I'm new to RTK and super excited about Heisig's method. I've checked out anki but feel this website better suits my needs.

After reading tons of postings and the intro to this site, I'm still a bit confused about reviewing process on this website. A lot of the people who are doing or want to do more than 10-20 cards a day (like 50 or more), get comments that the review is what makes things difficult. Some guy said for the 1000 kanji he's studied, he had reviewed almost/over 1,000 times! How's that possible?

Here's what I understand about the whole process (please correct any misinformation):

The first time:
-study your kanji from the rtk book by writing it once or twice and using Heisig's stories to help you remember or make up your own

-review the kanji and stories throughout the day

-come to the rvtk website and input the frames you've studied that day and or input your stories or stories borrowed from other members on the site

-test yourself on those frames you've just input with the flashcards

-the ones you fail go into the fail pile, you revamp or borrow stories, come back to the fail pile to retest them the same day you fail them

-the ones you pass go into the review pile and for SRS purposes, you don't study them again at all, not even in your notebook, until the cards go into the expire pile

The second day
-you do all of the above but there won't be anything to review yet because for SRS purposes, the review won't come up until the third day

The third day
-do all of the above

-the first set of cards will expire and you will have to review them plus test on the new cards

After this, I'm a bit murky on the process. HELP!

If you are continuously adding a large number of cards the review numbers can sky rocket.

This is because on any given day you could be reviewing cards from one day ago, three days ago, seven days ago, two weeks ago, etc...

If each day you had been adding 100 cards you would be looking at 400 cards just from that simple example...

This is very good example of why we need a wiki...

veeontour Wrote:Some guy said for the 1000 kanji he's studied, he had reviewed almost/over 1,000 times! How's that possible?

That actually seems quite low. To be clear, the guy was certainly not talking about 1,000 reviews per card; he meant 1,000 reviews total. In total, over a long period of time, that's really not a lot. Was that the source of your confusion?

after finishing I think I had something like 12,000 reviews total?

I would combine your first three steps and enter them in to RTK as you learn them simply for efficiencies sake. I would also not bother reviewing new cards through the day. I used to wait until the following day and as a result was quickly able to see which cards I really hadn't got the stories right for and thus alter the storey. Reviewing them through the day is just like cramming to me. Sure you may learn them but the goal is to really have stories that you can easily visualise rather than rote learn.

From there just go at a pace you find comfortable with. Obviously the more you input the more reviews you will have but if you go at a steady pace it's not overwhelming.

Just make sure to do your reviews, add new cards on a regular basis. The beauty of this site (or anki or similar) is that the SRS deals with of all the hard work of when to review so just go along with the flow and you will find it a breeze.

mezbup Wrote:after finishing I think I had something like 12,000 reviews total?

Yeah, I finished two weeks back and my reviews are at 11,907.

Tzadeck Wrote:

mezbup Wrote:after finishing I think I had something like 12,000 reviews total?

Yeah, I finished two weeks back and my reviews are at 11,907.

I find it pretty fun to keep track of my total number of reviews. There's a certain sense of accomplishment in realizing that you've done a total of (in my case) more than 72,000 reviews (Note: Referring to my sentence deck けど).
"How could anyone spend that much time on..... Oh, right."

Rooboy Wrote:just go at a pace you find comfortable with. Obviously the more you input the more reviews you will have but if you go at a steady pace it's not overwhelming.

Thanks so much for the advice Rooboy!

veeontour Wrote:i'm heading off for a japanese language course in about 5 weeks so i really wanted to have the kanji down before i get there. i'm shooting for an average of 50-65 cards a day. i don't know if this is taking on too much but i just feel the need to have a leg up on my chinese and korean classmates which will in turn make me feel more confident.

thanks so much everybody for your input, clarification, and advice; the rvtk forum ROCKS!

5 weeks? It's certainly do able, especially if you've got nothing to do in the mean time.

The reviewing is ok, you'll find that with the stories, you really don't forget the kanji as easily as you would without.

And also, the other day I added 22 kanji in 3 batches, in one day, and it asked me to review 8 of them one day, 7 the next and 7 the next. So it does sort of divide them so you don't have an enormous pile one day and hardly anything the next.

Koos83 Wrote:The reviewing is ok, you'll find that with the stories, you really don't forget the kanji as easily as you would without.

And also, the other day I added 22 kanji in 3 batches, in one day, and it asked me to review 8 of them one day, 7 the next and 7 the next. So it does sort of divide them so you don't have an enormous pile one day and hardly anything the next.

yeah the anki algorithm helps space things so it doesn't all pile on to one day. Do be aware though that reviews are cumulative by nature. It's something that people who are new to Anki really understimate the first time they plan out their study load. In the beginning it's fine because you have no reviews but by the end (if you're doing quite a fast pace) reviews can build up to several hundred a day. Sometimes it just gets a bit much is all. Don't feel like you have to force it if it does get too much, just scale it back to a comfortable pace. If you have a set time frame and a real need to go that fast then by all means, go for your life.

It's better to get through RTK as quick as you can so you can get on with diving into the real language

good luck.

mezbup Wrote:

Koos83 Wrote:The reviewing is ok, you'll find that with the stories, you really don't forget the kanji as easily as you would without.

And also, the other day I added 22 kanji in 3 batches, in one day, and it asked me to review 8 of them one day, 7 the next and 7 the next. So it does sort of divide them so you don't have an enormous pile one day and hardly anything the next.

yeah the anki algorithm helps space things so it doesn't all pile on to one day.

Actually, it was on this site.

veeontour Wrote:i'm heading off for a japanese language course in about 5 weeks so i really wanted to have the kanji down before i get there. i'm shooting for an average of 50-65 cards a day. i don't know if this is taking on too much but i just feel the need to have a leg up on my chinese and korean classmates which will in turn make me feel more confident.

thanks so much everybody for your input, clarification, and advice; the rvtk forum ROCKS!

If time is really up against I would look at doing RTK Lite only before you start your course http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=993&page=1

By doing the Lite version you could learn the more "essential/common" kanji straightaway and then move on to the others later.

I'm approaching about 19,000 reviews. Not because I suck, but because it's kind of become a habit and I probably won't stop until I basically have all the cards in the 4th (or above) column.

However, after doing so many reviews I am starting to wonder if it's worth doing them anymore as I generally recognise them all fine now and would rather spend my time reading words instead of just characters.

Rooboy Wrote:By doing the Lite version you could learn the more "essential/common" kanji straightaway and then move on to the others later.

Thanks, but I think I'll stick with the regular list and if I feel too overwhelmed, I'll scale back that day. It's better to take my time; besides, I want to experience Heisig's method step by step.

I am super excited for the day when I'll be able to say I've reached over 10,000 reviews!

b0ng0 Wrote:I'm approaching about 19,000 reviews. Not because I suck, but because it's kind of become a habit and I probably won't stop until I basically have all the cards in the 4th (or above) column.

However, after doing so many reviews I am starting to wonder if it's worth doing them anymore as I generally recognise them all fine now and would rather spend my time reading words instead of just characters.

I think you should keep it up. I stopped adding a little after I finished RtK 1 and the reviews have dropped significantly now.

At the moment I'm doing both RtK review and reviews aimed at learning readings.

Trying to keep the volume of the readings reviews manageable though as I have to prioritize uni work.

Once uni break starts I'm going to hit Japanese hard and push through RtK 3 and significantly ramp up my training of other aspects of the language. Till then I can deal with the handful of reviews RtK 1 is throwing at me.