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Reading: FSRS Settings
You’re running into a classic “review overload” problem with FSRS + a big AnKing deck. A few concrete things you can do right away to bring the load down before boards:
1. Stop adding any new cards
You’ve mostly done this, but double‑check for all related presets:
- For every AnKing / subdeck preset you’re using (high‑yield, low‑yield, etc.):
- Go to the deck →
→ Options → Daily Limits
- Set New cards/day = 0 (Today only and in the preset if needed).
- Make sure you don’t have another deck feeding new cards into the same session.
This prevents “hidden” new cards from sneaking in and adding to future reviews.
2. Lower your Maximum reviews/day (temporarily)
With boards in 6 weeks, you care more about not burning out than clearing every last old card.
For each preset you’re using:
- Deck → → Options → Daily Limits
- Set Maximum reviews/day to something sustainable (example values):
- High‑yield deck: 350–450/day
- Lower‑yield deck(s): 100–200/day or even less
- This will cause a red “due” number to accumulate, but it will cap what you actually see each day.
FSRS will still schedule optimally within the reviews you do.
3. Make low‑yield material less frequent
Since you already split high‑yield vs low‑yield, you can aggressively relax the low‑yield side:
For the low‑yield preset only:
- In FSRS section, if you used “Help Me Decide,” click Optimize Preset again with:
- Lower target retention, e.g. 80% → 75% (or even 70%)
This increases intervals and reduces how often those cards come back.
- Alternatively, you can:
- Use Custom Study → Increase new/review interval on low‑yield decks to push many of them out beyond your exam.
- Or temporarily suspend very low‑yield tags (e.g., rare bugs, super esoteric facts).
4. Why do new cards become “Review” immediately?
With FSRS, once a card passes the learning phase, it usually doesn’t show again as “Learning” the next day—it quickly becomes a “Review” card even if the interval is short. That’s normal behavior with FSRS:
- FSRS doesn’t rely on long learning steps the way old Anki did.
- Your Learning steps (you show 15m) only affect the same‑day / very short follow‑up. Once it passes those, it’s a review card.
So the “instantly review” behavior isn’t causing your overload by itself; the overload is mainly the total number of mature cards coming due plus previously unlocked cards.
5. Focus on what matters most for the next 6 weeks
A practical prioritization strategy:
- High‑yield deck(s)
- Keep them active.
- Retention target around 80–85% is fine.
- Medium/low‑yield deck(s)
- Lower retention (75% or less), increase intervals, or suspend lowest‑yield tags/cards.
- If your daily load is still >500–600 after changes, further:
- Drop low‑yield deck reviews to 50–100/day.
- Accept that some non‑critical material won’t be perfect before the exam.
6. AnkiHub / AnKing‑specific checks
Since you’re on AnKing + AnkiHub:
- Make sure you aren’t auto‑unsuspending large tag groups (e.g., via the AnKing browser presets) right now.
- If you recently updated the AnkiHub deck, check if:
- You resuspended big sections (like Zanki extras, low‑yield tags) that may have been unsuspended during a merge.
If you’re comfortable sharing, post:
- A screenshot of Stats → Today → Review count graph (last 30 days)
- Your exact FSRS target retention and presets for high‑ vs low‑yield decks
With that, we can suggest more specific numbers (e.g., exact review caps and retention settings) tailored to your situation and boards timeline.
