I finally finished too!
It took me two tries, but I'm done! I can focus on the vocab/grammar and practice now!

Here's the story in case it interests/motivates someone :
I started 3 years ago, for 6 months, learnt about 500 kanji with this website, and then stopped because I was missing the time.
Then I started again a year after, with Anki this time, with the premade deck 'Heisigs RTK all-in-one v1.2b'. I liked it better.
The good news was that most of the kanji I learned, even without doing any reviews for a year, were still in my memory, so I just re-added them in a month.
Then it took me a year and a half to finish it.

I was doing Anki about 45mins a day : 30 mins reviewing + 15 mins adding between 0-30 new kanji (I found the good average for me was 10-15), sometimes maybe 15mins more per day. During the weekend, I was usually just reviewing, and sometimes not even all due kanji.
I was reviewing and learning in public transportation during my daily commute, which was really nice, no time wasted! (when I see people playing Candy Crush in the metro/bus, it makes me realize how much time we actually have to learn things!)

Now I think I went a bit slowly compared to people that I see here, even among the ones that don't rush, but I think I have a good retention now so that's all that matters, and anyway I wasn't in such a rush to learn Japanese.

Here are some stats concerning the second part of my learning (the last 1.5 years) :
Total: 32043 reviews
Average for days studied: 60.8 reviews/day
Total: 177 hours
Average for days studied: 20.2 minutes/day
Average answer time: 19.9s (3.0 cards/minute)

% Correct for Learning: 82%
% Correct for Young : 98%
% Correct for Mature: 90%

I think the real numbers concerning time are about twice as what Anki says (I'm not sure how it counts it, but that's what I observed, it corresponds to about 45 mins a day on average)

Now I'm not exactly sure what resources I will, I have the Core 10k, so maybe I'll start with the 2k, and check out some grammar on Imabi.net

Congratulations, all!

Finally made it to the end! God it feels good to be finished. I first "started" in August of last year, but really only made it to 200 or so before I let it fall to the side. I picked up again in December right before the JLPT and was off and on until now. So I guess it took me about 10 months. There were definitely two periods where I stopped reviewing for weeks (once when I went home for Christmas and again in May when I got very sick). Both times, it took me weeks to catch up on my reviews before I was comfortable adding new kanji, so I attribute probably a few months of my time to that.

My kanji was at maybe N3 level before I started, so I could "get by" here in Japan, but RTK has really been a game changer for me. I'm so happy that I found this site. Thanks to everyone for the help with stories, you definitely made it easier for me. I did it!

Wow! Gonna feast on some Indian food to celebrate!!!

congratulations dude. I just completed 700 words in one month and still have trouble reviewing

How to do add some RTK to Anki ?

penpex Wrote:I finally finished too!
It took me two tries, but I'm done! I can focus on the vocab/grammar and practice now!

Here's the story in case it interests/motivates someone :
I started 3 years ago, for 6 months, learnt about 500 kanji with this website, and then stopped because I was missing the time.
Then I started again a year after, with Anki this time, with the premade deck 'Heisigs RTK all-in-one v1.2b'. I liked it better.
The good news was that most of the kanji I learned, even without doing any reviews for a year, were still in my memory, so I just re-added them in a month.
Then it took me a year and a half to finish it.

I was doing Anki about 45mins a day : 30 mins reviewing + 15 mins adding between 0-30 new kanji (I found the good average for me was 10-15), sometimes maybe 15mins more per day. During the weekend, I was usually just reviewing, and sometimes not even all due kanji.
I was reviewing and learning in public transportation during my daily commute, which was really nice, no time wasted! (when I see people playing Candy Crush in the metro/bus, it makes me realize how much time we actually have to learn things!)

Now I think I went a bit slowly compared to people that I see here, even among the ones that don't rush, but I think I have a good retention now so that's all that matters, and anyway I wasn't in such a rush to learn Japanese.

