Comments on: Genius Review

By: dc

dc — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 20:06:44 +0000

Well, I do agree with the reviewer in regards to Genius simplicity. HOWEVER, this is the best application I have ever used for studying. I took three Art History Classes where we had to remember the year, tittle, period, artist, style, etc. of paintings; and I have to say, if it wasn’t for this program, I don’t know how I would had done, (I got an A on all of them).

By: piminnowcheez

piminnowcheez — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 18:33:26 +0000

Genius is the only one of the reviewed applications with which I have extensive experience. I have just recently started fishing around for other applications in order to make up for the few shortcomings that bother me about Genius. By and large, I agree with Paul; generally, I quite like Genius and find it very easy to use. But the font size is a killer: learning kanji is impossible and even some of the kana were challenging (perhaps my eyes are older than Paul’s). Also, entering new cards can be a real pain in the ass if you want to cover production, recognition, and pronunciation. My approach has been to make a separate card for each version and use the Group field for identifying and sorting which one I want to focus on. (the ‘group’ field, by the way, DOES show up on the card during review; this is a mistake in the post) So I’m naturally very interested in a feature like Anki’s where one entry in the ‘Japanese’ card template will generate two cards that cover production, recognition, and reading in one go.

Managing sets hasn’t been an issue for me; multiple deck files in a folder works just fine and lets me focus on whichever group I’m most interested in with no problem. One small UI feature that I really value is the auditory feedback — different sounds for a right vs. wrong answer. It might seem like a small thing, but involving multiple sensory modalities is always an aid to learning.

By: paul

paul — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 01:41:25 +0000

i have to say, this is by far my favorite flashcard app. i have tried a bunch of others, but this one has by far the best interval recall algorithm. that alone makes all the rest a no for me. i dont care about the stats, charts or customization. it already works. the rest are almost too flexible, and the ones i tried could not, no matter what my custom setting, match the algorithm at work in genius.

the stats do show me what i know and what i don’t know yet. there is nothing more i need to be aware of then that.

and, on the fill in the blank statement – i never fill in the blank, i just hit return, see the answer – if i got it right i hit yes, if i got it wrong i hit no – takes no time, and the interval algorithm takes over from there – i can study super fast this way. again, faster then any other app i tried.

as far as managing sets – it is more then simple enough to make a new set, drag selected cards from one big set into a smaller new set. simple.

though, i do have one giant complaint – the font is too small, and no way to change the font size. sadly, this make kanji study almost impossible (the simple kana are fine). with this fixed, i would never look at another flashcard app again!

By: Marc Heusser

Marc Heusser — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 11:38:34 +0000

As a medical student I have to disagree with the comment that it is not suited for long term learning – quite to the contrary I have found the built-in algorithms to match the human mind very well. Learning thousands of complex facts with Genius is the best method I have found up to date – short of actual practice on a body.