I'm around 1200+ using the premade Anki deck while going through RTK1. At the same time I'm using Kore6k at ~1700. However, a lot of the Kore words I've seen haven't been "covered" so I end up making up my own "primitives" and using them. Kanji no longer seems "scary" in the sense that I can deconstruct and differentiate them (besides squinty computer font). At this point, is there any benefit in continuing with RTK? I still have about 1700 left, but I'm wondering if it would just be a waste of time. I mean, I can remember words better when I've seen them in both decks, but I'm thinking that it might be because I'm exposed to them more. At the same time I would feel guilty about not completing the book. So if anyone's stopped Heisig halfway or if there's any benefit from completing the whole book, please let me know!

Well if you want to be able to write all of the kanji in RTK, then countinue. If not, then just drop it.

I would say Heisig has already provided what you needed and there is no point in continuing. So quit!

Being able to write well by hand requires tons of review and repetition over time anyway even in addition to RTK - you can save that for later in your studies should it actually ever become necessary or important (it never has for me)

it prolly would be better if you do quit. you will have less workload to deal with and just replace rtk time with more fun native material. Get something you are really interested in, in japanese.

Kuzunoha13 Wrote:I'm around 1200+ using the premade Anki deck while going through RTK1. At the same time I'm using Kore6k at ~1700. However, a lot of the Kore words I've seen haven't been "covered" so I end up making up my own "primitives" and using them. Kanji no longer seems "scary" in the sense that I can deconstruct and differentiate them (besides squinty computer font). At this point, is there any benefit in continuing with RTK? I still have about 1700 left, but I'm wondering if it would just be a waste of time. I mean, I can remember words better when I've seen them in both decks, but I'm thinking that it might be because I'm exposed to them more. At the same time I would feel guilty about not completing the book. So if anyone's stopped Heisig halfway or if there's any benefit from completing the whole book, please let me know!

If you are able to keep track of all the different primitives you see, and what your image is for them, then you can probably just apply the Heisig approach to your Core deck instead. However a lot of common kanji are scheduled for later on in the book due to the primitives that make them up, so my advice would be to look up a list of RTK lite kanji and their primitives, and learn them before you drop it altogether.

[s0apgun]

stop adding new cards but keep reviewing the ones you already learned so you don't forget them (i did)

move onto native material and you'll be happy you did

[Katsuo]

Kuzunoha13 Wrote:I'm around 1200+ using the premade Anki deck while going through RTK1…
…I still have about 1700 left

RTK1 has around two thousand kanji (old edition has 2,042, new edition 2,200) so you shouldn't have that many left. It sounds like that deck also includes the RTK3 kanji which are aimed at advanced learners.

I was in a similar situation and ended up deciding I should finish RTK first. If you ask me about it now I don't think it actually helped much at all, I had to stop studying for a few months due to external circumstances and couldn't keep up with my RTK reviews and I don't really mind it either, I think RTK already did its job and I'm doing perfectly fine without it at the moment. I guess I did forget proper stroke order for some of the kanji but for me that's not really a priority right now.