I have recently reached 1000 (yay) which i was very happy about. I told myself now ive reached that i will check every Kanji i have done before. And now a few hours later i have found out i have forgotten over 300! What have i done wrong?

Basically if anyone has any advice on how to learn those 300 or tell me what the hell i did wrong to forget that many (maybe im just plain stupid?) i would forever be thankful to them

That's still 70%, so it's not that bad.

That's perfectly normal, just continue to review every day. Also try to see those kanji in context (read some manga for example) that will help.

Once you relearn those 300 you'll find that they stick even better. You've not done anything wrong. You'd have to be a genius to remember 1000 kanji without forgetting a single one, regardless of what memory techniques you use.

thanks for all the replys makes me feel much better . So do you advise that i do go back and relearn them or just carry on from the 1000? I guess i should go back as that red pile is starting to look very nasty.

Babyrat Wrote:thanks for all the replys makes me feel much better . So do you advise that i do go back and relearn them or just carry on from the 1000? I guess i should go back as that red pile is starting to look very nasty.

You're using this site right? Or some SRS? Because if you do, you do not have to go back or anything, everything you put in on this site is reviewed automatically. You don't have to "go back" and study them because you're studying them right now.

70% is nothing to be concerned about. If you finished those 1000 kanji in about 30 days (based on your forum registered date), then you should also keep in mind that your brain has absorbed a TON of rather involved stories that one month ago you didn't know, hadn't imagined, and would never have thought of.

Also, consider that you might have just had a slightly off day today. I don't know about anyone else, but I -- absolutely -- have really good days and really bad days with reviews. It doesn't just depend on which kanji happen to be up for review that day. It has more to do with how well my brain is functioning, what else I'm dealing with that day, and how many other things are on my plate life-wise.

Stop for 2 days, briefly review those 300, throw them back into circulation, and just keep chugging away at the rest of RTK. You'll be fine.

Keep doing the SRS every day and don't worry about it too much. 70% is fine. Worry more about finishing the book. If your rate keeps dropping, then it might be time to worry about how you're learning... but just let the SRS do it's thing, and don't cheat. (And try not to skip too many days.)

Honestly, all you're trying to do is juggle the kanji in your brain until you can attach Japanese readings to them, then you can pretty much ignore/forget/purge the Heisig keywords. The SRS is an excellent juggling tool for that.

Babyrat Wrote:thanks for all the replys makes me feel much better . So do you advise that i do go back and relearn them or just carry on from the 1000? I guess i should go back as that red pile is starting to look very nasty.

I'd go back and spend a bit more time on them.

I'm just wondering though why not let the spaced repetition system take care of it for you? If you review every day & then re-learn the failed ones you won't end up having such big numbers to re-learn in one go.

1) Make sure to review the yellow cards.
2) Clear the read pile.
3) Learn new cards.

*) Never review green cards.

I'm forgetting 15 to 20% first time around. My problem is Japanese getting in the way! I know some Japanese readings from exposure, but am trying to keep them out of mind at the moment. I find they are really interfering with associating the English meanings!

babyrat: It sounds like you didn't review at all, and then suddenly did a massive review at 1000 kanji? You should be doing reviews every day or at least every week. Use this site's "review" feature (http://kanji.koohii.com/main.php), or use an SRS like Anki or Mnemosyne.

liveone: If you know Japanese meanings, GREAT! Don't get hung up on Heisig's "English meanings"-- they're just "hooks" so you have somewhere to "put" the kanji in your brain. A few of them don't even have anything to do with the actual kanji meaning, and many of them only capture one of a dozen meanings for the kanji. If you use an SRS or possibly a greasemonkey script, you can even modify the keywords like I do. Some of my keywords are the English Heisig keyword followed by a romaji or hiragana version of a Japanese word that uses it, for example:

分 - part (わかる)

It's also very helpful later on for distinguishing between keywords with very similar English meanings, where the kanji can be difficult to remember with Heisig alone.

If you find yourself forgetting kanjis, you could try anki, which will usually make you review more than the program on this site.

snispilbor Wrote:babyrat: It sounds like you didn't review at all, and then suddenly did a massive review at 1000 kanji? You should be doing reviews every day or at least every week. Use this site's "review" feature (http://kanji.koohii.com/main.php), or use an SRS like Anki or Mnemosyne.

"I told myself now ive reached that i will check every Kanji i have done before."

It also sort of sounds like he reviewed all of his green stacks. Could be either way. Or something entirely different.