Again, Hard, Good, Easy: what the Anki buttons mean

Published August 28, 2026 · DeckLearn USA

Anki works best when the answer button reflects how well you recalled the card. The goal is not to force a long interval or keep the review count low. The scheduler can only adapt well if your rating is honest.

Again: you failed to recall it

Press Again when the answer was wrong, missing, or only became obvious after you revealed the back of the card.

Recognition after seeing the answer is not the same as successful recall.

Hard: you got it, but recall was unusually difficult

Use Hard when you genuinely retrieved the answer but only after substantial effort, uncertainty or a long delay.

Hard should describe the quality of recall, not your opinion that the next interval “looks too long.”

Good: normal successful recall

Good is the normal answer for a card you remembered correctly with a reasonable amount of effort. For many learners, this becomes the most common rating.

Easy: the answer was clearly effortless

Use Easy when recall is immediate and confident, with essentially no meaningful struggle. It should not be a shortcut for “I want to see this card less often.”

Do not rate cards based on the interval

It is tempting to look at the proposed next review and choose the button that produces the interval you want. That works against the purpose of spaced repetition. The buttons should describe your memory performance; the scheduler handles timing.

What if a card keeps getting Again?

Repeated failure can mean the material is too difficult, the card is ambiguous, or you are trying to memorize too much at once. Improve the card or the underlying understanding instead of only pressing the same button indefinitely.

For language learning, context helps

Sentence cards with audio and meaning usually give your memory more structure than isolated word pairs. They also make it easier to judge whether you actually recalled the language or only recognized a translation.