The Statistics window can most conveniently be viewed by pressing F5 (Window : Layout :
Warrior layout).
The picture below shows an exemplary Statistics window. The description
of individual fields is presented below the picture. Click the picture now to
open it in a separate window for easy comparison of fields and their
descriptions:

The caption of the
statistics window displays the name of the collection in square brackets. The
presented collection is named All.
Learning parameters displayed in
the statistics window:
-
Date - current date and the day of the week. If this
value is preceded with Night, it means that the new calendar day has already started but
the old repetition day will not start until the time defined in Options
: Learning : Midnight clock shift.
In the
example above, the picture snapshot was taken after midnight on December
15, 2006 (Friday)
- First day - date on which the learning process began
(i.e. the day on which the first element was memorized). The
exemplary collection presented in the picture has been in use since December 15, 1987 (i.e.
the birth date of SuperMemo for
DOS)
- Day - number of days in the learning process (i.e.
number of days between Date and First day).
Day=Date-First day.
The presented collection has been in use for 6941 days (i.e. 19 years
and 1 day)
- Total - the number of items, topics and tasks in
the collection. Two relationships hold true:
- Memorized+Pending+Dismissed=Total
- Topics+Items=Total (tasks are counted with
the Topics statistic)
Deleted elements do not contribute to the total count of elements in the system. In
the picture, the presented collection is made of 315,360 elements
(largest collections reported by users reached beyond a half million
elements)
- Items+Topics - the number of items and the number of topics
(and tasks) in the collection.
Items+Topics=Total.
In the example, the collection includes 115,752 items and nearly
200,000 topics (and tasks)
- Memorized - total number of elements introduced into the learning process with options such
as Learn
or Remember. If an item takes part in repetitions it is a memorized
item. It does not mean it is a remembered item. A proportion of
memorized items are always forgotten.
The
presented collection has 273,238 elements in the learning process and these
elements make up 100.0% of all elements destined to enter the learning
process, i.e. Memorized/(Memorized+Pending)=100.0. This indicates that
Pending=0 (see below)
- Memorized items - the number of memorized items in the
collection and the proportion of memorized items among memorized
elements. In the example above, 113,611 items take part in
repetitions. These items make 41.6% of all elements taking part in the
learning process (the remaining 58.4% of elements are memorized topics or
memorized tasks). The Retention field (below) indicates that
92.21% of these items should be
remembered at any given time
- Memorized topics - the number of memorized topics and the
proportion of memorized topics among all memorized elements. In a well-balanced incremental reading
process, topics should make a minority of elements served for review. If the proportion of topics
increases, the retention drops, and the learning process may gradually
start to resemble
traditional learning where ineffective passive review predominates. You
can store as many topics in your collection as you wish as long as you
make sure that you limit their review by setting appropriate repetition
sorting criteria (Learn : Sort : Sorting
criteria). In the picture, 159,627 topics make 58.4% of the material taking part in
the learning process
- Memorized/Day - number of
items memorized per day: (Memorized items)/Day. In the example, the average of
16.37 items
have been memorized daily in
the presented collection over the previous 19 years. This is typical of
an average student as long as regular reviews are executed on a daily
basis
- Pending - the number of
elements (topics or items) that have not yet been introduced into the
learning process and await memorization (with operations such as Learn, Remember,
Schedule, etc). All pending elements are kept in the so-called pending
queue that determines the sequence of learning new elements. Dismissed
elements are not
kept in the pending queue. In the example, the collection contains
no pending elements. With incremental
reading, the role of the pending queue
in SuperMemo is diminishing
- Dismissed - the number of elements (topics, items
or tasks) that have been excluded from the learning process and are kept only as reference
material, folders in the knowledge tree, or tasklist elements. Dismissed items are neither pending nor memorized.
All tasks are dismissed by default, i.e. they usually do not take part in repetitions. In
the example, over 42,000 elements have been dismissed
- Outstanding - number of
outstanding items, outstanding topics and final drill items scheduled for repetition on
this given day. The first number (before the
plus sign) indicates the number of items scheduled for this given day and not yet
processed. The second number (after the plus sign) indicates the number of
topics scheduled for review for this day. The third number (after the
second plus sign), if present, indicates the number of items that have
already been repeated today but scored less than Good (4). Those are the items that
make up the final drill queue. The final drill queue is built only if Skip
final drill is unchecked in Options. In the presented collection,
there are still 116 items scheduled for repetition on December 15, 2006.
There are also 882 topics scheduled for review on that day
as part of the incremental reading process. There are no elements in the final
drill queue (the third component of the Outstanding parameter is missing)
- Retention - estimated
average knowledge retention in the collection. Retention for high
priority items should be higher than the one listed. Retention for
low-priority items may be much lower driving the average down. To judge
upon the retention of top-priority material, see Tools
: Statistics : Analysis : Graphs : Forgetting
index vs. Priority. In the example, 92.21% of the material should be recalled in a
random test on all elements in the collection at any time. You can test your retention using random
tests and see if SuperMemo's estimates are accurate. This
statistic may be overly optimistic if you have recently abused rescheduling tools such
as Postpone or Mercy.
