Tzadeck Wrote:Do 25 a day. Problem solved.

Or +- 20 :p suits me better as a full time husband, father & employee

If one can remember everything just by looking at it, that's great, go ahead, do 100s. Tried to do 50+ once, failed the huge review pile, restarted... etc... 20-25 is just good enough (for the time that I have available).

I prefer doing other things besides that. Like, learning about the Japanese culture, watching anime, listening or reading the pdfs of my jpod lessons. And... waisting too much time on the internet, looking for the perfect way to learn Japanese haha... all that time I've lost, I almost could've been an intermediate instead of still being a beginner now

Doing 100 a day is stupid.

I tried it and burnt out because reps stacked up.

Unless you are EXTREMELY dedicated to Japanese and have nothing else in your life to do, I don't recommend it.

Personally, I have high school, trumpet, and a social life to worry about, so I have gone down to doing 25 a day. I reached 1000 with my '100 a day' strategy and just now after 2 weeks whittled my reviews down to a manageable amount. I had to do 400 reviews last saturday which caused me to burn out until today, and I had to do another 300 to catch up with all the missed. It's ridiculous.

@zachandhobbes
"Doing 100 a day is stupid.
I have high school, trumpet, and a social life to worry about."

uh, really? I was in physics grad school, 100 a day, one month, RTK done. That's why we came here to encourage and give hope to Miguel

Not to say that grad school is any easier or harder than the typical high school, but I go to an extremely competitive high school (top 50 in America) and I take very rigorous classes - and 7 of them.

I have to do 3 hours of homework a night, I have to practice Piano and trumpet for an hour each, and I have to make sure that I go out and talk to my friends.

If I add 100 a night, I spend 2-3 hours a night doing Japanese including reviews.

I prefer to get at least 8 hours of sleep. So thank you, I will not cause myself to stunt my growth at 16 years old, I'd rather just slow down and enjoy myself.

I'm not sure how college works, but I don't think you have to been in school for 8 hours a day (not to mention transportation time), so you have a lot more free time to do your own stuff.

My schedule:

7AM: Wake up
8AM: School
4PM: School and Clubs end
5PM: Get home
5-8PM: Homework
8PM: Dinner
9PM: Trumpet/Piano
10PM: Japanese for an hour or so.

That's a full schedule. I didn't even mention SAT studying which takes an hour or so. Lessons on the weekend fill it up quite nicely, but there is more time for Japanese on the weekend, but studying is a daily thing for Japanese so it doesn't really matter.

zachandhobbes Wrote:Not to say that grad school is any easier or harder than the typical high school

Harder.

Seriously though, make use of the time while you still have it. "I have no free time" sounds silly to anyone who has finished high school.

100 per day could still be done on that schedule without much problem by using an efficient system and by making use of dead time (riding bus, waiting in line, etc).
~2 hours is plenty if you're efficient.

zachandhobbes Wrote:I'm not sure how college works, but I don't think you have to been in school for 8 hours a day (not to mention transportation time), so you have a lot more free time to do your own stuff.

Man, that would be great!

Evil_Dragon Wrote:

zachandhobbes Wrote:I'm not sure how college works, but I don't think you have to been in school for 8 hours a day (not to mention transportation time), so you have a lot more free time to do your own stuff.

Man, that would be great!

If only it could be true...

Alright, fine, it's totally possible which is why the OP clearly did a fine job with it.

It's obvious that 100 flashcards is just not possible for some people. Maybe you guys have a better memory than I do, or go through the cards faster, but I wasn't able to do it with 2 hours a day when I was less busy in the summer.

The OP seems to be in a similar situation, and telling him, "HAHA, I was in grad school while doing RtK, I was more busy than you are, but I did my reviews while I was paradropping into my military unit in between classes. Meanwhile I had a girlfriend, and got straight As and participated on multiple sports teams!" isn't really gonna help him.

I'm out of this thread, and my last advice to OP is: Don't rush if you don't feel like you need to.

zachandhobbes Wrote:My schedule:

7AM: Wake up
8AM: School
4PM: School and Clubs end
5PM: Get home
5-8PM: Homework
8PM: Dinner
9PM: Trumpet/Piano
10PM: Japanese for an hour or so.

When do you exercise? You should be doing at least half an hour a day. If that doesn't become a habit, you're headed for an early grave, and your Japanese skills will only ensure a better afterlife.

Well, I used to have an hour of PE a day, but as a Junior we don't have that anymore.

I bike to and from school though. That's about an hour a day.

In high school even though all my classes were sciences,math and i was working part-time. Man did I have time, even being in college now, I still have time. Why? Because I use what time I have to my best. That's about it. I'm not directing this at anyone here, but if you really want it, your going to do it no matter what comes your way. Whatever your goal is, it will keep you motivated to keep you going

Jarvik7 Wrote:100 per day could still be done on that schedule without much problem by using an efficient system and by making use of dead time (riding bus, waiting in line, etc).
~2 hours is plenty if you're efficient.

definitely, i usual finish my reps for all my decks in two hours

It also depends on what you consider "doing" a kanji is.
I get the feeling some people just try to get as many as possible in day since they like to see the high number, but their review rate is poor and they have to relearn them, which costs time and works against motivation, as any kind of failure does.

I'd rather spend several minutes on each kanji and only do ~20 a day, but learn them in a way so that I can almost definitely recall all of them, this way you'll save time and study more effectively in the long run.

100 new kanji a day is definitely not exaggerated; I can personally attest to doing 50 on weekdays and 70-100 on weekends. That said, it may require more time and/or focus than most would prefer. I work late but don't have any other commitments, so it's easy to spend the evening watching anime (while requiring myself to add 10 new kanji before I can start the next episode), which not everyone can get away with. I also squeeze in reviews while walking to/from work and other "dead" time as much as possible.

