I recently started RTK and have been using Anki to review.
One thing I started wondering about though was if it had been a good decision for me to go with the pre-made RTK deck that you can download in Anki or if I should've started with a blank deck and written the cards myself as I go along.
I'm still fairly early in the book so I can make a new deck without too much pain, but first I wanted to check how you guys are doing it.

so to clarify, right now i have anki set to not add any cards automatically, I go through my reviews during the day (during breaks at work) and then when I get home in the evening I go through 25 new kanji, writing each one down a few times, coming up with/looking up a story on revtk and then use 'learn more' in Anki to add them to my review cycle.

Maybe I'm just overthinking this ^^

Thanks Ice, I think I agree. I'll continue with the premade deck, adding my stories to the answer side as I go so I don't have to click through to my revtk account every time I forget the mnemonic / kanji.

Also, one more question do you guys put the readings (音読み/訓読み) on the flashcards(answer side)? I don't mean using it as a criteria for success at remembering the kanji itself, but rather to see it every time you review in order to familiarize yourself with it.

I did my own deck, but that all came around when this site got hosed for a couple days and I couldn't get my kanji fix. So I had to add something like 250 cards, which in retrospect was extra effort not spent studying. So my two cents - use the premade deck, just make sure your stories fit you.

fjolnir Wrote:Also, one more question do you guys put the readings (音読み/訓読み) on the flashcards(answer side)? I don't mean using it as a criteria for success at remembering the kanji itself, but rather to see it every time you review in order to familiarize yourself with it.

If you use this site's SRS, you can use Rikaichan when reviewing. Or else, you can use Wakan's dictionary with the "capture the clipboard" option activated for checking each kanji and words containing them.

Premade! Premade, premade, premade, premade.

I'm in the process of converting my RtK deck to a different kind of deck that I can't get premade, and it is unbelievably painful. I'd probably have had to shoot myself if premade decks didn't exist—I'd even go so far as to call RtK nearly worthless in the absence of premade decks.

(If that hasn't convinced you, make your own ten-card deck out of a representative sample of kanji. Then consider that you're looking to repeat that process two hundred and four times for just RtK 1.)

~J

Premade deck is the way to go. It will end up pretty much being the same anyways as the deck you make.

I'm actually doing the paper flash cards, alongside reviewing on here. In the beginning, I need to review more than one day and then again three days later. Later on, I find that only reviewing with this website suffices, so I don't need to use the flash cards anymore. I divide them into 3 piles: 1. Know well enough not to use the flash cards anymore, 2. Need to review again in a week. 3. (smallest pile) Need to review again soon.

Also, I find the flashcards useful when I go somewhere where I'll know I have to wait or where it's boring.