Zizzle: exceptional mnemonics with abysmal SRS

Zizzle uses mnemonics to teach Chinese characters.  Their system is quite ingenious - but also has its weaknesses.  For each character, Zizzle has devised a short, clever story to help you remember its meaning, pronunciation, and tone.  Lessons are short and can easily be fit into the spare moments of your day.  

Here, for example, is how they teach you the word "shou".

Well, it kind of looks like a hand... sort of?

Note how they cleverly integrate the pronunciation into the story.  But Zizzle never automatically says the words aloud for you - you have to push a button if you want to hear the sound.  Hearing the word is very helpful to learning it.  

  

Each tone is associated with a different "hero" (turtle, fox, dragon, bulldog, and bamboo stick). Since the dragon was in the story, we remember that "shou" uses the third tone.

This page of info is nearly useless; there's no way to remember all this.

Note how the test is a multiple choice, and that you only have 4 choices.  

But now... how to retain what you've just learned?  Mnemonics make it easier to remember (much the same as as song makes memorization easier) - but spaced repetition is still necessary to lock the memories into your brain.

Zizzle claims to have an SRS flashcard system built in.  If only it worked properly!

Note how the first part of the test shows you the character and asks you about the pronunciation.  But rather than making you remember it from scratch, they give you 4 choices.  

And then they ask you to remember a character.  But since you've just seen the character on the previous card, remembering it is easy.  Zizzle should have scrambled the cards to make remembering  more difficult.  

Unlike better SRS systems, Zizzle gives you no way to specify how hard remembering the word was for you.  

In the end, Zizzles's SRS system completely failed to accurately track which words I needed to review and which I didn't.  

If Zizzle were free, I would still recommend it.  But it costs between $5 to $10 a month, depending on subscription length.  That's way overpriced.  If Zizzle fixes their SRS system, it would be worth it.  

Want to know what tools I do recommend?