I have a terrible habit when it comes to studying Japanese in that I spend more time looking at my PDA rather than the printed vocabulary sheets that I have. Unfortunately, this has meant that my study is light-years behind where it should be … so it’s time to solve the problem the best way I know how: with software.

A little while ago I had written about some of the problems I’ve had with SuperMemo … the main one being that the company has taken my money and refuses to give me a licence key. So, rather than just bitch and moan about things I can’t control, I decided it was time that I wrote my own version of the application. And here it is: QuickStudy.

A Small Initial Feature List

QuickStudy currently has about 14 hours of coding behind it. It’s something I quickly put together with the goal of building more into it over the next few weeks and months. Currently, the application works on Windows Mobile 5 and 6, and quite possibly Windows Mobile 2003 devices (I haven’t had time to test it, yet). The one thing that I’m not too happy with at the moment is the fact that you need to have the .NET Compact Framework 3.5 software installed. I’ll be eliminating this need in the near future, however, this was the fastest way for me to develop the code.

For the moment the application will do the following:

  • Import Quiz Question/Answer data from XML files
  • Allow Create/Edit of Quizzes manually
  • Randomize Questions
  • Allow for Swap of Questions and Answers
  • One-Handed Operation (for those standing-on-the-subway trips)
  • Allows for over 65,000 Quizzes with 2.1-billion Questions … each (take that every other product on the market!)

There are a few other functions that currently work in the background … but they don’t fully work at the moment, so there’s little point mentioning them. So, on that note, here’s how you install it!

Installation:

Copy the QuickStudy.cab file to your PDA, either by memory card or through ActiveSync

Run the application from the PDA. It will ask if you want to install, please say “yes”.

Running the Application for the First Time:

In the Program Menu, you’ll see QuickStudy somewhere mid-way down. Double-click this file and you’ll be greeted with a message box asking if you’d like to create the initial database. This really shouldn’t be a “Yes/No”, because the application will not run without it … but you have the option to say “No” and close the program if you wish.

Creating the database will take about 15 seconds (depending on the speed of your PDA), and then you’ll be met with a relatively simple blank screen. Open the Import screen by following the pictures, and then select one of the four Japanese Language Proficiency Test Level files. There are over 8,000 words in total, and I’m sure this will have some words that’ll challenge anyone but the very fluent.

Once this is done, you can hit “Done” and load the Quiz to begin your study!

I’ll have some better documentation for this in a few days, as I get the feeling I’m rambling horribly.

So, on that note, I hope there are some people out there that will find QuickStudy to be a useful education tool! If you have any problems with it whatsoever (remember that it’s an Alpha release), don’t hesitate to contact me at: jason[at]j2fi.net.

Download QuickStudy

Final Notes:

In order to use this application you will need a device running Windows Mobile 5 or 6, and has the Microsoft .NET Compact Framework 3.5 installed. 10 MB of storage space is suggested, but the application requires only 380 KB for installation and the minimal database. In order to view the Japanese characters encoded in the XML file (and which get imported into the database), your PDA will need to support Japanese Characters. You can get a great application to do this from CE-Star.