Here are some stats concerning the second part of my learning (the last 1.5 years) :
Total: 32043 reviews
Average for days studied: 60.8 reviews/day
Total: 177 hours
Average for days studied: 20.2 minutes/day
Average answer time: 19.9s (3.0 cards/minute)

% Correct for Learning: 82%
% Correct for Young : 98%
% Correct for Mature: 90%

I think the real numbers concerning time are about twice as what Anki says (I'm not sure how it counts it, but that's what I observed, it corresponds to about 45 mins a day on average)

Now I'm not exactly sure what resources I will, I have the Core 10k, so maybe I'll start with the 2k, and check out some grammar on Imabi.net

I think I want to cry. Or laugh maniacally. Or jump. I don't even know... this whole thing was a roller coaster.
For those interested, here's my experience:

Stats:
Background: Started with RTK 9 months after beginning to study Japanese. I'm 21y/o, Uruguayan.
Time taken: 88 days (~3 months, 2015/8/4 -> 2015/10/31)
Kanji learnt: 2200 (avg. 25 kanji/day)
Kanji written: ~7000 (avg. 80 kanji/day, avg. 3 repetitions/kanji)
Kanji reviews: 15379 (avg. 175 rev/day, avg. 7 reviews/kanji)
Correct% mature: 91%
Correct% young: 94%
Anki time: 82h (avg. 57m/day, avg. 19s/card)

My journey before RTK:
I started off with Genki 1 and 2, as well as Japanese The Manga Way. I took a quick look at RTK early, but thought "why the heck would I want to learn all those rare kanji when I'm just starting?". So I stuck to the Genki kanji and its method for memorizing them (read: none whatsoever). Through brute force I could "sort of" write the first 200 (reliant on constant drilling), and "sort of" recognize another 400. But then I started with AIATIJ, which ditches most furigana, and got driven mad by having to go back to the vocabulary list every 30 seconds. "If only there were a way to demistify this arcane scribbles..." *RTK comes to mind*

Methodology:
Very roughly speaking my ideal average day consisted of:
- ~45m of Anki (kanji -> keyword) in the morning (when riding the bus, waiting for things, etc.)
- ~2 hours of learning new kanji in the evening
- ~2 hours of writing from memory (keyword -> kanji) at night, using a randomized list of keywords made from that day's new kanji and random selection of old ones.

Confession: I came to know this site because the Anki deck I downloaded for RTK included the two top stories from here. Although I kept writing my stories on the Anki flashcards and very few here, I promise I'll copy at least the most decent and unique, since it's the least I can do to pay back for the help (and the laughs!).

My thanks to everybody here (and to Mr. Heisig of course, sorry if I was ever skeptic of your method ). I'd also like to add that this has been the weirdest learning experience I've ever had and probably will ever have.

Good job@ I think that's fewer hours than I spent on RTK1. Not bad...

Finished! Or at least, no more new cards in the deck.

This took me 455 days.

congratulations dude

I've begin to study Japanese more seriously right after I learned Hiragana and Katakana. I asked a guy on youtube whether I should do Genki, RTK or both, and he told me to do both at the same time (lol). Now I realize how insane that was, but I've managed to finished both books by now.

Now that I think about it, people generally take about 3 months to finish RTK if they don't study too hard, but that's just RTK alone. I've been studying for 108 days. It all began on September 15. It may not have been a month, but the fact that I also did Genki 1 and 2 in the meantime surpasses any reasonable expectations imo. I can't believe I wanted to finish it all even faster back when I started, but that just kept me going so it's all good. I guess I'm crazy when it comes to learning things that I'm passionate about.

Finally!!!!!!!!!! What a relief!

Good job!

Finished a few days ago! Took me about 53 days to complete. Due to final exams, I had to extend it by about 10 days past what I was aiming for, but at least it is all done! 85% correct for learning, 85% for young, and 100% for mature (though I haven't had all too many mature cards yet). Going to be starting Genki when my workbooks arrive, and maybe do some Tae Kim on the side.

Here's my little story behind it because I loved reading all your stories for encouragement! I've never taken up language study before but I have always wanted to learn Chinese. Being the impatient teen I am, I decided to use NihongoShark's Anki deck and try and get Japanese skills to a level of competency before starting university this year, and then commencing Chinese studies during my degree. They say learning a third language is easier if you know a second, so decided to put that to the test. And managed to finish RTK regardless of not being very good at remembering things!

Words of encouragement for anyone taking it up, you can do it! I have the memory of a goldfish and not much spare time but I managed to do it at a reasonable pace. Just believe in yourself, take your time, and enjoy the ride, random citizens of the web!

And good job, FlameseeK! I would have died doing RTK and Genki simultaneously! Will be starting Genki now that I have RTK out of the way!

