
The remaining time until you should test yourself in the deck again is displayed.
Push 'Restart' to start learning again, with the questions in the lowest level.
Push 'Done' to go back to the 'List of Cards' screen.

Implementation Details

Percentage Learned Statistics

The percentage learned value listed for each deck is a weighted percentage. The weighted percentage is a sum of values from each of the flashcards. If the settings for the deck specify that both question and answer sides of each flashcards will be counted.

A card is considered to be 'not learned at all' if it is at the lowest Level. If it is at the last Level, then it contributes 1/X'th (where X is the number of cards in the deck) percent to the total. This means that if all of the cards are in the last level, then the percentage is 100.

Most of the time this will not be the case. A question/answer may be at some level between the first and last Level. In this case a question contributes (1/X/L)*CL, where L is the number of levels, and CL is the current level that the card is at. As you learn a question its level will rise toward the top, and its contribution to the % learned will approach its total contribution of 1/X. In general this means that cards that are only in the first or the second level contribute very little or nothing to the total percantage.

When the bulk of the cards have only been successfully reviewed then the percentage will be very low, because the levels for each of the cards is low. When the bulk of the cards have been learned the percentage will be very close to 100%.

Wait Times

The estimated time for each level is a rough exponential increas in time as a question rises in the levels. The higher a question is, the less likely that you need to test it, and so the less likely you will see the question when Learning the deck. A list of the times follows:

Level 0 - not counted
Level 1 15 minutes
Level 2 1 hour
Level 3 6 hours
Level 4 2 days
Level 5 4 days
Level 6 1 week
Level 7 12 days
Level 8 20 days
Level 9 45 days
Level 10 3 months

When a card rises a level its return time is updated to the time in the level, as defined above.

For instance, if a card rises from Level 0 to Level 1, then the return time is set to 15 minutes. If you learn the deck before within 15 minutes then the card will not be included in the review...but after 15 minutes the card should be reviewd again. If you learn the deck after 15 minutes, then this card will be included with all of the other Level 0 cards. If you