So I've been at the RTK game for months now, and have managed to be consistent and come on everyday (or so) to hit the reviews, learn new ones and keep the process going, even when travelling.

But I am around the 1350 mark, and just had a hellish weekend with funerals, moving, and unhuman amounts of booze (and the resulting hangovers). Long story short, I'm looking at over 400 in the review bin and was wondering how others have dealt with such things in the past ?

Just plough through it ? or is there some clever strategy that others have found to be functional ?

I did RTK in 3 weeks and right now my reviews are slowly starting to die down from the 600's. I can do those those 600 in anywhere from 3-5 hours. It's a bit of a sitdown, but it feels like you should be able to do your reviews in one big cram sessions if you can make the time.

How long do you take for reviews?

use anki's time boxing feature

eg: set a 15 minute timer and sprint through them as quick as you can.

5 minute rest and then another 15 minutes

repeat until finished.....or spread it around where you have free time.

give yourself clues if needed for the tough ones. The true test is when you're reading real text not drilling in anki.

400 really isn't that much once you have a system worked out (i think the most I've done in a day is like 5 times that. I try to keep my stories as simple as possible though. Sometimes just several words)

the more days you miss the bigger the task gets and eventually you'll lose motivation and give up.

Mayhem Wrote:So I've been at the RTK game for months now, and have managed to be consistent and come on everyday (or so) to hit the reviews, learn new ones and keep the process going, even when travelling.

But I am around the 1350 mark, and just had a hellish weekend with funerals, moving, and unhuman amounts of booze (and the resulting hangovers). Long story short, I'm looking at over 400 in the review bin and was wondering how others have dealt with such things in the past ?

Just plough through it ? or is there some clever strategy that others have found to be functional ?

I am at the 1450ish mark and my daily reviews are anywhere between 300-450. It takes a few hours but once the review is done, it's done. I just slug through it, taking small breaks whenever I get frustrated, listening to music or something to keep the mood from dropping, etc. I try not to take it too seriously and celebrate each time I finally nail a card which had been failed over and over.


Though my situation may differ: I started RtK on the 26th of last month, so the pace and reviews have been more or less this large the whole time.

I'm having a bit over 400 vocab cards due everyday... I think a good solution is to just start (don't think too much before you begin... once you get rolling, it isn't as long/boring as you imagine). I take a break every 100 cards, but time boxing is fine too... Just watch a music video and get back at it. Most of the discouragement you're experiencing (probably) comes from thinking: "oh god... there's so much to do!", but if you don't get at it now, it'll just get worse!

Do your reviews every day, drunk if necessary ;P Also, be aware: the rest of the week might be tougher than usual, since you'll have all the failed cards (from today's 400) tomorrow and so on. It takes a little while to get down to normal so stick with it!

Another tip: If you really lack motivation, put yourself in a situation where there's nothing else to do (ie.: travel by train and bring your computer; in a café alone... you deserve one anyway!)

Finally, if it's really just too much, set yourself a precise number before you review (I think it works better than reviewing until you're exhausted... you wouldn't want it to become such a chore!)

Happy reviewing

I went on break over the summer and didn't bother to do any reviews really in my vocab deck. When I got home I had over 1000 cards. Since then I still haven't gotten back into a schedule of reviewing to keep the numbers down. I have instead opted to try and eventually widdle the numbers down so I have >90% matured at long intervals. I changed my anki settings to accomplish this.

First off I rejiggered my Interval Modifider (Deck Opts > Reviews) so that intervals on cards more exactly reflected my mature fail rate. Read the help section on the Anki site to figure this out.

Second. I modified how Lapses are handled. I changed the New interval to 20% from 0. This basically affects how cards act when failed. Now instead of resetting to a 0 interval they only reset to 20% of their original interval. This keeps many of my long cards still mature and reduces the back up. Again, read help to see how this will change things. Eventually I'll reset it back to 0 when I get back into things.

There are some other things you can do, but you still just have to start reviewing, theres no way around it.

You can stop adding new cards and review as much as you can everyday, and don't worry about failing cards. I think about 70% retention tare is good for those late review.

I usually only need to review around 50 cards a day. Which takes around 20 minutes, but I actually write out each of them, so its not just a matter of looking and recognizing.

Anyway, the general consensus seems to be that everyone just ganbares and gets it done. So I guess thats the way to do it.

Thanks for the motivation,

Mayhem Wrote:but I actually write out each of them, so its not just a matter of looking and recognizing.

Isn't the general idea to write them out while reviewing? Is it written someone in RtK or is it just my imagination?

Hyperborea Wrote:

uisukii Wrote:Isn't the general idea to write them out while reviewing? Is it written someone in RtK or is it just my imagination?

Some do and some don't. I find it to be very helpful in remembering. It adds another physical component to the memory.

My memory is atrocious and I find this added motor recognition useful as well. Maybe it was something I read somewhere and simply attributed it to RtK. I wouldn't remember.

Quote:I started out writing them all out in a Japanese ruled notebook every time. Now, I do most of my kanji reviews at work while waiting for things and I don't actually write them out but do the finger writing.

For my vocabulary (Core) I do write them out in the notebook but those too will "graduate" to spare time review at some point.

For grid I have a simple template on the computer I print out. On an A4 leaf of paper there are 436 (I think) squares, including a border space of a little over a square wide, all the way around. Do you know roughly how many squares and how large each page is in your book? Some of these kanji seem to be a right bastard to fit within the square legibly.


Just checked out the link. Seems pretty expensive for only 30 pages. How are you finding it to write the more complex kanji in the given grid space?

[Zgarbas]

I usually lay in a fetal position and cry.

I managed to build a 600 card backlog for my Core6k deck. Know what I'm doing about it? Nothing. I still do 30 new cards and 200 reviews, and at that rate, it'll all level off in about three weeks. The cards can wait.

Hyperborea Wrote:

uisukii Wrote:Isn't the general idea to write them out while reviewing? Is it written someone in RtK or is it just my imagination?

Some do and some don't. I find it to be very helpful in remembering. It adds another physical component to the memory.

If you don't write down (pen or hand, it's the same) Kanji while reviewing, you'll have a very hard time producing them later. Yesterday, while reviewing RTK, I accidentally pressed show answer before being able to read the keyword and I recognized it, but it was a quick whole shape look, so I didn't get the details, then I stepped back and redid the card, and guess what, it felt much harder to write down the details!

Another benefit is the muscle memory.

I "write" it on my palm using my fingers, but often just think of the shapes if it is something like 拍 (because 手(variant) and 白 are relatively simple).