Tks Shibo. I'm worried too.
Today it was 56 of 146 kanji. 38%

Last week I took a big hit. I was going to make a test to a scholarship in Japan but I might have filled some paper wrong and because of that I dont know if my curriculum was even proper evaluated as I did not get any feedback about it. The fact is I was not even allowed to take the test. That hurt my pride a lot.

I guess I'll follow your advice and lower my pace as I have not any deadline anymore. But I was happier the way it was before. Even with the lowest retention rates.

Tks again for your support and consideration.

Last edited by mentat_kgs (2008 May 31, 12:35 pm)

Yo. Today I took too long to review my kanjis. There was about ~150 and I paused in th emiddle to watch some anime (zero no tsukaima, I recommend it).
So I dont have the proper statiscits but it was surely above 70% this time.

Way to go, above 70% is great! Yes, do follow Nuke's advice. I hope he won't mind if I paste one of his most recent posts in here for you:

"I think a prevention to burn out is to do only a set amount per day and not more than that. In time, you find this takes a certain number of hours that you're comfortable with. Concentrate too much on new cards and you'll get a larger and larger "study" (better than "failed) pile, meaning you're redoing all your effort again. Concentrate too much on your "study" pile, and you make no progress with RTK.

It's a balancing act you'll continue when you get into your Japanese studies. Balancing input with output and passive with active. Don't be afraid to switch up your game plan, but realize when it begins to work for you and stick with it too. Gods, could I be more ambiguous?"


Do your best to find that balance between adding new stuff and managing your failed stuff. Find what works and stick with it. Retention rates in the 30s and 50s do not work, so I'd say slow down a bit till you've got a better handle on what you've got already.

70 of 96. 72%
Ow yeah babe.
This was writing kanji while trying to remember it.

You remembered 64 of 119 kanji. 54%
Also was writing the kanji as would reviewing.

Today I made an extra effort to make the images vivid in my mind's eye.

Yo syntoad. I keep telling this to myself, but I never learn.

mentat_kgs wrote:

Describing heroic deeds and weird inventions seem to better mnemonics than the simple logical ones I was using.

I've found that the most logical ones can sometimes be the hardest to remember.

Passed : 42 Failed : 21. 66%
But I have many more to review today. Gonna finnish it at night.

Yeah man, what I do is make my cards for the next day at night.. I've made my 20 cards for tomorrow already tonight, as a matter of fact. Now, tomorrow, I'll drill them. My first pass through the cards I'm generally around 50% retention. Then I usually wait at least an hour and quiz myself again. I might do this one or two more times, by then I'm usually at 100%. Once I hit 100%, I put them into the SRS and drill them once more on RTK before bed. Then I make more cards for the next day. Rinse, repeat. It works fairly well for me.

Btw, one of the great things of SRS is that it points out where you screw up for you ^_^.

No, no. It was only monday, So till yesterday it was 20/day. The reviews were not that bad as I cleared the failed pile slowly. But I'll use your method this week, starting today. Lets see how it goes!
Can you describe it a little better?

My method:  Today is Saturday, so in the course of the day, I will make 20 new flashcards that I will study on Sunday. I usually end up doing this in the afternoon or evening. I also have the pile of cards that I made on Friday, that I'll be drilling 3 or 4 times today. I typically look at them, wait an hour, look at them again, etc. Once I have 100% retention during a drill, I usually enter the cards into the SRS and drill them once before going to bed. Tomorrow, on Sunday, I'll have the cards I made today to review, and I'll make 20 new ones for Monday.

I'm away from my computer an awful lot, so using these cards is the best way for me to review on a daily basis. I can review at the dinner table, while watching my son play outside, etc etc.

*Edit: ok, 3:30 PM here, my first kanji study today.. First pass through the kanji cards that I finished at 6 PM yesterday, got 13 out of 20 right. I'll wait at least an hour and drill them again.

Last edited by Shibo (2008 June 07, 3:35 pm)

2nd pass through my cards, 20/20 right. I'll drill them in the SRS sometime before bed. My boy goes to bed at 8 tonight, so I'll make tomorrow's cards once he's in dreamland. ^^ This is a typical kanji day for me.
I could totally do more today, but just can't handle the additional daily review workload. so I'll be patient and wait till the end of the month to get this done at my current pace. \o/

Last finished 'Shopping Hero' and am currently watching 'My Boss My Hero'!

Japan has some great shows