When to Press Again on a Flashcard (and When Got It Is Fair)
Decide what counts as a correct answer before you flip, then grade honestly: blanks, partial readings, guesses and hinted answers are Again. Slow but complete recall can pass.
Inku editorial team · · 4 min read
Press Again when you could not produce the full answer before you looked: you went blank, you got part of it wrong, you guessed, or you needed a hint. Press Got it only when you recalled the whole answer yourself and would trust it outside the app. The most important step happens before you flip: decide what a correct answer is while the front is still showing.
Decide what counts before you flip
Most grading mistakes happen after the card turns over. The answer appears, it looks familiar, and you feel that you basically knew it. Recognizing an answer is easier than recalling it, so that feeling is a poor guide.
Set a pass condition for each deck and keep it. For a vocabulary card that shows a kanji word, a sensible rule is “say the reading and give one meaning before I flip.” Take 高い. The answer side shows たかい (takai), “tall, expensive.” If you said たかい and “expensive,” you passed. If you knew the meaning but could not say the word, you did not.
The Anki manual's guide to answer buttons gives a practical test for partial answers: if the answer would count as a failure in a real situation, count it as a failure in review too.
Five moments that call for Again
- Nothing came. You flipped, saw the answer, and thought “oh, right.” That is still a miss.
- Right meaning, wrong sound. You knew 学校 means “school” but said がこう instead of がっこう (gakkou). The small っ is part of the word, so the reading was wrong.
- Half of a long vowel. You read 大きい as おきい. The word is おおきい (ookii), with a long お.
- A lucky guess. You chose between two readings you half remembered and picked the right one. You did not know which one was correct.
- You needed a hint. You heard the audio, saw the romaji, or peeked first. You answered an easier question than the card asked.
That last point matters in tools with an audio button. If you play the sound before you answer, you are testing listening, not reading. That can be useful practice, but grade it as what it was.
What about slow but correct answers?
Four-button apps such as Anki have a Hard button for answers that were correct but took a long time or came with doubt. The Anki deck options guide is explicit that Hard is a passing grade. If you forgot the answer, use Again, not Hard.
A two-button tool has no middle option. The Anki manual's advice for people who use only two buttons is simple: Again for incorrect answers, the passing button for correct ones. Inku's free browser flashcards are stricter and suggest pressing Again if you hesitated.
In that tool, the stricter choice costs little. Got it removes the card from the current session. Again puts it back after up to four other cards, so you meet it again within a few cards. For a new card, one more look while it is fresh is usually worth it. Once the answer comes back slowly but surely, Got it is a fair grade.
Why an honest grade matters more than a kind one
A scheduler only knows what you tell it. Systems such as FSRS estimate how well you know each card from your grades. The Anki deck options guide warns that pressing Hard when you actually forgot makes all intervals unreasonably long.
The two mistakes are not equal. An unnecessary Again costs one extra review. An unearned pass sends the card away just when it needed to come back, and you may meet it again only after it has faded.
Inku's browser tool keeps this simple. Each grade raises or lowers that card's saved strength in your browser, and weaker cards come first in your next session. The grade you give today decides what you see first next time.
When you keep pressing Again on the same card
Grading is a decision you make in the moment. If the same card earns Again day after day, the card itself may be the problem. The guide to a Japanese flashcard you keep forgetting covers how to repair or retire it. For the wider habit of honest ratings and a sensible number of new cards, see the spaced repetition mistake.
Try the rule on one short deck
Open the JLPT N5 starter deck in Inku's browser flashcards. Before each flip, say the reading and one meaning out loud. Then grade by the rule: the full answer from memory is Got it, anything less is Again. The deck has 24 cards, needs no account, and saves progress only in that browser.
Sources
- Anki Manual: Studying (answer buttons) — Again for incorrect or partially correct answers that would fail in real life; Hard for correct but slow or doubtful answers; two-button use with Again and Good. (checked 2026-10-15)
- Anki Manual: Deck Options (FSRS) — Hard is a passing grade; pressing Hard when you forgot makes FSRS intervals unreasonably high. (checked 2026-10-15)
- Inku: Free Japanese flashcards — Two grading buttons, the advice to press Again after hesitation, missed cards returning after up to four cards, weaker cards first next session, 24-card N5 starter deck, browser-only progress. (checked 2026-10-15)
Prepared by our editorial team with AI assistance. Product details are checked against the sources below.