How many vocabulary or kanji are you learning per hour?

yogert909 Member

From: Los Angeles, Ca Registered: 2013-05-03 Posts: 270 Website

I'm wondering the rate at which other people are adding new vocab or kanji so I maybe tweek my anki settings.

After studying 101 hours I've added 1768 vocab and kanji cards. This works out to 17.5 new cards per hour of study including reviews. My retention rate is 64%, 89%, 98% for learning, young, and mature. I'm guessing my card addition rate will go down from here because some of the early words I knew already. Also because opportunities to get confused are rising with the amount of cards in rotation.

How does this hourly rate compare with other people?

devilsbabe Member

Registered: 2012-07-23 Posts: 17

According to the Anki stats, I've been using the optimized Core deck for 43 days and I'm at 1450 cards with 51 hours of study and my retention rates are 90%, 84.5% and 98.5%, but those are bound to go down quick. It comes out to just a little over 28/h. I'll keep going at my rate of 35/day until the reviews start taking too long or my again count goes too high.

Stian Member

From: England Registered: 2012-06-21 Posts: 426

How do you count study hours?

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devilsbabe Member

Registered: 2012-07-23 Posts: 17

In your anki stats, select deck life. Then in the Review Time section there should be a "Total: X hours"

Stian Member

From: England Registered: 2012-06-21 Posts: 426

Oh I see... but I doubt it add the time it takes to add cards as I'm not using that pre-made stuff.

But 4311 cards / 131 hours... which means about 32.9 cards per hour.

As I said, it is meaningless, because I spent about 50-ish with Genki last summer, not to mention RtK (koohii)... and adding new cards of course. (subs2srs / reading / "branching")

My word/kanji per hour stats are probably similar to yours.

Last edited by Stian (2013 May 03, 6:25 pm)

yogert909 Member

From: Los Angeles, Ca Registered: 2013-05-03 Posts: 270 Website

devilsbabe wrote:
...It comes out to just a little over 28/h....

Wow, that's quite a bit better than me in speed and retention. I'm using core 6k(not the optimized one though). Maybe it's just my poor memory. Can I ask, how your cards are set up? Mine are like this and I only do them in one direction:
front: english word
back: kana word

yogert909 Member

From: Los Angeles, Ca Registered: 2013-05-03 Posts: 270 Website

Stian wrote:
...As I said, it is meaningless, because I spent about 50-ish with Genki last summer, not to mention RtK (koohii)... and adding new cards of course. (subs2srs / reading / "branching")...

Thanks, it's useful just the same.

I'm just trying to get a realistic range for setting goals and also understand if there's some efficiency gains to be had by tweeking my study. So far it sounds like I'm on the wrong side of the curve. It could either be deficiencies in my brain, sub-optimal studying, differences in grading answers, or a combination.

Thanks again though.

Stian Member

From: England Registered: 2012-06-21 Posts: 426

Hey, we are all wired differently, and use different methods. You should really measure in study hours, but rather focus on how you improve.

The number of vocab cards doesn't really say much about your level; there have been users here who completed core10k only to find out that they shouldn't have neglected input, output and grammar study.

What I'm trying to say is that these numbers doesn't mean that you are inferior or anything like that. Good news is that you will improve; My stats used to be 1-2 reviews per minute; now, however, I might achieve 6 or 7 per minute on a good day.

That's only after 10 months. Read a lot and your reading speed will increase, that's all.

yogert909 Member

From: Los Angeles, Ca Registered: 2013-05-03 Posts: 270 Website

Thanks for your encouragement Stian. I'm not really worried about being inferior or anything, I just want to learn Japanese. For me, it's all about doing my best(not someone else's best), but I can't help comparing to other people, not to measure myself exactly, but knowing what's possible sometimes unlocks hidden potential. I's like when practicing something with someone who's a little better then me, makes me internalize what's possible and makes me better at whatever I'm doing.

Also, some people just have a slightly better technique, and if I find myself behind the pack, I might realize that I need to try something a little different. On the other hand, I really do have a poor memory compared to my friends and family so maybe I'm doing my personal best and if so I'll be happy with that.

Stian Member

From: England Registered: 2012-06-21 Posts: 426

My retention rate is about 80-90 % for vocabulary and usually 75-ish for Kanji (before I quit reviewing RtK eight months after finishing it.)

And it's better to stick to any method instead of always look for a new one: it seems that sticking to the core#k whilst doing immersion to some extent help most users on this forum and they still recommend it... so...

yogert909 Member

From: Los Angeles, Ca Registered: 2013-05-03 Posts: 270 Website

Stian wrote:
...And it's better to stick to any method instead of always look for a new one: it seems that sticking to the core#k whilst doing immersion to some extent help most users on this forum and they still recommend it... so...

Agreed. I've already switched methods once so I don't intend on switching again. The main reason I switched to the core was because it's an extensive lexicon so I won't run out of material anytime soon.

imabi Member

From: America Registered: 2011-10-16 Posts: 604 Website

I try to drill myself with 50 questions for the 漢検準１級 right before bed and then the same set the next morning to see if it became long term memory. I try to do it in less than 9 minutes, although usually I'm too tired to put pencil to paper for the night. As far as flashcards, I'd lose them before I could ever use them.

Stian Member

From: England Registered: 2012-06-21 Posts: 426

yogert909 wrote:
Agreed. I've already switched methods once so I don't intend on switching again. The main reason I switched to the core was because it's an extensive lexicon so I won't run out of material anytime soon.

I wasn't recommending core in particular. I was just recommending sticking to whatever method you started with, and then just referred to the bog standard koohii user's method, which seems to be the same as TS was using.

Personally, I extract vocabulary (in sentence format) from material I read or parse through subs2srs, but that's irrelevant.

Time spent looking for other methods is time wasted if your method already works well.

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devilsbabe wrote:

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yogert909 wrote: