Just hit 1532.
Trying to do 50 a day, which will wrap this up the first week of September. However, 50 a day is probably unrealistic. Recently, I've been doing it in batches of 25 approximately every other day.

1541 and counting =)
I really can't believe I've made this far, I'm so proud of myself!
Only 500 to go!

Good job. Just keep at it!

I just reached card 1650 in the sixth edition, the 3/4 mark in that book. So close!

Yes, I just passed 1650 too - nearing the end of Lesson 40 now.

It's really great reading through this thread and seeing how others have been going at this stage. Heartening to see many people share the feeling that this last part is a bit of a slog - seems to be taking forever. It's around here that having a good routine becomes an absolute necessity.

Another thing that's become apparent now: reviewing via spaced repetition is vitally important. Every now and then, a card will come up for review in Box 4 and I'll swear I've never come across it before. Once I flip it over I usually recognise it eventually, but have to send it back to Box 1 for re-study. It's a good reminder that working through Heisig's book is only Stage 1 - ongoing review is Stage 2.

It also makes me question the approach of people who aim for more than about 20 new cards a day (on average, that is). I'm trying to do 20 new ones a day and the review process becomes pretty time-consuming at about 100 a day - and if I miss a day I have nearly 200 to review the next morning.

Anyway, my other motivational strategies include a spreadsheet with a progress chart (I can compare my progress against what I need to average to finish at my goal date) and a big count-down box for how many left to go!

Diomira Wrote:It also makes me question the approach of people who aim for more than about 20 new cards a day (on average, that is). I'm trying to do 20 new ones a day and the review process becomes pretty time-consuming at about 100 a day - and if I miss a day I have nearly 200 to review the next morning.

This makes me question your reviewing technique. If your reviews are 6 seconds each, 100 reviews is 10 minutes. Is that really so much?

Vempele Wrote:

Diomira Wrote:It also makes me question the approach of people who aim for more than about 20 new cards a day (on average, that is). I'm trying to do 20 new ones a day and the review process becomes pretty time-consuming at about 100 a day - and if I miss a day I have nearly 200 to review the next morning.

This makes me question your reviewing technique. If your reviews are 6 seconds each, 100 reviews is 10 minutes. Is that really so much?

6 seconds is extremely short. You can't assume people to be that quick.
Personally, at my best I have had 14 seconds average one month. I always draw out the kanji completely, either in my mind or on a paper, and that's how long it takes.

I usually need 25 minutes to half an hour reviewing 100 kanji, so it is time consuming for me too.

Regarding the doability of 20 kanji/day on average, I believe it is entirely possible, even if it means doing 200 kanji per day.

Couldn't you just... imagine the final shape? And practice speed writing separately? What's even the point of being able to write Japanese at 14 seconds per character?

I did a little test. It takes me ten seconds to write a complicated character like 襲. Simple kanji with few primitives takes less. 進 takes 3 seconds to write. It is really hard to write primitive-heavy characters fast.
Maybe I'm doing things unnecessarily hard for myself. But I am not sure I could pay attention to small details like the little drop under the mouth in 域 if I were just going to imagine the final shape in my mind.

I'm adding only 10 cards per day, and I don't feel a smidgen of guilt or unease about it. I've got a full-time job, a family, and side projects outside of Japanese, not to mention Core6K and reading tasks like NHK NewsWeb Easy to go through every day. Ten new cards per day is just fine for me. While NSA agents eager to spy on the phone conversations of our East Asian allies might feel some urgency to push through all the kanji in two or three months, not everyone has that pressing need.

Finally there! I'm sooo slow.. Half is already in the last box.. xD

Just passed 39, finally nearly there

Took me roughly 4 weeks from 1/2 to 3/4. So maybe I'll be finished in a month. Hopefully

riogray Wrote:Took me roughly 4 weeks from 1/2 to 3/4. So maybe I'll be finished in a month. Hopefully

The last 1/4 was the hardest for me...but if you stick with it, that's where some of the most interesting kanji are. E.g., tigers, horses, dragons, the golden calf from the Bible, etc.

timaki Wrote:I'm adding only 10 cards per day, and I don't feel a smidgen of guilt or unease about it.

I took it nice and slow as well. I figured, I'd rather take my time and learn the kanji thoroughly than rush through and find that I forgot half of them two weeks later.

Just finished lesson 40. The end is in sight!

I started adding new kanji again and am at 1630 atm. Had a bit of a burnout around the 1300 mark, even took a 2 month break with only occasional reviews. There seems to be no end in sight, especially since I do plan on doing RtK3 as well.

Reviews are becoming extremely mind numbing at this point...

!!! I´ve reached card 1576 today DD

passed frame 1650 yesterday. Yay I'm still here! next stop:finish line. I am really looking forward to finally finishing the book, certainly am not stopping now.

I've made it to 1695 in the sixth edition! If everything goes according to schedule, I'll be at 1900 by the end of this week. Then I'll finish the remaining 300 next week.

Congrats!

I'm on frame 1704 ... this is a grind.

The hardest part is coming up with the stories. I usually can't use the stories that ppl post. I pick them off a bit at a time, and sometimes sit down and work through it. Right now, I have stories for another 30 kanji. I un-suspend the cards when they're ready to get into the SRS routine - I don't like getting new cards until I know that they're *my* new cards.

So at about 20 to 30 cards a day, I feel I'll be done in the next 17 years. That's what it feels like.

On the positive side, my retention is really high. I'm sure someone is going to say that I'm doing SRS wrong, and I should be failing more. But failing bothers me, and doesn't feel like it will stick. So I'll punish myself (punish = two hands chopped off with a saber).

My brain is slowly getting leached out of my ears. Or pulled by two hands out of my nose, for those of you who get what I'm saying.

Somebody please kill me now. Only eleventy-thousand kanji left.

I'll make it to the end, and so will all of you. Good luck!

Grind grind grind. Today had my test for card 1946. Have stories for up to card 2000. 2200 cards - 40 cards a day - story creation - gah lord the pain. At 40 cards a day ... maybe I'll be done in a week (at least, have finished the first day of tests for the final 40 cards) - but these last cards seem to be jumbled with few connecting threads, so it looks like I won't be banging through the stories as quickly ... maybe it will be two weeks, or ninety-seven.

39 chapters down, 17 to go... Then I get to start all over again and pick up the non-lite characters. Umm...yay? (While I *am* studying and learning all the characters, I'm only activating the RTK Lite characters in Anki on this pass. In retrospect, I'm starting to wish I'd just done the full RTK1 instead of trying to do a "Lite" pass, but it's too late now to do anything other than continue. That said, the second pass should go *much* faster than this first pass.)

Made it. Great side, appreciate all the stories. Going at a pace of 10 new / day so will finish in < 2 months.