ZYZZYVA Cardbox study
an Introduction

by Karen Richards

Topics

Introduction

In 2009, I watched youngsters competing in the World Youth Scrabble Championship and was struck by the number of players using high probability, but relatively obscure, words like ETAERIO and ANORETIC. Obviously, they had started more focused study (many of them on a computer), and the standard of play has been improving ever since. For most people, a small amount of orderly study, starting with high-probability words, will raise your tournament rating by 200 points. Adding one additional high-scoring move per game is often all you need to win. I introduced Anand Bharadwaj to Cardbox, aged 9, and he became World Youth Scrabble Champion aged 11 - an incredible feat, and I am certain Cardbox played a role.

People learn differently, so you need to choose what works best for you - some people prefer printed lists, some make up stories using weird words, some play multiple computer games, and write down new words they learn there etc. Approximately 80% find Cardbox useful. The beauty of Cardbox is that you do not spend time learning what you already know.

I overlearn words, so that I do not transpose letters/confuse with other words. If I cannot see it within 2 seconds, I mark it as “missed”. In a game, you do not want to spend ages looking for a simple word, because you need to spend time thinking about the strategy side as well.

Firstly - what is Cardbox?

In the “olden” days, we wrote a group of letters on one side of a business card, with all possible anagrams on the reverse. We tested ourselves. If we found all valid words, this card went into the “got it” pile, and we ended up with a set of “don't know” cards - the “active study” pile. Zyzzyva Cardbox works similarly, only better. If you solve the puzzle once, it moves it from Cardbox 0 to Cardbox 1, and you will not see it again for about 3 days. After 3 days, if you get it right again, it moves to Cardbox 2, and you will not see it for about 10 days. After you find the words correctly a number of times (consecutively) it stretches out the frequency of revision, so you will not see it again for 18 months (These parameters can be adjusted. Alastair found that was too infrequent, and changed it to 6 months maximum)

What device do I need for Cardbox?

It only works on a computer or laptop (Windows or Mac). Sadly, there is no equivalent on other devices. Whilst there are ways to study on other devices, for me, they are inferior — Zyzzyva does it all, from the structured memorisation, to the inclusion of hooks, alternative spellings, meanings etc - all things which can help difficult words to stick.

What words are in a Cardbox?

A Cardbox is individual - you cannot share with anyone else (if two people are using the same computer, you can log in as different users, and download it twice). What goes into a Cardbox, is what you feel you need to know. Maybe you have trouble with a vowel-heavy rack, so you might like to study all the words with 5 or 6 vowels, up to 8 letters. Or maybe you do not know the 5-letter words starting with X. Add what you want to study, but do not add too much at once. This is the biggest mistake players make.

How to study using Cardbox?

You study offline (after first downloading it from Collins Dictionary website). Ideally, spend a regular time at the computer, say 10 to 30 minutes daily (or every second day). Like learning to play a musical instrument - if you practice for 10 minutes every day, you learn better than having a 3-hour session once a week. It “trains your brain” to find words quickly.

Is there a suggested order to add words to Cardbox?

Alastair Richards devised the following as a guide only (first 6 to 12 months):

Whilst this is obviously aimed at beginners, it gives you some idea of the balance you should be having, between useful short words, and bonuses, e.g. start with twice as many 8s as 7s. If you are not emptying your Cardbox every time you do it, then you have too many words in it, and it will not work as it is designed to do.

What are the different Cardboxes?

When you add more words into Cardbox, they will be randomly mixed with the existing pool, so that a study session might have a mix of words started with X, plus words with no vowels, plus bonuses. The different Cardboxes labelled 1, 2, 3 etc indicate how many times, consecutively, you have answered correctly, so Cardbox 4 means 4 correct tests in a row.

The time schedule
(In the above example, the player has 62 letter combinations to test today, 32 of which he failed last time he tried, 7 of which he found the last time he tried, 11 of which he has found correctly the last twice, and 10 of which he has answered correctly 3 times in a row. And 2 of them have been answered correctly 4 times in a row.)

Hook quiz However, there is a separate type of Cardbox you can use, which is the HOOK Cardbox. This works by adding, for instance, all the 2s as patterns, and then testing on front and back hooks. If you tried to do this with the normal Cardbox, you would have silly things like having to solve AA, rather than focusing on what goes in front and behind AA.

