Alternative HSK4 decks for StickyStudy

January 23, 2019

I found learning new vocabulary for HSK 3 and particularly HSK 4 to be a rather large task, due to the sheer number of new words. The default decks that come with StickyStudy for these levels have 300 and 600 words respectively.

But if you're working through the HSK "Standard Course" textbooks then the vocabulary is divided up chapter by chapter and is a bit more manageable, so after some schlepping and grepping I've split the default StickyStudy HSK 4 decks into bite-sized options:

One deck for each chapter, containing about 30 words each.
One deck for every four chapters, 5 in total, with around 120 words each.

HSK 4 Standard Text is 20 chapters split across 2 books, 4上 and 4 下, listed in option 1 as 4A and 4B.

From using these myself I think the one-deck-per-chapter option is useful for rapid learning as you approach each new chapter, but the SRS algorithm doesn't work so well for such a small number of "stickies" (flashcards)... I was seeing the same sticky repeated sometimes.

Hence the one-deck-per-4-chapters option, which gives you a longer gap before you see the same sticky again. These are probably better for revision rather than preparation, but use them however you see fit.

(Using both at the same time is probably going to mess up the SRS magic, but on the other hand if you've learned them you've learned them, which is what counts after all.)

The developer of StickyStudy Justin Nightingale has given his blessing for me to share these decks, so here they are: see zip files attached below.

Installation A: if you have iCloud Drive set up on your Mac

Unzip the relevant zip file(s) and you'll see one txt file for each deck
In the Finder, copy the txt files you want to use into the iCloud Drive > StickyStudy Chinese folder (see screen grab below)
Start up StickyStudy on your iOS device and it should sync with iCloud and pick up the new decks