I finished RtK 1 a little over a week ago, and am frustrated/disappointed to notice in my reviews that I'm failing quite a few kanji that have made it to Box 6. Surely I should know those ones really well by now?

Occasionally, the keyword doesn't even sound familiar. Or, I can remember 2 out of 3 of the elements, but am not able to visualise one part of the story. (e.g. was this happening to Spider-Man or Khatz? A vulture or a turkey?!) Has anyone else experienced this or have any thoughts?

Since I finished, my Review Summary results have been: 71, 75, 67, 84, 87, 77, 79, 82 %. It used to average more like mid-late 80s.

Any feedback would be appreciated, thanks.

A week isn't all that long. Start using those kanji in context during your Japanese studies, as opposed to straight-up English keywords -> kanji, and you may find that the act of writing out many different kanji will not only increase your vocabulary but help solidify those kanji in your mind.

For example:

図書館　・　としょかん "library"
学校　・　がっこう "school"
日本語　・　にほんご "Japanese language"
英語　・　えいご "English language"
学生　・　がくせい "student"
先生　・　せんせい "teacher"
食べ物　・　たべもの "food"
面白い　・　おもしろい "interesting"
仕事　・　しごと "job"
手伝い　・　てつだい "to provide help"

Are all very basic, common compounds you will come across in most text books, anki-decks, etc. over and over again, and if you are writing as a part of your study, you will essentially be "reviewing" many different kanji, over and over, though instead of mapping them to English keywords, you will begin to re-map them in your brain to Japanese readings and vocabulary.

So... in saying, the more you focus on Japanese and less of English keywords for kanji, those kanji will become intimate with your memory and recognition without you being aware of it at the time.

pro-tip:
if you've got kanji in box 6, forget about RTK and start learning japanese.

I just logged in again for kicks for the first time in several years. I have 2671 cards due, and over 300 restudy cards. I can't believe I even bothered getting 700 of them into the 6th box.

Moral to the story: go learn some real japanese now.

By doing core vocab or ya just reading, those kanji will solidify in your head more
permanently.

UPDATE: I just wanted to say Thank You for your advice. I started using a "Pre-Intermediate Japanese Reader" book and also signed up for the NHK News Easy challenge through this site (which, as it turns out, is anything but "easy" for my current level!). But in just these two weeks since my OP, I've noticed a definite improvement because of seeing kanji in context, and am now back to averaging 84-89% correct in my reviews. I'm really enjoying kanji recognition in the things I'm reading.

Thanks so much for your support, uisukii, nadiatims, and dtcamero - and Happy New Year, everyone!

幸多き新年をお迎えください。

This also happens to me, I'm at 1650 and I find myself failing super basic kanji that I can't recall the story or some element, but when I see them I'm like "how can I not remember this, so easy".

dizzyS Wrote:This also happens to me, I'm at 1650 and I find myself failing super basic kanji that I can't recall the story or some element, but when I see them I'm like "how can I not remember this, so easy".

Same here. It's very annoying. I have found however that taking a day or two off from adding new kanji and just reviewing/looking through my notes, helps get them back into memory. The problem with RTK is that the basics aren't always the most common, at least where I live.

Newbie question here, but what do you mean by sixth box?

dokks Wrote:Newbie question here, but what do you mean by sixth box?

On the review page, the cards are piled in different "boxes". Sixth box = 6 reviews = after a 120 day interval.

Well I'm not sure about other people but my reviews are always 90%+ correct 93.18% for learning 97.31% for young (no results for mature accidentally messed up my deck and had to start again)

The method i use is simple to remember them but perhaps the most important is how i grade them you have 4 options in Anki and I never choose the 4th I only use 1,2,3
1. No idea
2. Correct but difficult or slightly wrong stroke order
3. Correct
I think the 4th option pushes card back a bit to far.

If I get a card wrong I write the story I came up with into the answer field (or change it to make it more vivid) and re-imagine it along with the stroke order (I have a stroke order font so I review that every time I see the card).

Like other people have said though you've finished RTK you should move on from it but I still think you should do your Anki reviews it's not hard work and till you're using Japanese enough to make it redundant (should be your current goal) it's still going to be useful to you.

Best advice anyone can give you is don't sweat failures it's ok to get them wrong.
Explains it well enough here:
http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/aim-to-fail

Stian Wrote:On the review page, the cards are piled in different "boxes". Sixth box = 6 reviews = after a 120 day interval.

AHH Ok that makes sense! Thank you.