Usually, I get anywhere from 85% to 100% on my reviews. I think the lowest I had got was 83% or something like that.

This morning, I have no idea what happened, I managed to get only 63%. Almost all of the failures were ones that I had passed at least once in the past. It's kinda discouraging, to see that out of 79 characters I only remembered 63%.

So I'm curious, has anyone else done this bad and recovered from it? I may even skip introducing new characters to do and work on clearing my failed pile.

Don't stress it. You have good days, and you'll have bad days. And then you'll have days where you just don't recognize anything. Fail what you fail, and move on. Then try to clear the fail pile the next day and start over again.

It's annoying, but it's part of the process.

Don't obsess too much over retention rates unless they get really bad for a long time. Then you might want to take another look at your mnemonics and such. Otherwise, you're just experiencing the joy of the forgetting curve.

Yea, I've had days where I got less than 50%. Its usually either the fact that I didn't learn the kanji thoroughly enough the first time, or I'm just having a bad day and can't think straight. Just make sure to review all the kanji you missed. Whether or not you learn any new ones is simply a time constraint--just make sure you have studied what you missed thoroughly before you move on. If you have time after that, learning new ones wont hurt you.

As long as you're honest in your reviews, the system will take care of itself. It may be disheartening to see a low %, but in the long run it's no big deal.

One thing I've noticed is that if, for whatever reason, I didn't get a full night sleep the night before, the review rate falls even if I don't feel particularly tired. Just shows how important it is to get your Z's

When I notice I'm having a bad day recall wise, I tend to ease up on the reviews and concentrate on adding sentences to the SRS, as that's more of a chore than anything else

Think of it in a big picture sort of way. After you've done 20,000 reviews the 10 or so you missed 5 months ago will not be a big whoop.

Try this: Download your RTK data and put it in a spread sheet. Now do a tabulation of total pass, fail and attempts seperated by blocks. Isn't it cool that those kanji in the higher blocks have a higher pass rate?

Not all kanji are easy to remember. Sometimes (in fact, more frequently as time goes on), they show up in bundles. Carry on, don't get yourself down, and don't be afraid to fail cards.

I do try and be fairly honest. The one reason I would hit yes when I got it wrong is if I was REALLY, REALLY close and it was just a dumb error. Like, forgetting to make the bottom stroke of 金　angle up even though the rest of the character is fine.

Now that I think about it, my poor reviews of late may be due to the fact that I moved up my review time from 11:00 to about 7:30 in the morning, not long after I wake up. Hopefully, moving it back to around noon will help somewhat.

I dunno, it just is really discouraging to see a such a low score. But to hear others have done it, and worse, helps. I suppose I am just one of those people that has to understand Japanese "NOW" or else I get frustrated. Obviously, this isn't feasible, but it adds to my reaction when a low score pops up.

Triddy Wrote:Like, forgetting to make the bottom stroke of 金　angle up even though the rest of the character is fine.

Why does the bottom stroke angle up? What do you mean?

I think Triddy means when 金 acts as a component of a kanji.

72 % just now... Oh well, will get over it And will get even worse rates in the future, I'm sure.

I find lack of sleep wrecks my scores, as well as missing regular reviews, as well as having other things on my mind, or just having a bad day. And sometimes you just have an difficult batch that day.

Learning a foreign language doesn't happen overnight. You will never be as good as a native learner because learning a language involves physiological changes in your brain. Your brain gets hardwired for languages you learnt as a child, so learning as an adult takes a lot more work and is much harder. Not impossible of course, but you need to set realistic expectations for yourself.

"You will never be as good as a native learner."

With all due respect, this statement is false. You CAN become as good as a native speaker.

Apart from the above, I fully agree with Raichu. There are numerous things able to mess up your review scores, but don't let it put you off!

As Suffah already stated: "As long as you're honest in your reviews, the system will take care of itself. It may be disheartening to see a low %, but in the long run it's no big deal."

All I can say is: it's true, the system WILL take care of itself and you WILL remember all of those kanji on the long-run .

My lowest score was 0%. I had only 1 kanji on the pile I was reviewing, and I failed it.

As far as "your brain gets hardwired for languages you learnt as a child" is concerned: this seems true enough if I compare it with what I once read in an article about Dutch emigrants who had moved to the U.S.A. . When they became of old age they actually started to forget the English they had used for over decades and were only able to speak Dutch again.

However "so learning as an adult takes a lot more work and is much harder" doesn't seem to be so true. I will refrain from commenting on it though, since it seems we are hijacking this thread enough already .

Man, I think this thread jinxed me, the past couple of days my reviews have been horrible!
Today I'm literally missing almost 50% of about 150 cards I reviewed. I show the answer and I'm like "argh, I KNEW that one!" -_-