- Measured FI -
the value of the measured forgetting index as
recorded during repetitions. The measured forgetting index is the proportion of items not
remembered during repetitions. The number in the parentheses indicates Measured FI
for the day. Measured FI is lower than the measured forgetting
index for the entire collection due to a higher participation of
top-priority items in repetitions. It is quite usual to have Measured FI higher than Average
FI. This is due to three factors: (1) every user
will experience delays in repetitions from time to time (e.g. as a
result of using Postpone), (2)
low-priority material in the overloaded incremental
reading process is scheduled in intervals longer than optimum
intervals (3) SuperMemo imposes some
constraints on the length of intervals that, in some cases, make it schedule repetitions
later
than it would be implied by the forgetting index. The constraints in computing intervals,
for example, prevent the new interval from being shorter than the old interval
(assuming the item has not been forgotten). For low values of the forgetting index and
items with a low A-Factor, the new optimum interval might often be
shorter than the old one! Measured FI can be reset with File :
Tools : Reset parameters : Forgetting index record. In the presented example,
an average of 15.16% of item repetitions end with a grade less than Pass
(3)(since the measured forgetting index record has last been reset).
On December 15, 2006, only 4.8% of repetitions ended in failure thus far
(i.e. with a grade less than Pass)
- Average FI - the average requested
forgetting index in the entire collection (the number in
parentheses is the default forgetting index). If the forgetting index of individual elements
is not changed manually, Average FI is equal to the default forgetting index as set
in Tools : Options : Learning : Forgetting index. The
default forgetting index is the requested forgetting index given to all
categories and, as a result, to all new items added
to the collection. Forgetting index, in general, is the proportion of items that are not
remembered during repetitions. The lower the value of the forgetting index the better the
recall of the element, but the more repetitions will be needed to keep it in memory.
Optimum value of the forgetting index falls into the range from 7% to 13%. Too low
a forgetting index makes learning too tiresome due to a prohibitively large number of
repetitions. All elements can have their desired forgetting index set individually. The
easiest way to change the forgetting index of a large number of elements is to use Forgetting
index option among subset operations.
In the presented example, the average forgetting index is 10.00% while the default
forgetting index is 10%. See: Using forgetting index
- Burden -
estimation of the average number of items and topics repeated per day. This value is equal to the sum of all
interval reciprocals (i.e.
1/interval). The interpretation of this number is as follows: every item with interval of
100 days is on average repeated 1/100 times per day. Thus the sum of
interval reciprocals is
a good indicator of the total repetition workload in the collection. The presented
collection requires 190 item repetitions per day and 973 topic reviews
per day. In incremental reading, it is not unusual to have many more
elements in the process than
one can handle. Auto-postpone can be used to unload the excess of
topics as well as to reduce the load of
low-priority items. Postpone skews the Burden statistic.
Topics often crowd at lower intervals and are
regularly reshuffled with Postpone or Auto-postpone
- Burden +/- - the change of the Burden parameter
above on a given day. Here, on Dec 15, 2006, the average number of
expected daily repetitions was unchanged. The topic load
was reduced marginally. Exemplary interpretation of a burden change:
Let's say the burden dropped by 39 (burden change of -39). To reduce the burden by 39,
one would need to review 78 elements with an interval increase from 1 to 2
days (78*0.5=39). However, one could equally well execute Postpone on
2344 elements with interval increase from 10 to 12 days
(2344*(1/10-1/12)=39)
- Workload - estimation of
the average daily time used for responding
to questions in a given collection.
Workload = (Item Burden)*Avg time
In the presented collection, 190.5 item repetitions per day taking 9.39 seconds each result in a daily repetition time
estimated at 29 minutes and 48 seconds. A real learning time may be twice longer due to grading, editing, reviewing the collection and
various interruptions. In incremental reading, the learning time will
increase further due to topic review that is not taken into account in
the Workload parameter. The real learning time
may also be cut if Postpone is
used often
- Subset - number of
elements scheduled for subset review (e.g. elements in
branch repetitions in Contents : Learn,
elements in browser subset repetitions in browser's Learn, elements in the
random test queue in Tools :
Random tests, etc.).
The display may have a form of <items to do>+<topics to do>+<pending
to do>+(<subset description>) in subset review, or <elements
unprocessed>/<all elements in the test> in random tests. Here
1 element remains in subset review. No items, one topic and no pending
elements. The subset on which Learn is being executed contains
872 elements and has been generated by searching for the word "AMPA". In other words, there is still one outstanding
topic that refers to the learning subject
"AMPA" in the whole body of 872 elements
related to the AMPA receptor. In incremental
reading, subset repetitions are most often executed in the contents
window or in the browser with Learning : Learn (Ctrl+Alt+L) or
with Learning : Review. In the later case, not only outstanding
elements are reviewed. The remaining elements are subject to
mid-interval review as well
- Alarm - time left till the next alarm and the hour at which the
alarm will ring off (to learn more about alarms see: Plan).
