Copyright (c) 1991 SuperMemo World All Rights Reserved This file contains large fragments of the SuperMemo 2 Shareware help. The following topics are covered: 1. Introduction 2. About the SuperMemo method 3. Basic operations 3.1. Creating a SM knowledge database 3.2. Appending items to your database 3.3. Learning and repeating items 4. Process information window 5. Menu options 5.1. Test 5.2. Present items and search for items 5.3. Append items 5.4. Factor distribution 5.5. Daily burden 5.6. Miscellaneous menu - Random test - Compress - Disk initialization - Sound - Info 5.7. Help 5.8. Save and Quit 6. Assessing the quality of your answers 7. Difficulty factors 8. Hints and tips for SuperMemo learners 8.1. Setting the correct date 8.2. Exiting SuperMemo 8.3. Workload 8.4. Regular work 8.5. Concentration 8.6. Formulation of items 8.7. Common mistakes 8.8. Cannot run SuperMemo? 9. Data security 10. SuperMemo database 11. Transfrm and Recovr utilities 12. Public license agreement SuperMemo 2.s - SHAREWARE by SuperMemo World 1. INTRODUCTION =========================================== SUPER-MEMO is a program designed to help you in your education, whatever it might be. It applies an extremely effective method of repetition scheduling. If you want to be successful in your studies, scientific work or business activities, you will have to learn many things that by no means want to stick to your memory. SUPER-MEMO solves the problem of forgetting and allows you to be truly successful. Try and see! You have much to win! Good luck! SUPER-MEMO will let you store a collection of question-answer pairs on the disk. These pairs are later referred to as items, and the collection of items is later called a database. SUPER-MEMO will let you memorize items stored in the database and minimize the time necessary for memorization and retention of knowledge in your brain. All you have to do is to create/buy/copy a database and test yourself systematically. Later you should also learn a bit about the database maintenance. That's all! Everything else is optional! 2. ABOUT THE SUPER-MEMO METHOD ============================================== The SUPER-MEMO method is a tremendously effective technique allowing you to memorize large quantities of data in shortest possible time. It was developed in Poland, in the years 1982-1987 by a biologist Piotr Wozniak. The SUPER-MEMO method, if it is to reveal all its advantages, requires application of a computer, although a paper based variant is also much more effective than traditional techniques used in learning. Several computer programs are available that apply the SUPER-MEMO method, and the design of others is underway. Majority of human abilities, as they are seen by an observer, is acquired in the process of learning. A baby is a superb learning automaton that is provided with an extensive storage of infor- mation (the cerebral cortex of the brain), and amazingly effective mechanisms for acquisition of knowledge. Efficient learning is therefore one of basic factors determining knowledge, skills and intelligence of an individual. The knowledge acquired in the process of learning is stored in the form of long-term molecular changes in neuronal synapses, but these changes tend to decline persistent- ly, independently of the importance of the knowledge stored. The mechanism of forgetting is the best protection against running out of the storage space, and it is practically impossible to fill up the memory so that new information cannot be stored. There is also a mechanism that protects the most important data against complete decline - the mechanism of fixation, in which the the most often used information is amplified. Hence the importance of repetitions of acquired knowledge or skills. The optimal repetitory process is such a process that satisfies two contradictory criteria: - repetitions are frequent enough to ensure that the knowledge will not be forgotten, - repetitions are rare enough to ensure that the time spent on learning will be minimal. The SUPER-MEMO method applies simple mathe- matical optimization technique to calculate the optimal frequency of repetitions, or more exactly, to calculate optimal intervals between repetitions, which depend on: - capacity of a given individual, - difficulty of a given piece of knowledge, - retention strength of a given piece of knowledge (i.e. how well it is remembered at the moment). SUPER-MEMO program is responsible for the following: - creation and maintenance of the database consisting of question-answer pairs, - control of knowledge repetitions based on the calculation of optimal intervals, - providing the user with mechanisms of memorization process supervision. Computer applications of the SUPER-MEMO method have been investigated since 1987 revealing its sensational effectiveness. Although the present version of SUPER-MEMO requires the knowledge to be represented in the form of text, the SUPER-MEMO method was also successfuly employed in learning type- writting, playing drums and playing bass. 3. BASIC OPERATIONS ============================================= 3.1. CREATING A DATABASE To create a new database you should: - initialize the database using the DISK INITIALIZATION option from the MISCELLANEOUS menu, - create and store new items using the APPENDING ITEMS option (you can also modify items using PRESENT ITEMS option) Instead of creating your own database you can take or buy a database created by somebody else even if it has already been used. The only thing you will have to do in such a case is to transform this database to an unused form. 3.2 APPENDING ITEMS TO YOUR DATABASE APPENDING ITEMS is done in order to add new question-answer pairs (items) into your data- base. These pairs do not enter the process immedi- ately but are pending in the priority queue. The priority queue is being emptied only then when you wish to memorize items stored in it. Thus you can append more items that you can let into the process at the same time. Later you can gradually memorize pending items from the priority queue. You will see, that each item added to the database increases the TOTAL number of items. You can also find that appending items you will change the INTACT parameter indicating the number of items in the priority queue. On the other hand, the MEMORIZED parameter (the number of items that have been learned) will remain unchanged. 