Difference between revisions of "Spaced proof review routine"

Revision as of 23:47, 22 May 2020

Here are the basic steps I take for spaced proof review.

For each proof/exercise:

Do the proof for the first time. This isn't any different from what people normally do when solving exercises out of a book, or when reading a proof in a book. You just read it or do it on a piece of paper.
Decide if it's interesting enough to keep reviewing.
Write up the proof as an Anki card, adding it to the "Math problems (only for new cards)" deck. It's important to add the complete proof on proof cards to reduce friction when reviewing.
Do an empty review of proof cards immediately after adding to prevent backlog (increase the "new cards per day" deck option to force the new card to be visible if you've already maxed out your new cards for the day).
After reviewing, move the cards to the main math problems deck.

Each day:

Review all cards that are due (sometimes, if there are too many due cards, I will try to do some of them and leave the rest to the following day. There's a lot of variance in number of due cards per day because of the way Anki works.) When reviewing, I use actual paper and pencil, and write down the proof on paper. I use scratch paper that I throw away when I'm done reviewing. (Any new insight I get when reviewing should be added to the back side of the card or in some other long-term notes) When scoring, I usually only use "Again" and "Good" (i.e. no "Easy" or "Hard").
If a proof I write down when reviewing is not the proof that's on the card, I take a moment to reflect on whether the new proof is correct. If it is, I write it up and add it to the back side of the card. (See spaced proof review as a way to invent novel proofs)

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 # Do the proof for the first time. This isn't any different from what people normally do when solving exercises out of a book, or when reading a proof in a book. You just read it or do it on a piece of paper.
-# Decide if it's interesting enough to keep reviewing. It's an open question to me how to decide this, or e.g. what percentage of problems you solve should be written up as a card in Anki.
+# [[Choosing problems for spaced proof review|Decide if it's interesting enough to keep reviewing]].
 # Write up the proof as an [[Anki]] card, adding it to the "Math problems (only for new cards)" deck. It's important to [[add the complete proof on proof cards to reduce friction when reviewing]].
 # [[Do an empty review of proof cards immediately after adding to prevent backlog]] (increase the "new cards per day" deck option to force the new card to be visible if you've already maxed out your new cards for the day).
 # After reviewing, move the cards to the main math problems deck.
-Which proofs/exercises do I add as cards? I tend to prefer simple exercises and important exercises. If an exercise involves a lot of tedious detail, I tend to skip it (I might start making cards that just ask for the main point/insight for these tedious exercises).
 Each day: