Hello, I would like to ask for your advice.

Before beginning Japanese studies at the university I studied for myself for some time, among other things using RTK. I got to about 300 or so but when the semester started it was difficult to continue (or so I thought at the time). As you suspect we had to learn a lot "the hard way".（汗）(Actually, to my surprise, our teacher recommended Heisig's book -- if I understand correctly not many do that?)

Since I know most of the kanji for this semester as well, I was thinking that I have enough time to continue with RTK. Anyways, the question is, how do I start again? Do I start over and repeat all the kanji stories, or do I pick it up from where I left it, and simply start reviewing old kanji?

What would you have done?


(When I think about it, if I had stuck with Heisig's book from the start I probably would have known all the course's kanji by now anyway...（皮肉笑）)

Just continue, and do your reviews. The ones you've forgotten will get taken care of by the reviewing system, and you'll start learning news one when appropriate.

You are right -- thank you! ^^

Take your time and pace yourself well. No need to go overboard with RTK, as the reviews might get out of control if you add too much. Take your time, go slow and you will progress well. That's my advice but most important thing of all is: have fun! If your having fun, the progress will feel real and genuine.

Thank you! ^^

I can relate to that i guess, i was studying via RTK method. I got around to 500, then i had to stop because the reviews became overwhelming and was overloaded with school work too.
Eventually i restarted, finished RTK. Then completely stopped again.
I decided to pick it up again via Lazy Kanji Method, there's a anki deck available for it. I also stopped worrying about getting overloaded with reviews. I just stick with a pattern, study 30 kanjis and review 50 a day. From past experience, i had learned that if i do too much reviewing, i get tired and don't feel like studying. Another thing i do is time box, i study 10 - 30 mins, then take a break. After my break is over, I continue where i left off.
so yeah, Take it slow and easy.
がんばれ!

Thank you everyone for your tips and suggestions!

well, I agree with everyone above. Now for context, I finished RTK 1 on 2010 July 07 at 8:07 pm. I continued reviewing until about Aug 17 2011 (latest card in the fail box) and then I stopped due to school. As of now I have 722 expired kanji and 1051 study kanji. Even though I have so much kanji to review, I have decided today I will slowly chip away at it b/c I miss reviewing RTK . So slowly chip away at your stack and everything will alright.

As for a study method tip: start with the orange cards (review) then the red cards (failed) and then learn some new characters. This will make sure your constantly reviewing and not getting ahead of your self. Time boxing also helps, so focus on a time goal ( 60 Mins per day) not a kanji goal (25 new per day).

Thank you wulfgar!

Aiming for a set time each day seems to be a good idea, I will try it out and see what happens.
Good luck with your own reviews!

I'm in the same situation, except I had gotten to about 600, and it was about 2 years since I stopped studying or using Anki. When I decided to come back to studying, I stupidly erased my progress on Anki, thinking that I needed to start over from scratch.

That really misses the whole point of an SRS and now I realize I shouldn't have done that, but too late now. I'm back up to frame 150-ish right now. I don't think it will take long to get back up to where I was. I can't believe it, but I recall a lot of them immediately, and most others I just need to refresh myself for a second and they come back.

Or don't pace yourself...

I was 1500 behind and i finished 2200 some odd characters last year. This year I was tired of being behind so I did those 1500 in two days. ended up with 400 reviews for a few days then dropped to 200 now its at about 60 reviews a day. I was slowly reviewing but I had a net gain in cards so i had to do it in "one" go. I feel a shit ton better now that I'm caught up and didn't restart. It would of took me forever to restart and since all the stories would generally end up being the same anyways it makes sense just to see what you forgot and what you didn't.

I think I am once again back on track. ^^ I am currently reviewing for a set time each day, and stop if this time limit is reached. If I finish all kanji before the time limit, I start to learn new. I think it works pretty well.

Of course, I sometimes forget kanji I know, or make mistakes; but I'm really astonished over how many you can remember on one try...

Thank you all for your wonderful suggestions!