I'm currently at Frame 149 in RTK1, and I was wondering if it was a good idea to begin core2000 now. If not, can anyone suggest any other resources similiar to core2000 which would be suitable for my level?
(on an related note, where can you see your RevTK statistics?)

I'm fairly inexperienced, so all I can tell you is what I've experienced personally. I started core vocab (on iKnow actually, but they're nearly identical lists) at about frame 1400 and recognizing some (I'd estimate maybe 10-20%) of the vocabulary's kanji was challenging because I hadn't reached it in RTK. It made studying that vocabulary a lot harder (but not impossible since I wasn't trying to write it).

That being said, I also found that studying core vocab and RTK at the same time was surprisingly effective because they would constantly reinforce each other (for example, I'd see an unknown kanji in core and then a week later I'd meet it in RTK and it would be a piece of cake, and vice-versa) and it made/makes both processes that much more fun!

But frame 150 might be jumping the gun a little early? I don't know, others might have a different opinion, but I think you should try shooting for at least around 900-1000 kanji first so that core isn't TOO challenging. And I think core SHOULD be your first step into vocabulary, since that's pretty much what it's supposed to be! ^_^

Also, statistics? Is this link what you were looking for? http://kanji.koohii.com/review/flashcardlist

I didn't use Core10k, but started sentence mining after the 500th kanji -- Japaneselevelup.com-style.

The pros are that it got me motivated, and I studied all day for almost two months. (Until I finished RtK and had to slow down because of uni) However, the unfamiliar kanji made it much more difficult to remember readings and definitions. For example, 飛行機 was #行# for quite a while.

Since learning vocabulary with kanji will be much easier with RTK done, why not just spend all your extra time on more RTK and finish that as soon as possible instead? Since RTK is only a foundation that is going to help you with the rest of your studies, it seems wasted to study it in parallel with the very things that are supposed to become easier once the foundation has been laid. At least that how it seems like for me.

AlgoRhythmic Wrote:At least that how it seems like for me.

It's not just you. That's pretty much what Heisig says in the introduction too.

How about as you go through the kore deck, suspend vocabs with kanji that you don't know? I plan to do this if I need a break from RTK... Lately, it is getting boring I want to throw it out. LOL I still need over 500 to reach 2042.

bimspramirez Wrote:How about as you go through the kore deck, suspend vocabs with kanji that you don't know? I plan to do this if I need a break from RTK... Lately, it is getting boring I want to throw it out. LOL I still need over 500 to reach 2042.

You'd be amazed at how much you'd have to suspend. It's a bad idea.

Instead, you should just do the Kanji that are on the RtK Light list, from this point on. The 500 will be cut down to half (maybe less, I don't really know).

Once you finish those, you can learn individual Kanji you need as you encounter them, you no longer have to learn them in Heisig order (you will already know most of the primitives). So you can just do Core, and not have to suspend anything because you don't know the Kanji. At that point, you don't even have to SRS new Kanji separately. The repeated encounters in the Core deck are enough. You just need to learn the story, once, and that's it. But, of course, this only works once you know all the primitives, and for that you have to at least finish RtK Light.

Same advice to the OP: if you don't want to do RtK, do RtK Light. Then you'll be able to do vocab, and just learn Kanji you don't already know in random order. But don't do vocab without having learned the Kanji in it. It defeats the purpose of RtK, and it's very, very hard.

Stansfield123 Wrote:Instead, you should just do the Kanji that are on the RtK Light list, from this point on. The 500 will be cut down to half (maybe less, I don't really know).

Yes, it was cut down to half. I'll probably do RTK Lite after doing few more chapters.

OP: I think RTK Lite is better if you are like me who wants to do vocab asap. I read about it when I started RTK but never tried it.