I don't know whether a similar question has been posted before, but I am caught up in a sticky situation at the moment. Started studying Japanese last year and cleared lvl 4. Now preparing for the lvl 3 exam in December. I know about 500 kanji now and I have hit a barrier of sorts. I will definitely be studying for lvl 2 next year. Problem is, should I start with RTK from scratch or should I wait till I complete the exam in December and then start on RTK ?

And... I know about 500 random kanji which aren't in the RTK order obviously. I am confused about how to start with RTK, since I am very comfortable with learning Kanji from a word rather than a single unit without a reading. But I am definitely sure that I would find it difficult to remember the ones required for lvl 2. I know I can't go on with the brute force memorization method using Anki.


So I really need suggestions/advice on how to tackle this problem (i.e. a way in which I can start with RTK which won't end up confusing me in the long run). Thanks in advance.

P.S. I apologize if my post is confusing. <_<

Just do it. Your situation isn't unique (that sounds harsh, but it's supposed to be more encouraging). Almost all of us knew a certain number of kanji before starting this (I knew some over 200). Just go through the book as presented, and relearn everything.

I knew over 700 kanji when I started using RtK. I still recommend starting from scratch.

* You can't jump in the book anyway since you need to know his keywords for all the kanji so you can learn the ones you don't know.
* It takes like 2 months to clear RtK1 if you do it properly, easily worth the time to do it from scratch.

Then again, JLPT3 is easy. If you know 500 of the JLPT3 kanji good enough, you shouldn't even need to study kanji before the test. (Besides, RtK really doesn't help with JLPT, you need to know readings properly to pass it). I say pass JLPT3 then start doing RtK. And don't expect to go from JLPT3 to JLPT2 in a year, the jump in skill is massive. Compared to JLPT2 which is business level japanese, JLPT3 is just japanese for kids. It really is that big of a difference.

Yo, I too know about 400 kanji before RtK. But that is so little comparing to what I learned in only 1.5 months of sentences.

Toberight says well when he says RTK wont help you in the test. It wont. But let's put in then in a time schedule.

RTK can be done in a month. I've done in 3 months, and that was as fast as I could, while working 8hs/day.

I'm 1 month and 15 days doing sentences already. I have 1136 sentences in my SRS, that covers 41.5% of joyo kanji.

I've downloaded the written testes of JLPT 4, 3, 2 and 1.
4 was so easy I did not even finished it. I got about 90% of 3. And I got about 40% in lvl 2. A bit away from the passing mark.

I know I went bad on lvl 2 because I'm not studing for it. I'm studying for lvl 1. The kanjis are apearing to me in random order. I'm only ensuring I allways see a word I dont know in every sentence.

This is my kanji statistics from anki:

--------------------
Kanji statistics
The 1082 seen cards in this deck contain:

849 total unique kanji.
Jouyou: 807 of 1945 (41.5%).
Jinmeiyou: 13 of 287 (4.5%).
29 non-jouyou kanji.
Jouyou levels:
Grade 1: 73 of 80 (91.3%).
Grade 2: 151 of 160 (94.4%).
Grade 3: 142 of 200 (71.0%).
Grade 4: 119 of 200 (59.5%).
Grade 5: 78 of 185 (42.2%).
Grade 6: 73 of 181 (40.3%).
JuniorHS: 171 of 939 (18.2%).
--------------------

So back to the schedule.
Till december you got 3 months and.
You can do RTK in 2 months for sure, but if you try hard, you can do it faster.
Then you can do sentences. But take note you'll need at least 1200 sentences, if chosen for JLPT2. Or a bit more if you do random study.

Now time for the math.
For doing RTK in 45 days, you need to do 2043 cards in 45 days. 45.37 card/day.

Then you go for sentences. 30.0 / day is a reasonable schedule. And if you do it, in more 45 days you'll have 1350 cards.

So, it is doable. But you'll have to handle 45 cards/day while doing RTK (very hard, but doable).
And 30 cards/day while doing sentences (easy, after doing RTK).

Ahaha, you atreya, sorry I did not read your post more carefully. I tought You wanned to do the lvl 2 exam. If you know already 500 kanji you should not worry about lvl 3. But hey, you could try for lvl 2!