3.3. LEARNING AND REPEATING ITEMS You can test your knowledge using the TEST option. The only thing you must care about is that you start working with SUPER-MEMO having the date set, so that the program knows what day it is, and what it should ask you about. As you can find by yourself, you will be asked questions selected by the program. You will have to assess the quality of your answers in a 0-5 grade scale. On the base of this quality, the program will decide when the item should be asked next. You can alternate testing with creation and modification the database. 4. PROCESS INFORMATION WINDOW ============================================== Below the main menu of SUPER-MEMO you can find the following parameters: - DAY tells you for how many days have you been using the database and what is the current date (the date format used by SUPER-MEMO is day:month:year), - OUTSTANDING tells you how many items you will have to repeat on that day, - MEMORIZED tells how many items of the database you have memorized, - INTACT tells how many items are pending in the priority queue, - TOTAL is equal to the total number of items (TOTAL=MEMORIZED+INTACT). 5. MENU OPTIONS =============================================== 5.1. TEST The TEST option is used to remind you these items which are most likely to be forgotten in nearest days. If you have not tested yourself for few days, all outstanding items assigned to these days will also be repeated. After all outstanding items for a given day have been repeated, all of them that have not been remembered well enough are repeated again (until they score at least 4 points in the quality assessment scale). When there is nothing to repeat, TEST is used to memorize new items (these which are pen- ding in the priority queue). 5.2. PRESENT ITEMS AND SEARCH FOR ITEMS The PRESENT ITEMS option allows you not only to browse the database and see items stored in it, but also to change (edit) these items or to delete them when wished. The SEARCH option also allows you to see, modify or delete items. The main difference between PRESENT ITEMS and SEARCH is that to locate a given item you use its number in the former or a substring of the item in the latter. 5.3. APPEND ITEMS The APPEND option allows you to append new items to your SM database. 5.4. FACTOR DISTRIBUTION FACTOR DISTRIBUTION - allows to see what is the participation of items of a given difficulty in the whole database. FACTOR DISTRIBUTION is used to present the distribution of items with respect to their difficulty. The easiest items have their factors equal to 2.5 and the most difficult items have factors equal to 1.3. FACTOR DISTRIBUTION presents a histogram which illustrates how many items belong to a given class of difficulty and what is the percentage they make up in the whole data- base. At the beginning, factors of all items are assumed to be 2.5 and they are later modified on the base of quality of answers in the TEST 5.5. DAILY BURDEN DAILY BURDEN allows you to check how many items you will have to repeat on a given day and eventually what these items are. Items are repeated then when they are the most likely to be forgotten and it is the program that decides when a given item is to be repeated. All items that are to be repeated on a given day are stored on the disk in the form of a list, so it takes some time until the program can find out their number. Thus it seems unlikely that you will like using this options with a floppy disk system. 5.6. MISCELLANEOUS MENU - provides such options as: * RANDOM TEST - presents items at random, allowing you to do testing without changes in the database. You can use this test for: - testing your colleages or students, - checking what is the percentage of items that you remember (you should not score below 90% !), - calculation of the distribution of particular topics in the database, distribution of intervals, repetition numbers etc. * COMPRESS - allows to compress the database. The COMPRESS option is used to set the database files in order i.e. to perform a general garbage collection. Compression of files is done in two stages: A.compression of DATES and FUTURDAT files in order to get rid of outdated info about the process, B.compression of ITEMS and ITEMINFO files. Compression of the PRIOR file is done automa- tically whenever the priority queue is empty. INFO file is never compressed. The first stage of compression is faster and should be done every month to avoid excessive growth of DATES and FUTURDAT files. The second stage of compression is necessary only then when a large number of items has been deleted or edited (changed). This stage lasts pretty long (even if it is done on a hard disk or RAM-disk). Be sure, that you have made back-up copies of your files before compression. If you cannot compress your files because SUPER-MEMO stops reporting an