Congratulations and good luck!

My obligatory "I just finished RTK1, please congratulate me" post.

After 2 attempts, I finally finished and I could not be happier.

I started back in September 2013 and after getting to around 1500 kanji I experienced burn out and started taking days off; 1 day led to 2 and so on, you know the story. After moving to Japan in May 2015 and not doing RTK for another 5 months, I decided I should probably give it another shot.

I actually remembered many of the stories from the first attempt so at first I did 50 kanji a day. Eventually this became 20 and finally 10 per day. Only this time, I did my reviews everyday. I started my 2nd attempt on the 10th October 2015 and it is now the 16th February 2016.

After 4 months I have finished and I am so glad. Thank you to everyone for all the amazing stories and good luck to those who are still going!　

がんばれ！

Congrats!

Done!  Second time through the book was still pretty hard, though I clearly retained a few stories.  I'm pumped to be able to put the time I was spending on new kanji into something more interesting, like the 十二国記 novels sitting on my shelf.

Before that, though, it's time for a celebratory episode of Shirokuma Cafe!

Done! What a great feeling!! 

Reading about all the people who have had to start again, clearly without keeping up reviews it's a big "use it, or lose it"!

I know all about that, I lived in Japan in my early 20s for a year and a half, having studied the language at school and uni. I returned to Australia with a 75% for JLPT2きゅう. I found a career and eight years flew by with absolutely no exposure to Japanese, except for at one point a half-hearted attempt at rtk1 reaching about 700. 

Returned to Japan last October, and got a 47%   for JLPT N2 (both that exam got harder and I got way less good at the language). Have since been studying hard with rtk1 a big part of the schedule. 2042 down now and with the supplement, pretty confident to get over the line in N2 this July. 

N1 and use in career is ultimate goal   Well done and good luck in future to all who come after!!

I diiiid iiiit (a week ago but I didn't post then because I just wanted to zone oooouuut)!! Thank you Koohii community!

It took me 6 months, because I was squeezing it in around Genki and my unrelated university studies. I hit the half-way mark after 4 months, decided it was taking too long, and vowed to cover the rest in half the time. I really appreciated the daily imagination exercise.

I'm still trying to work out the best path to take next. Genki is fantastic for grammar exercises, but its method for teaching kanji and vocabulary is weak, especially now I'm hooked on mnemonics. I was looking at WaniKani, but I don't want to go through naming all the radicals and writing down stories again... orz

Finished.

I started March 11 of this year and finished May 14th. So just over two months.

I studied roughly 2-4 hours a day. Sometimes more, but rarely less. I think I only 'missed' one day completely. My longest day was close to 10 hours. I learned 20-60 new Kanji per day.

I never had many problems until I reached around 1,400. Parsing your time between learning new Kanji and reviewing old ones became increasingly difficult around that point. This wasn't a big deal when you only have several hundred or a thousand or so to review, but once I got to around 1,400 it got a lot harder. 1,400 to 2,200 was a grueling stretch.

I noticed as well that if older Kanji weren't reviewed in general I'd begin to forget them. So I thought, if I'm going to forget them anyways, I may as well forge ahead and focus on finishing. When that thought occurred to me I came up with a method: throughout the week, just focus on learning new Kanji. I could do around 200 per week. And then on the weekends just focus intensely on reviewing not only that week's Kanji, but all of them together. Intensely. Very. Intensely.

So I did that until I finished. Since then (May 14th) I've done nothing but review and have really tightened up everything. I think I want to keep reviewing for 2-3 more weeks straight, since I finished so quickly. While reviewing I'm converting my old vocab list from hirgana/katakana to Kanji. It wasn't a huge list, around 700 words. I got about 5 months into studying Japanese (started late last year 2015) when I realized that continuing without learning Kanji would be difficult (and confusing), so I stopped everything completely in order to do RTK1.

Once I finish converting my old vocab list (I think it'll take about a week) I want to finish The Human Japanese: Intermediate. I liked the beginner course, and I like this one also, so I may as well finish it. After that I plan to hit more grammar. Tae Kim and/or Japanese the Manga way. I bought them and they seem nice.

Congrats jkohn, that's awesome. I was going at the same pace as you and hit the exact same wall... so I quit and restarted (smart idea lol). Hope to join you in a few months.

you can do it !! just takes lots of free time and boredom. lol