I used to review and add a few cards almost every day. I got up to 1000 kanji but started getting very busy with school. At that point I didn't have time to make progress, but kept up my reviews and got almost all 1000 of them to the 4+ reviews pile. I started going longer and longer without reviewing as I got increasingly busy with other things. Now I am in a very sad situation where 900+ of those have expired. I would guess it has been about 4-6 months since I have done any reviewing!

Now that I'm on winter break from school, I'm hoping to get back into things. I tried to review from the expired stack but am finding that I cannot recall the stories from the keyword alone. Once I see the kanji, the stories start coming back to me, but ultimately I see these cards once and then they get sent to the failed pile where I won't see them again for a very long time. This is not an effective method for reviewing.

I ask of you all, what is the best way to refresh my memory and get things back on track? Thanks.

IMO, you don't want to have a lot of kanji in your "failed kanji" stack. So, don't review (and fail) more than you can clear out of there. But as you say, as soon as you see the kanji, the story comes back. So, you've "relearned" that kanji, maybe, and you can then write it from the keyword and click the "learned", button. You'll see it again in a day or so.

So, that's my advice. Review until you fail some small finite number. I'd pick 10 or so. You maybe can handle more in the time you've got available. Then "skip to the summary", and then study the failed kanji for the time you have left to put into it for that day.

From then on, clear the expired stacks in the lower levels first (hopefully you'll be remembering 90% of those). Then add enough failed kanji from that right most column until you've got enough to relearn for the day. Then study and try to clear out the failed kanji.

IMO, it doesn't pay to add any new kanji while you've still got too many to review all the expired and failed kanji for a day. And with the various rhythms sometimes peaking at the same time, there will be more days coming where lots of them are going to be expiring on the same day. Just take a deep breath, and do as much as you can for a day. Baby steps. That which we persist in doing becomes easier. Well, flying without a plane is an exception, but we know that learning kanji is a thing that millions of people do all the time. If they can do it, you can do it too. If you persist in doing it.

Maybe you could review all the primitives up to frame 1000 first? The second index in the book lists all primitives. Review all the ones before page 286 (where frame 1000 is) and perhaps you'll have the mental ingredients to redraw them again in your mind?

Just a thought...

I was in a similar situation when I found this site. At first, I just ignored the old kanji (simply never added them -- they are still in my blue pile, you can do the same if you create a new account now). I did review them once in a while using Twinkle, and found that even rare reviews, coupled with references in the 2nd part of the stack and during reading, do help and I can recall many of those when I review (not as well as the new pile itself, but not that far behind). I think it is better not to waste too much time on those now, eventually you'll get them, but I think it will be much more productive for you to finish the book sooner and start reading things and learning vocabulary.

Maybe you can even create two new accounts -- one for the old kanji and one for the new ones. Or try using some other software to review them (but not the new ones) kanji->meaning instead for a while, that should be faster, and should bring stories to mind just as well.

I'm kind of in the same boat and I agree with Charley Garrett. Don't let the failed stack build up too much (for me more than five). What I've been doing is if I fail it but I kind of remember the story I'll go ahead and pass it or fail it hit the study button and it goes in to the first stack and you'll have to deal with it 3 days later. If I've really forgotten the story, I go ahead and put it in the failed stack but try to get to it within a day. I had a stack of 300 failed kanji and it got discouraging at times. I don't review more than 30 kanji a day now because 30 and 60 later when the kanji from the last stack come up again I don't want to be overwhelmed. Good luck.