error, then your database must have been damaged. In such a case you can compress the database using RECOVR.EXE (it applies extensive compression and enables elimination of a large class of errors). * DISK INITIALIZATION - allows to create a framework for a new database. DISK INITIALIZATION is used to create new database files i.e. to create a new database which does not contain any items. You will use DISK INITIALIZATION whenever your database grows too large and it is no longer advisable to append new items to it. You must be aware that DISK INITIALIZATION deletes all SUPER-MEMO files from the current directory. Make sure that you have enough space in the current directory for storing newly created files, otherwise the program will stop reporting the error. * SOUND ON/OFF - allows to switch off peeping if you do not like it. * INFO - provides information about SuperMemo 2 shareware and about SUPER-MEMO WORLD. 5.7. HELP - allows to learn about SUPER-MEMO. 5.8. SAVE and QUIT - allows to end the work with SUPER-MEMO and save modifications. 6. ASSESSING THE QUALITY OF YOUR ANSWERS ================================================ It can often be observed that users of SUPER-MEMO tend to forget about the impor- tance of proper assessment of answer quali- ties. In extreme cases they use only two grade scale: 5 - OK and 0 - I do not remember! The optimization method is based on calcu- lation of difficulties of items, so that judging answers is tremendously important! You are even allowed to input fractional values to make estimations more accurate. Read exactly the rules for quality assess- ment and obey them. Otherwise you stand a lesser chance to live up to your expectations The 0-5 grade scale used in assessment of quality of answers given to questions during execution of TEST: 5 - perfect response, 4 - correct response with hesitation, 3 - correct response given after longer consideration, 2 - wrong response, very close to the correct one, 1 - wrong response; the correct answer seems to be familiar, 0 - complete blackout. 7. DIFFICULTY FACTORS ============================================ The difficulty factors determine how hard it is to remember a given item. They belong to the range <1.3,2.5> and the greater they are the less difficult the item is. All items have their factors estimated to equal 2.5 initially, and this value is modi- fied on the base of appropriate answer quali- ties, i.e. when an item is remembered well its factor remains unchanged or even may increase, otherwise the factor decreases. 8. HINTS AND TIPS FOR SUPER-MEMO USERS ============================================== 8.1. SETTING THE CORRECT DATE You must always set the system date before you start your work with SUPER-MEMO. The date is important for the program to know what day it is, and which item it should ask you on that day. If you have a battery backed RAM in your PC then your life with SUPER-MEMO will be easier Otherwise you will have to set the date before you load the program (use the DATE command of DOS or create a batch file that will do it for you). WORKING WITH A WRONG DATE SETTING WILL CERTAINLY MAKE A LOT OF MESS IN THE PROCESS! 8.2. EXITING SUPER-MEMO Do not forget that you should always leave SUPER-MEMO by selecting the SAVE and QUIT option. Do not use the Break key nor switch off the computer before saving data. If you fail to do so the database files will not be closed and their content may become inconsistent. It is possible that in such a case you will have to use recovery tools to make the database consistent and, as you suspect, the recovery will unevitably cause partial lost of data. 8.3. WORKLOAD Whenever somebody wants to use SUPER-MEMO it is usually after he has learnt that some of his colleagues is using it and memorizes thousands of items in an amazingly short time No wonder, that when he finally loads SUPER- MEMO on his own PC he vigorously begins ex- panding his database with intention to double the feat he has heard of. In such cases, the zealous user will soon be flooded with an overwhelming stream of items and if his motivation to work hard is not sound, he is likely to get discouraged and give up. DO NOT RUSH, CHECK YOUR CAPACITY FIRST! The best way to avoid the aforementioned problems is to allocate no more that 5-10 minutes a day to work with SUPER-MEMO. Only when the mechanisms of SUPER-MEMO will become more familiar, one can decide if he is consequent enough to work longer. Relatively best results where achieved by user who worked 30-45 minutes a day. Even for the strongest learners 60 minutes of SUPER-MEMO a day may be too much! Obviously if you are sure that you can persist working harder in a long run, there are no contrrecommendations, on condition that your work will really be regular. 8.4. REGULAR WORK All calculations on which the SUPER-MEMO method was based assume that the learner allocates time for learning everyday! So it should be clear that: ALL PAUSES IN LEARNING WITH SUPER-MEMO WHICH ARE LONGER THAN ONE DAY DECREASE THE EFFECTIVENESS!!! It means that having breaks in your process you will have to spend more time for memo- rizing a given number of items! There are mechanisms in the SUPER-MEMO pro- gram that allow you to catch up if neces- sary, but you should never abuse it. 8.5. CONCENTRATION SUPER-MEMO forces your brain to work with an extreme intensity (you can find that it is hard to work with it for longer than an hour). This may cause a self-defence reaction resulting in negligent repetitions. And negligence is one of the worst habits of SUPER-MEMO users that inevitably leads to results that compare poorly with