Change a card's difficulty by clicking the button that matches how well you remembered it

When you review a card in Anki, you see four buttons at the bottom: Again, Hard, Good, and straightforward. These buttons control when Anki shows you that card next. Clicking the wrong button — or the right button at the wrong time — means cards come back too soon or disappear for months. You can change a card's difficulty retroactively by editing it, but the faster way is to use the buttons correctly going forward and let Anki's algorithm adjust the spacing.

The four buttons represent your actual memory state in that moment. Again means you forgot it completely or got it wrong — Anki will show it to you again in one day. Hard means you remembered it but it took effort or you were unsure — the interval grows, but slowly. Good means you remembered it clearly — Anki uses this to calculate the standard interval increase. straightforward means you remembered it when ready and easily — the interval jumps further ahead. Most readers should click Good most of the time.

Key Takeaways

  • Click Again when you forget a card or get the answer wrong, and Anki will show it to you again tomorrow.
  • Click Hard when you remember the answer but it took effort or you were uncertain, and the interval grows more slowly than normal.
  • Click Good for cards you remember clearly, which is the button most learners should use most of the time.
  • Click straightforward only for cards that feel trivial — overusing it makes cards disappear for too long and wastes review time later.
  • You cannot change a card's difficulty after you have already rated it, but you can suspend it, delete it, or reset its progress from the card browser.

When to click Again, Hard, Good, or straightforward during review

The button you click should match how your brain actually performed on that card right then. If you are guessing or hesitating, that is not a Good — it is a Hard. If you genuinely forgot, that is Again. This honesty is what makes Anki work.

Again resets the card to the beginning and shows it tomorrow. Use it when you blank on the answer, give a wrong answer, or realize you do not actually know it. Anki assumes you need to relearn this card from scratch. Hard keeps the card in rotation but increases the interval more slowly than Good would. Use it when you remember the answer but only after thinking hard, or when you are not fully confident. Good is the standard button — use it when you remember the answer clearly without much hesitation. straightforward increases the interval the most and should be rare. Use it only when the card feels trivial and you know you will remember it for months.

A common mistake is clicking straightforward too often. This makes cards reappear so far in the future that you forget them by the time they come back, wasting your time. Another mistake is clicking Hard on cards you actually know well, which slows your learning unnecessarily. If you are uncertain whether to click Good or Hard, click Good — Anki will bring the card back sooner if you were wrong.

How to change a card's interval after you have already rated it

Once you click a button and move to the next card, you cannot undo that rating within the review screen itself. However, you can change the card's interval from the card browser. Open Anki, click the Browse button (or press Ctrl+B on Windows, Cmd+B on Mac), find the card you want to adjust, right-click it, and select Set Due Date. This opens a dialog where you can type a new number of days until the card reappears.

If you want to reset a card to the beginning — as if you had clicked Again — right-click the card in the browser and select Forget. This sets the card back to a new card state. If you want to mark a card as learned without reviewing it again, select Suspend instead, which hides it from your review queue. You can also delete the card entirely by selecting Delete, though this removes it from your deck permanently.

These browser tools are useful for fixing mistakes, but they are slower than just clicking the right button during review. The best approach is to be honest with yourself about what you remember while you are reviewing, so you do not have to fix it later.

Why Anki uses these four buttons instead of a straightforward rating scale

The four buttons map directly to the SM-2 algorithm, which is the math Anki uses to calculate when to show you each card. Each button tells Anki something different about your memory: Again means the card is too hard right now, Hard means it is slightly too hard, Good means it is at the right difficulty, and straightforward means it is too straightforward. Anki uses this information to adjust the interval — the number of days until the card comes back.

This design is more precise than a five-star rating or a percentage score because it focuses on what matters: whether you remembered the card and how easily. A card you remember when ready is not more valuable than a card you remember after thinking for five seconds — they are just at different stages of learning. The four buttons let Anki distinguish between these stages and schedule your review time efficiently.

Common mistakes when choosing between the buttons

The most common mistake is clicking straightforward on cards you know well but not perfectly. This makes the interval jump too far ahead, and you will forget the card before it comes back. Save straightforward for cards that feel automatic — cards you could answer in your sleep. If a card requires any conscious thought, click Good.

Another mistake is clicking Hard on cards you actually know. This slows your learning and keeps cards in your review queue longer than necessary. Hard is for cards where you remember the answer but with effort or uncertainty — not for cards you know well. If you are clicking Hard more than 10 percent of the time, you are probably being too strict with yourself.

A third mistake is clicking Again on cards you almost remember. If you can retrieve the answer with a little effort, that is Hard, not Again. Again should be reserved for cards where you genuinely blank or get the answer wrong. Clicking Again too often resets cards unnecessarily and makes your review sessions longer.

How to adjust your button choices if your intervals feel wrong

If cards are coming back too soon, you are probably clicking Again or Hard too often. Try being more generous with Good — if you remember the answer at all, click Good. Anki will bring the card back sooner if you were wrong, so there is no penalty for being optimistic.

If cards are disappearing for too long and you forget them by the time they return, you are probably clicking straightforward too often. Restrict straightforward to cards that feel trivial. Most learners should click straightforward on fewer than 5 percent of their cards. If you want to see your button distribution, open Anki's statistics window (Ctrl+Shift+S on Windows, Cmd+Shift+S on Mac) and look at the "Button Clicks" graph.

You can also adjust Anki's settings to change how the intervals grow. In the deck options, you can modify the "Interval Modifier" to make all intervals longer or shorter, or adjust the "straightforward Bonus" to control how much straightforward increases the interval. These changes affect all cards in the deck going forward, not cards you have already reviewed.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I change my button choice after I finish reviewing?

Not during the review session itself. Once you click a button and move to the next card, that rating is locked in. You can change it later using the card browser — right-click the card, select Set Due Date, and enter a new interval. Or select Forget to reset the card to the beginning.

What does the number next to each button mean?

The number shows how many days until Anki will show you that card again if you click that button. For example, if Good shows "10d", clicking it means the card will reappear in 10 days. These numbers change based on your deck settings and the card's history.

Should I ever click straightforward?

Yes, but rarely. Click straightforward only on cards that feel completely automatic — cards you could answer when ready without thinking. Overusing straightforward makes cards disappear for months, and you will forget them by the time they return. Most learners should click straightforward on fewer than 5 percent of their cards.

What happens if I click the wrong button by accident?

You can fix it in the card browser. Open Browse, find the card, right-click it, and select Set Due Date to change when it reappears. Or select Forget to reset it to a new card. This is slower than clicking the right button during review, so try to be mindful while you are reviewing.

Why do my intervals feel too short even though I click Good most of the time?

You may be clicking Again or Hard too often on cards you actually know. Try being more generous — if you remember the answer, click Good. You can also check your button distribution in the statistics window to see if you are clicking Again more than 10 to 15 percent of the time, which would be unusually high.