To set up and find your Cardbox

  1. Go to https://scrabble.collinsdictionary.com/tools Collins Tools on web

  2. Find Zyzzyva.

  3. Choose what type of operating system you have on your computer, MacOS or Windows.

  4. Download and install

If you find that you have no meanings, alternative spellings etc, you have not correctly created the database, and still need to do so - that can take up to 20 minutes.

Set up your personal Cardbox

Decide what is a priority for you. I will use, as an example, the set OTARINE+1 (highest probability 8s, and only a small group to learn first)

  1. Create a list of those words: Open Zyzzyva, click on (or the magnifying glass).

    Search lens
    There is a box, with anagram match next to it.


  2. Type in OTARINE. or OTARINE? (note that either “.” or “?” can be used to indicate a blank)

  3. Hit

  4. You should now have a list of 31 words (12 different anagrams) of OTARINE plus one more letter.

alt_text
  1. On the large screen with all the words and meanings, right click your mouse anywhere on the right of this screen, and you will get a dropdown menu showing 6 options, including PRINT LIST. The option you need to choose is called ADD LIST TO CARDBOX. Click on that.
Right click then Add list to cardbox
  1. You will now get a confirmation box showing what you are about to add to Cardbox (i.e. 31 words). At the bottom, click . You now have 12 questions in your Cardbox.
Adding to Cardbox 0

These steps need to be done only once. If you later add an overlapping list, e.g. 50 highest probability 8s, it will not affect the original list. You will not have double entries, e.g. for AERATION.

  1. Access your Cardbox (offline) - should be done regularly!

  2. Open or click on the (question mark)

  3. The third box says STANDARD. If you click on arrow to the right, you will see a dropdown menu with Cardbox. Choose Cardbox.

  4. Then check at the bottom.

    You need to do this step every time you want to study.

If you have done this correctly, you will have some anagrams to test - it should show, bottom left, that you have 12 questions.

Work your way through these, by typing in answers you know, then CHECK ANSWERS for those you do not know. If you get them correct, they will tell you that the next time you will be tested will be 3, 4, or 5 days. If you get it wrong, it will show 1 day.

Continue until you have answered all questions, then come back tomorrow, when you will have fewer to solve. Maybe add a few more, if you think you can cope (i.e. you can empty it every day)

Rescheduling

If you leave your study for a few days, or weeks, and come back to an overwhelming number of questions, it is best to just move all questions back a number of days (e.g. if you missed 20 days, move them 20 days). To do this, choose at the top, and select Reschedule Cardbox Contents - then choose to reschedule by this many days, e.g. 20.

If you have worked through them fast, and need more questions, you can bring them forward, e.g. choose “shift words so this many are ready now”, and then add, say, 100 - in the same area (Tools).

Shift by eg 20 days back or add eg 100 words

Flashcards

Because I am a lousy typist, the typing option is too slow for me. Therefore, I use mode on the bottom left of the screen where your actual questions come up. This way, you can just mark as Missed, if you cannot recall all combos quickly. (To move very fast, keep one finger on the ENTER key, and one on the M key, for “Missed”)

I know I missed

Updating your Cardbox

When there are not enough words each day, add some more. For the average person, best to add between 50 to 100 at once, then add more a few days later if all is under control. I add to my Cardbox after each tournament - words that I have missed during a game, or interesting words that my opponent has played. I have already half-learned these, so a few more exposures in Cardbox, and I will have them for life.

How to make lists

You need to play around with all the options shown in the dropdown menu - for instance, to get a list of words without vowels, choose “number of vowels is 0”, always check the words lengths (e.g. if you want 8 letter words, put both minimum and maximum as 8). You can be specific, e.g. to find 5-letter words starting in X, you chose Pattern, then X.... or X???? If you want some fun, you can look for things like all words ending in MAN, by choosing Pattern *MAN (to find every single word, from 4 letters to 15, which end in MAN) or ?????MAN (if you only want 8 letter words).

Final note

I hope this helps to unravel the mystery. Once you master this, you will find Cardbox an excellent structured way to study!