People defend going slower (eg 25/day) and attack "insane" rates (eg 100/day) with "it's not a race", but some of us have the need to push/race ourselves (and more time/mental energy to spend to do so). I just want to note that both are equally valid rates as long as you personally feel you're working hard toward your goal, and that there's no magical barrier makes higher rates "insane" or guaranteed to lead to failure.

NB, your reviews due might get pretty high if you maintain a high rate, but you can't ever have more reviews due than the number of kanji you've added. And there's no shame in dropping your rate for awhile til reviews die down a bit.

tl;dr: No it's not.

tenken3 Wrote:I'd rather spend several minutes on each kanji and only do ~20 a day, but learn them in a way so that I can almost definitely recall all of them, this way you'll save time and study more effectively in the long run.

I used to do this, but ultimately realized I was just moving the burden from SRS rep time to (usually more) upfront learning time; the evils of premature optimization were at work. I don't mean to attack your strategy, but it might be worth experimenting for a day or two with trying less up front time.

Maybe you can spend 1-2 minutes less up front but risk failing it the first time it comes up and have to review it again before it sticks as well as it would normally have. An extra 1-2 reps is less time than 1-2 minutes, and that savings is multiplied for each kanji you learn a day. Your young correct% might drop, but probably not by as much as you'd think (and who cares anyway so long as your mature correct% is good).

@overture2112, I love the way you wrote it, thanks pal

Thanks to all of you.
Right now I am doing 50 a day. I seem to be remembering every almost every single one, the difference is unbelievable (most from adding the stories in white into the cards and not that much from the daily number)! And I don't even rely very much on the stories, the most difficult kanji take me like 3 times of seeing the story and then it sticks.
I also found that I took WAY more time to add each story to the cards than to review and learn them. So actually my number cap right now is from adding the stories into the cards and not from actually learning them. XD

Am I the only one that does a lesson a day? seems like the more intuitive method to me. The kanji are divided into lessons for a reason, don't you think?
Sometimes I'm like "oh *****, 70 new kanji!?", but then the next day is 20 and I can take it easy.

DKnight Wrote:Am I the only one that does a lesson a day? seems like the more intuitive method to me. The kanji are divided into lessons for a reason, don't you think?
Sometimes I'm like "oh *****, 70 new kanji!?", but then the next day is 20 and I can take it easy.

This might work for a while. But the lessons vary so much in length you could drive yourself crazy. They probably average around 20-30 and Sometimes as little as 10. However, there are lessons as long as 80 kanji or more. Lesson 23 for example is 130 kanji, so if your workflow isn't used to this many, doing a whole lesson that day might not be wise.

Daichi Wrote:

DKnight Wrote:Am I the only one that does a lesson a day? seems like the more intuitive method to me. The kanji are divided into lessons for a reason, don't you think?
Sometimes I'm like "oh *****, 70 new kanji!?", but then the next day is 20 and I can take it easy.

This might work for a while. But the lessons vary so much in length you could drive yourself crazy. They probably average around 20-30 and Sometimes as little as 10. However, there are lessons as long as 80 kanji or more. Lesson 23 for example is 130 kanji, so if your workflow isn't used to this many, doing a whole lesson that day might not be wise.

Well, I've done that for 30 lessons and I have not gone crazy yet :). Yes, lesson 23 was too long, but on the other hand now the remaining lessons feel much less threatening.

DKnight Wrote:

Daichi Wrote:

DKnight Wrote:Am I the only one that does a lesson a day? seems like the more intuitive method to me. The kanji are divided into lessons for a reason, don't you think?
Sometimes I'm like "oh *****, 70 new kanji!?", but then the next day is 20 and I can take it easy.

This might work for a while. But the lessons vary so much in length you could drive yourself crazy. They probably average around 20-30 and Sometimes as little as 10. However, there are lessons as long as 80 kanji or more. Lesson 23 for example is 130 kanji, so if your workflow isn't used to this many, doing a whole lesson that day might not be wise.

Well, I've done that for 30 lessons and I have not gone crazy yet . Yes, lesson 23 was too long, but on the other hand now the remaining lessons feel much less threatening.

Call me crazy, but I actually liked ending a couple kanji into the start of a new lesson or even ending in the middle of a lesson. It gives me initial exposure to a new primitives that can sink into my head for a day before I learn the rest of the kanji that use that primitive. But to each his own. If that works for your workflow and schedule, great but it's still a good warning for others.

the time needed to read all these new posts and answering them, could be used to learn a couple new kanji speeking of efficiency! ^^)

but... efficiency is hard when you're easily distracted, like me

// oh nuts, I could've been reviewing a couple flashcards on my iAnki.. while I was reading these posts... *sigh*, now I've got more to do later on...

Dakoina Wrote:the time needed to read all these new posts and answering them, could be used to learn a couple new kanji speeking of efficiency! ^^)

Not if you read these posts at school where you can't actually learn any kanji... As I am

Wow, you guys are super awesome to be able to do 100+ a day!! ^^
I'm in medical school, so its kinda tough for me to find time to do that much in a day..I tried to do 100/day but I burned out on the 1st day itself! xD
Doing it at my own pace, but after reading this thread, maybe I should push myself a little bit more and try to do 50-70 a day (currently only doing 20-30/day)
Is it my method of studying that's slowing me down?
For each and every kanji, I make my own flash card with the keyword on the front + story and then i write the kanji on the back...so to make 100 cards a day would be tiring, esp after a full day on the wards..
any tips?
Tq!~