QuackingShoe Wrote:Just do it. Your situation isn't unique (that sounds harsh, but it's supposed to be more encouraging). Almost all of us knew a certain number of kanji before starting this (I knew some over 200). Just go through the book as presented, and relearn everything.

Yes, I am well aware that my situation isn't unique (it isn't a harsh comment).

Tobberoth Wrote:I knew over 700 kanji when I started using RtK. I still recommend starting from scratch.

* You can't jump in the book anyway since you need to know his keywords for all the kanji so you can learn the ones you don't know.
* It takes like 2 months to clear RtK1 if you do it properly, easily worth the time to do it from scratch.

Then again, JLPT3 is easy. If you know 500 of the JLPT3 kanji good enough, you shouldn't even need to study kanji before the test. (Besides, RtK really doesn't help with JLPT, you need to know readings properly to pass it). I say pass JLPT3 then start doing RtK. And don't expect to go from JLPT3 to JLPT2 in a year, the jump in skill is massive. Compared to JLPT2 which is business level japanese, JLPT3 is just japanese for kids. It really is that big of a difference.

2 months ? for 2000 kanji ? That means I have to complete at least 35 kanji a day... <_< Not to mention reviews :/ I have been looking at this thread - http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=993

Will that suffice for lvl 2 or is it recommended to complete all of RTK and then start with my lvl 2 study. I might try to finish 2 within a year due to time constraints. It will be difficult though.

mentat_kgs Wrote:Ahaha, you atreya, sorry I did not read your post more carefully. I tought You wanned to do the lvl 2 exam. If you know already 500 kanji you should not worry about lvl 3. But hey, you could try for lvl 2!

Sadly I am not thorough with the grammar of Lvl 2. ^^;;

Dont bother with RTK lite. Is your goal learning japanese or getting JLPT?

mentat_kgs Wrote:Dont bother with RTK lite. Is your goal learning japanese or getting JLPT?

Definitely Japanese. Taking JLPT just for the certificate.

atreya Wrote:2 months ? for 2000 kanji ? That means I have to complete at least 35 kanji a day... <_< Not to mention reviews :/ I have been looking at this thread - http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=993

35 a day is no problem if you're on a tight schedule. A lot of people here add over 50 kanji each day. As long as you're good enough at making stories, it doesn't really matter how many you put in each day as long as you have enough time to review them.

atreya Wrote:

mentat_kgs Wrote:Dont bother with RTK lite. Is your goal learning japanese or getting JLPT?

Definitely Japanese. Taking JLPT just for the certificate.

It is not a matter of JLPT or Japanese. If you can study 50/100 kanji a day, like many in this forum, then RTK LITE is not for you. But if you don't have time for that, and the whole RTK1 will take you 6 or more months, then you should go for RTK LITE, and begin reading as soon as possible. You won't need the extra 1000 kanji for a long time.

http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=1770

1000 kanjis is just not enough. And the effort of doing 2000 is not twice of the effort of doing 1000. Much of the work is reused.

I find non RTK kanji everyday. As soon as I finish adding sentences for the 2042 of RTK I'll be forced to do RTK3. Maybe earlier.

返事遅れてごめんなさい。皆さん、アドバイスくださってありがとう。とてもお世話になりました。＾＾

mentat_kgs Wrote:Dont bother with RTK lite.

Well said.

Tobberoth Wrote:JLPT3 is easy

Tobberoth Wrote:35 a day is no problem

Please keep in mind that some people get discouraged when you say their goals are easy.

leosmith Wrote:

mentat_kgs Wrote:Dont bother with RTK lite.

Well said.

Tobberoth Wrote:JLPT3 is easy

Tobberoth Wrote:35 a day is no problem

Please keep in mind that some people get discouraged when you say their goals are easy.

But then again, those same people would also probably be discouraged pretty easily anyway. Saying something is easy could also have the opposite effect of inspiring a person.

Ok, I'll rephrase.

If you want to read real japanese, dont bother with RTK lite.

If you want to get JLPT1, JLPT3 is easy.