optimizing vocabulary learning using google sheets

Apparently, IB Spanish B will turn out to be very hard. According to my teacher, it is because all the cough cough kids who gets called papi everyday by abuelas in their grocery stores and who lives in an environment where no es bueno, hombre and such are abundant. Hence, to up my Spanish game this year (admittedly, my efforts slipped by the latter half of last year), I decided to use google sheets to optimize my vocabulary learning. The product is a system where vocabulary are manually entered in to a raw sheet and can then be searched and referred to by a single criterion or multiple criteria. The document can be used to generate a list of vocabulary for topic-specific revision, finding specific types of vocabulary across the syllabus or in a unit, and also as a general knowledge base.

Raw Inputs

First, input vocabulary and their English translation into the first two columns. While the attribute section calls for noun/adjective attributes of words, other columns can be adapted for your own purposes. This must be done manually

Autogen Vocab List

Use the filter command to generate a specific list of vocabulary. Only matches one criterion.

 
	=FILTER(Raw!A:A,Raw!D:D=D1)

Multiple Conditions

This one is more complicated. The important thing was telling google sheets to account for the input entered in the filter-by bars only if it’s not blank. I used a mix of if functions and is blank functions, however there must be a way to write Raw!A:A=Raw!A:A more easily. Let me know if I could make the code slimmer here.

In all cases, the vocabulary is generated by as many criterion as you need.

 
	=FILTER(Raw!A:A,if(isblank($B$2)=FALSE,Raw!$B:$B=$B$2,Raw!A:A=Raw!A:A),if(isblank($C$2)=FALSE,Raw!$C:$C=$C$2,Raw!A:A=Raw!A:A),if(isblank($D$2)=FALSE,Raw!$D:$D=$D$2,Raw!A:A=Raw!A:A),if(isblank($E$2)=FALSE,Raw!$E:$E=$E$2,Raw!A:A=Raw!A:A),if(isblank($F$2)=FALSE,Raw!$F:$F=$F$2,Raw!A:A=Raw!A:A),if(isblank($G$2)=FALSE,isblank(Raw!$G:$G)=false,Raw!A:A=Raw!A:A))

Index

An index of all topics studied so far can be easy generated by

 
	=UNIQUE(Raw!C:C)

As implied, all functions can be adapted to fit as many extra conditions the vocabulary might have in the raw table. This sheet can be used to study any language and any set of vocabulary, really. Once the vocabulary matching your criterion is found, they can be thus copied into another sheets document for export to Quizlet or other applications. Ojalá que esta máquina salvare mis notas en español.