that of the most strenuous and highly motivated learners. IT IS BETTER TO LOOSE SOME TIME WHILE TRYING TO RECALL A GIVEN ANSWER, THAT TO REPEAT THE ITEM INFINITELY! Do not give up too early, and if you have to then think a bit why the item is so hard. 8.6. FORMULATION OF ITEMS It is quite a funny picture, when a zealous SUPER-MEMO user persistently strains every nerve in his efforts to remember strenuously constructed monster items consisting of innumerable indigestible terms, definitions, descriptions, symbols, constants, formulas.. The idea of SUPER-MEMO is based on dividing the knowledge into smallest possible grains so that the optimization procedure can be applied to each. If it were not necessary, we could have an answer in the form of a book and I am sure that there are few persons on this globe that are able to remember whole books. ITEMS SHOULD ALWAYS BE AS SIMPLE AS POSSIBLE! Instead of asking: "What are the systems of the human organism?" and providing the answer: "digestive, lymphoid, immune, endocrine...." we should rather construct few items so that the answer could be: "regulatory systems and executive systems" and another item could read: "What are the regulatory systems" with the answer "nervous and endocrine". REDUNDANCY CAN DECREASE YOUR WORKLOAD! PS. I do not claim that my division of systems of the organism is best possible. 8.7. COMMON MISTAKES Here is a list of common mistakes made by SUPER-MEMO beginners, which are in a great extent responsible for their unsatisfactory progress: - having too difficult items - working unsystematically - not being concentrated - judging answers inadequately - memorizing too many items at once - disregarding security principles. 8.8. CANNOT RUN SUPER-MEMO? If you cannot run SUPER-MEMO then check if the CONFIG.SYS file allows to open at least 12 files (you can use CONFIG.SYS from the distribution disk). If your CONFIG.SYS is OK and you still cannot run then check if all database files are present in the current directory. In other cases check if you have enough disk space for storing the database files. If your SUPER-MEMO reports errors when you use TEST or DAILY BURDEN or COMPRESSION then you will have to repair the damage by means of RECOVR.EXE. 9. DATA SECURITY =========================================== To guarantee the security of your databases you should remember about the following: - use SAVE AND QUIT to end your work, - always keep back-up copies of your database files, - never work on original files (create temporary files and work with them), - do not create too large databases (say over 3000 items or over 200 kB), - compress your databases every month, - keep the date setting accurate. YOUR DATABASES ARE TOO PRECIOUS TO DISREGARD THESE PRINCIPLES! 10. SUPER-MEMO DATABASE ============================================ The database of SUPER-MEMO 2 consists of the following files: INFO.DB - contains basic information about the database (number of items, number of items memorized, date of creation, last date of reference, factor distribution array etc.), ITEMS.DB - contains the items, ITEMINFO.DB - contains info about items (factor, last interval, number of repeats) DATES.DB - list of pointers to FUTURDAT.DB, FUTURDAT.DB - list of lists containing items which are to be repeated on a given day, PRIOR.DB - list defining the priority queue. 11. TRANSFRM AND RECOVR UTILITIES ============================================= The TRANSFRM.EXE program may be used to adapt a database created by another person (say your colleague), so that it can be reused. To transform the database files to an unused form run the TRANSFRM.EXE from within the directory where the database files are stored (e.g. type TRANSFRM if the program and the database are in the current directory). After execution of TRANSFRM you can see the following changes in the database: - INTACT=TOTAL (i.e. MEMORIZED=0), - all items have factors equal to 2.5 - the DAY parameter equals to 1 etc. The RECOVR.EXE program is used to compress the database files so that possible errors in DATES.DB and FUTURDAT.DB can be repaired. Damage to these files is especially dangerous considering the list structure of FUTURDAT. Other kinds or errors are less likely and easier to correct. To compress files with RECOVR.EXE you must execute this program from within the direc- tory containing the database files (e.g. type RECOVR if the program and the database files are in the current directory). All items lost because of the damage will be appended to the priority queue. 12. PUBLIC LICENSE AGREEMENT ============================================ You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the SuperMemo 2 Shareware files provided that you keep intact all copyright notices and give to any other recipients of this program a copy of this statement as well as the following warranty disclaimer. SUPER-MEMO WORLD disclaims all warranties as to this software, whether expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, functionality, data integrity or protection. SuperMemo World will not be liable for any special, incidental, consequential, indirect or similar damages due to loss of data or any other reason. The entire risk as to the quality and performance of the program is with you. In no event will SUPER-MEMO WORLD or any other party who may redistribute this software be liable to you for damages arising out of the use or inability to use (including but not limited to loss of data or data being rendered inaccurate) the program. All rights reserved. SuperMemo World, 1991 ===========================================================================