The question is not which pack of words to drill next — the algorithm handles that. The real issues is knowing whether I'm keeping up, and when to add new material the current learning.

If you're learning Chinese, you've heard of HSK. HSK (Hànyǔ Shuǐpíng Kǎoshì, 汉语水平考试, "Chinese Proficiency Test") is the only official standardized test for Mandarin Chinese proficiency, administered by the Chinese Ministry of Education. It's the Chinese equivalent of TOEFL/IELTS for English.

You need HSK for:

I'm a software engineer learning Chinese. I started learning two years ago. First streak was 300+ days. My current attempt is 250+ daily lessons and counting. It's a comforting illusion.

In this blog I'm going to break out of the neat bubble created by some of the popular language apps and start building a system that pushes me to make real progress instead of just making me feel good.