Learn Japanese Today

You can get Mnemosyne here.

If you don’t know what an SRS is by now…then you must be new to the blog. Welcome! I’ve noticed a big increase in traffic over the past couple of days and I just wanted to thank my fellow Japan bloggers Billy from 7:10 to Tokyo , Tom from Hello Mother, Hello Father , and Lina from Urutora no Hi for giving my site so much support. You guys rock!

Anyways, Mnemosyne seems like its a more cut-and-dry version of Anki, just focusing on getting the only part that matters right. The SRS. This review is sort of a comparison, so you should probably take a look at my review of Anki .

Here’s the review:

Ease of Use: 7

Mnemosyne doesn’t have all the screencasts and explanations that Anki’s website does, but frankly, it doesn’t need them. There really isn’t any room for doubt on any features. Adding cards adds cards to a deck. Import imports a deck file. New opens up a new deck. That’s about it. The essential functional part of the SRS is basically the same as Anki, you are shown a card and then you rate how difficult it was to answer, then the program spaces that card for an appropriate amount of time. The problem was, although the settings for Mnemosyne are completely flexible, I found myself changing all of them to be more like Anki. Out of the download, Mnemosyne has you only practice on 5 cards you’ve failed at a time. This is just too few to go from short-term to long-term memory. You have to change it to 7-10, or else you’ll just memorize something from seeing it a bunch of times in a row and then forget it later, which defies the point of SRS. I like the Anki model better in this regard, I think it has it ready to go as soon as you download.

Authenticity: N/A

You should know this by now.

Quantity of Knowledge: 4

You don’t get this product for the bells and whistles, cause there really aren’t any. If you want stats, get Anki.

Price: 10

This one’s free too, way to go internet.

Fun: 6

I don’t quite know why, but this feels more like a tool, like a dictionary, than a fun program like Anki. Maybe it’s the sharp angles or the bland color scheme, but using Mnemosyne feels like you’re using regular old flash cards.

Overall: 7/Doesn’t Matter

I just really didn’t like it that much. I realize it’s fully customizable which is why I didn’t give it a lower score, but I just don’t see anything it has over Anki. I feel like I’ve said this a thousand times though, but make a really good deck. That’s all that matters. You can find a bunch of good sample decks to try out here, and they can be imported into either Mnemosyne or Anki. But don’t only use them. Make your own. You can do it.

But I admit, the true test of an SRS is over months, not days and I’ve only been going for days. To see another review of Mnemosyne, click here .

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