I know what I need to do to rectify this situation, but I'm curious as to whether anyone else has experienced this phenomenon.

Everything with RTK had been fine for me until around frame 1500. I went from very consistent 85-100% "passed" during new (reviewed 24 hours after adding them) kanji reviews, to 10-20% starting with Lesson 39. My reviews have been suffering at that level ever since (at 1700 now). It's like I hit a wall or something. During my review, I'll stare at the key word and eighty percent of the time, my mind is absolutely, totally blank. When I show the card, the story comes rushing back to me in a flood of lucidity.

Of course, this means that the stories are not sticking, but I have to wonder if there's something else going on. I mean, really...why so suddenly? The only other thing I can think of is that beginning with Lesson 39, there is a increase in the number of primitives introduced, with the number of kanji associated with each primitive becoming smaller (i.e. the primitive frequency is increasing). I know that I've been struggling with the primitives as I've resorted to allowing myself the leniency of checking my memory of the primitives (and looking up those I have completely forgotten) before I do a review of new kanji.

You're so close to the end your mind might be getting sloppier in anticipation of the finish.

Try going all the wall to 3000. If the percentages go back up. Theory proved.

Don't worry about the percentage, this is not a competition. Maybe slow down a little if you feel you're trying to go too fast. You'll learn those new kanji eventually.

Maybe your brain ran out of space? ;P

Shirow66 Wrote:Maybe your brain ran out of space? ;P

I believe this happened to Homer, and he forgot how to drive^^

Homer Quote: Just because I don't care doesn't mean I don't understand.

The same thing happened to me when I was around 600. Somewhat scarily, I'm approaching 1500 very soon. Hopefully I won't hit another 'kanji wall'..

I just kept on going...kept at the reviews...working down the failed stack...and everything was back to normal in a week or so.

You're getting bored. Give different names to your primitives to spice things up.

Same thing happened to me. I think the main problem for me was when my intervals started getting to long times, then it became much harder to recall the story from the keyword. I think perhaps the process of doubling the interval each time is a bit too harsh on the memory... I mean if you can barely remember something for 2 weeks, and then it goes to a 1 month interval next... that's a seriously long time. And then a 2 month interval after that...

I think I might have done better if the intervals increased in smaller amounts.

I wouldn't worry about it. Worrying will just cause you to actually do worse because you'll be focused more on the stress factor than the goal. Your goal isn't to score a certain percentage-- your goal is to be able to read Japanese somewhere down the road. Having a low percentage now won't affect that. What we gain from Heisigisn't even the ability to read, since for the most part we're not learning actual Japanese words or sounds. Instead it's just the ability to recognize the Kanji and how to write it. Keep reviewing and you'll certainly gain that even if you have trouble remembering stroke order or placement now.

I too had trouble when I reached that point... In my case, I felt the problem was the amount of reviews that I had to do. I was so overwhelmed with due reviews that I felt as if I were rushing through to get to the end rather than focusing on learning. I stopped using this site to review and just using Anki and my scores bounced back up. (By using this site and Anki I was effectively doing double the work.)

I also got lazy around that point and stopped writing the kanji during review. I still don't because I'm still lazy and I ran out of grid paper, but I think that has had a negative affect on me...

Heh...thanks, guys. I'm glad I'm not the only one to experience this.

http://ircamera.as.arizona.edu/NatSci102...n_full.gif

You may be experiencing Kanji-burnout.

Try slowing down/adding only a few new Kanji at a time, until you recover a bit.

At 1700, another possibility is to just "go for it" - you are only around 300 away from finishing. You could "recover" those bad ones later, through review, but the only problem with gunning for it is, you will get huge piles of reviews later.

But whatever you do, DON'T STOP REVIEWING! You are almost there!!! 頑張って！

Zarxrax Wrote:I think the main problem for me was when my intervals started getting to long times, then it became much harder to recall the story from the keyword. I think perhaps the process of doubling the interval each time is a bit too harsh on the memory... I mean if you can barely remember something for 2 weeks, and then it goes to a 1 month interval next... that's a seriously long time. And then a 2 month interval after that...
I think I might have done better if the intervals increased in smaller amounts.

I tend to agree. With some kanji, I find doubling the interval works OK, with some it's too short, but with many it's too long. I'm now starting to forget kanji that I've had a perfect score on.

Khatzumemo gives you 5 ratings to choose from. 3 is less than double, which I find a good increase most of the time. 4 is more than double, which I find a good if it's easy. Also having a 2 is good if you're having trouble with it and you need a shorter interval but you don't want to start again from scratch.

I think an ideal SRS will measure how you're doing with each question individually as well as what works for you and tailor the period according to your individual retention ability.

Just do more.

Some kanji are very abstract. The keyword choice may also be an issue. At that point during my study it became very important to have a strong visual for my primitives. My stories had to be animated also. Basically, I do not depend on sentence mnemonics.

What I remember doing - Create the story or reinforce one that was made, think of that story as I write down the kanji, then go onto the next until I'm done with the kanji I'm studying that day. Next I add all the new kanji into the list. After that, I'd review my due cards or study missed cards. After that little time has passed, I'd do an initial review with the new kanji. I might get 50% pass rate or up to 90%.

Then I did not worry about the ones I missed. Reason being they were going to the bottom of a 200 or 300 card failed stack. They eventually came back around.

I'm getting this too, although it's a bit different.

I'm currently on 1840, and the ones I learned recently have a lot of trouble sticking. It's pretty much the exact same cards that I have trouble with; no matter how many times I look at possible stories (cause mine generally suck), find a good one, and imagine it, I always forget it. Usually right after moving it out of failed stack, sometimes after I pass it once. I guess in the end, percentages don't really matter, but it's still not boding well for the perfectionist in me.

Anxiousness does play a part in this, I guess. I'm quite eager to just get the last 200 kanji done and out of my way. This kanji wall does really hurt my motivation to do so, and my motivation to review. Hopefully, I'll find someway to get these in my head.

EvilCowSlayer Wrote:I'm getting this too, although it's a bit different.

I'm currently on 1840, and the ones I learned recently have a lot of trouble sticking...
.

As I recall that section is a particularly nasty bout of abstract keywords, I think quite a number of people had issues right in that lesson area.

What also seems to happen is the number of synonyms increases once you get this high, so there are a lot of keywords that kind of overlap and as has been mentioned getting unique stories that really pop or stick if you will becomes more difficult.

Just push through, you'll pick the harder ones up over time after youre finished adding kanji.