I am wondering how to use these three options effectively. Is there an existing thread that explains the differences among these options and what strategies one could adopt?
My assumption is that:
Ignore means the sentence is removed entirely / hidden and not counted towards any stats, meaning it will be removed even from “Playing” (have not tested this theory, so confirmation would be appreciated).
Mark as Known marks the word as “Mastered” with a review date in year 2100. It still counts towards number of words “Mastered”
Mastered sets the sentence at 100% mastered, and the sentence then follows the regular review schedule for 100% mastered words
(Initially I thought Remove from Review (the option that is available under the % mastered bar in the edit box) was similar to Ignore but I saw in another thread that it means the sentence is reset and whatever % mastered becomes zero)
Would you agree that the best way to remove the sentences that I don’t need to review again (e.g., Bonjour!) is to use the Mark As Known button rather than the Ignore button? I recently learned that the “Ignore all” option which appears when you click the Ignore button allows you to ignore all sentences that contain the same missing word from that collection, which seems efficient for words that couldn’t be different in different contexts, again like bonjour.
Any strategies or thoughts would be helpful and appreciated!
I use the “Mark As Known” button for words I know and don’t want to review, the “Ignore” button for words that I don’t necessarily know but that are contained in sentences I don’t want to review, and the “Ignore All” button for words I don’t want to review in any context, whether I know them or not (because there is no “Mark All As Known” button).
The main contrasting feature of mark as known is that it stays in your collection and statistics (and even appears as a separate line item on your collection in the dashboard). If you ignore a sentence it disappears everywhere unless you search for it under manage sentences. However, you can un-ignore a sentence and its previous due date will be preserved, so you can use it to temporarily screen the contents of a collection for review without changing it; whereas if you marked it known, the due date would be indelibly overwritten; if you want to review it again you have to reset it and mark it as mastered or relearn it, but that’s not a big deal.
A lot of users seem to live and die by these buttons, to judge by the forum, but I use a very light touch on both, since I’ve periodically forgotten things I thought I knew, or subsequently become confused with synonyms, new tenses or forms of a word I’d earlier marked as known. Basically, I’ve realized my confidence is often misplaced, and I would have been better off using the review settings to significantly increase review intervals (with EASY/MEDIUM/HARD buttons) instead. If you use automatically increasing intervals, the due date will push itself out toward 2100 organically over time.