Editing Openai/6932fed8-c6a8-8000-8477-1049d95cb85e (section)

===== 5.1. Handling leeches (what to do with those nightmare cards) =====

I’d treat a card as a leech if either:
* ≥ 8 lapses, or
* ≥ 40 reviews with again rate ≥ 40% and final interval still ≤ ~7 days.

You currently have ~40–50 such cards.

For those:
# Suspend from the main flow. Don’t keep hammering them in normal reviews. Tag them as leech and bury/suspend.
# Rebuild the card with more cues. For example: - Add a short Japanese sentence showing a clear context. - Add a very short meaning or keyword (even just in English or your native language). - Add a little hint about the kanji (“解 = to untie / explain”, “警 = warn”, etc.).
# Break big confusion sets apart. For things like: - 性格 vs 正確 vs 正解 - 解放 vs 解決 vs 回復 Make a mini note outside Anki where you: - write each word, an example, and a distinct explanation, - maybe create one comparison card like: > Front: 「‘solve a problem’ = ？」 > Back: 解決する > and one like: > Front: 「‘free prisoners’ = ？」 > Back: 解放する
# Re-introduce them slowly, not all at once. Once you’ve rebuilt, drip them back in at 1–2 per day max, and only when you have mental bandwidth.
# If a leech still won’t die, accept “passive only”. Maybe you treat some words as: - okay to understand in reading (you’ll get them from context), - but not worth mastering as active recall right now. For those, it’s totally fine to keep them only in immersion/reading and drop the card.