This field is editable. To change the alarm setting, click the field and
type in the new time in minutes (e.g. 21.5 will set the alarm to sound
in 21 minutes and 30 seconds). To end editing, press Enter. In
the example, the alarm will sound off in 25 minutes and 41 seconds at
1:31:55 am
- Time - total question response time
on a given day and
the total session time (in parentheses). Here the total time needed to respond to
questions on Dec 15, 2006 was 4 minutes and 22 seconds. On the same
day, SuperMemo has been running for 51 minutes and 10 second (this value
will increase even if you simply keep SuperMemo running)
- Avg time - average response time in seconds.
This is the time that elapses between displaying the question (or equivalent) and choosing Show answer
(or
equivalent). The timer does not stop if you start editing the question
before pressing Show answer In the presented collection, the average time to answer a single question
is around 9.39 seconds. If this number grows beyond 15-20 seconds, you may
need to analyze your learning material if it is not overly difficult or
badly structured
- Total time - total time taken by responding to
questions in the collection. This time cannot be accurately measured for collections
created with SuperMemo 98 or earlier (the measurements were made possible
only in SuperMemo 99). If
you upgrade older collections, this number will roughly be
guessed for you. SuperMemo will derive this time from the total number of items, average number of
repetitions, average number of lapses, and the average repetition time. In the
presented example, answering questions during repetitions took the total
of over 122 days in 19 years of learning
- Lapses - average number of times individual
items have been forgotten in the collection (only memorized elements are averaged). The number
in parentheses shows the number of lapses on a given day. Here an average
element has been forgotten 0.314 times. On Dec 15, 2006, 4 items have
thus far been graded less than Pass (3)
- Speed - the average
knowledge acquisition rate, i.e. the number of items memorized per year per minute of
daily work. Initially this value may be as high as 100,000 items/year/minute (esp. if you
enthusiastically start working with the program before truly measuring its limitations;
or to be precise: the limitations of human memory); however, it should
later stabilize between
40 and 400 items/year/minute.
Speed=(Memorized items/Day)/Workload*365
In the presented collection, every minute of work per
day resulted in 201 new items memorized each year. As this value is
derived from Burden, it may be highly underestimated if you use Postpone
a lot (e.g. in incremental reading)
- Cost - the cost in time of memorizing a single item,
i.e. total learning time divided by the number of memorized items.
Cost = Total
time / Memorized
In the presented example, the total repetition time per single item is
1.555 minutes. In
other words, each item has contributed around 1.6 minutes to the total of non-stop
122 days of repetitions. The cost of editing, collection restructuring, incremental reading, etc. is not included in
the Cost paramter
- Daily cost - daily repetition time per each newly
memorized item.
Daily cost = Workload/(Memorized items/Day)
In the presented collection, each of the 16.36 newly memorized items per day contributes
about 1.8 minutes of repetitions (precisely 1.822 minute) to the total workload of
nearly 30 minutes per day.
As this value is derived from Burden, it may be highly
overestimated if you use Postpone a lot (e.g. in incremental
reading)
- Interval - average interval
among memorized items in the
collection. Here an average memorized item has reached the
inter-repetition interval
of 1097 days (or 3 years)
- Repetitions - average number of repetitions per
memorized item in the collection. Here an average item has been repeated
3.306 times
- Rep count - the total count of
item repetitions made in
the collection. In the presented collection, 855 thousands of item repetitions have been made.
This is about 7.5 repetitions per memorized item. That includes repetitions of items
that have been reset, forgotten, dismissed, deleted, etc.
- Last Rep - average date of the last repetition among
memorized items in the collection. Here the average date of the last repetition
is April 10, 2004
- Next Rep - average date of the next repetition among
memorized items in the collection.
Next Rep = Last Rep + Interval
Here the average date of the next repetition is Apr 12, 2007 or 1097
days after Apr 10, 2004
- Completion - the expected date on which all elements
from the pending queue will be memorized assuming the present rate of learning new items.
This parameter is particularly useful if you are memorizing large
ready-made collections such as Advanced
English. For Pending=0, the value of this field is today.
Completion=Date+(Pending/(Memorized items/Day))
A-Factor - average value of A-Factor
among memorized items in the collection. A-Factor is a measure of item difficulty. The
higher the A-Factor, the easier the item. In the presented collection, the average
A-Factor is about 3.5. This indicates that the collection is rather well-structured and
the material is thus relatively easy to remember
Comments:
- Items are added to the final drill not only during standard
repetitions when you grade an element below Good (4). Operations such as Remember
(Ctrl+M), Remember Cloze, and Add to drill (Shift+Ctrl+D)
will also add to the final drill queue. The final drill queue is
created automatically only if you uncheck Tools : Options : Learning : Skip final drill
- Some fields of the statistics window can be edited. For
example: Alarm, Measured FI, Total time, Rep count,
etc. To edit and entry, click it, type the new value and press Enter. If the
entry cannot be modified SuperMemo will warn you (e.g. "Retention entry cannot be
modified").
- See Survey 1994 and
Survey 1999 for some interesting notes about the
speed of learning reached with SuperMemo