Raichu wrote:

It's not a good idea to review kanji before they are due. The whole point about RevTK is that it uses spaced repetition. It's best to review kanji on the day they are due to maximize your mind's ability to remember them.

If you want to leave some to the next day because there's too many, that's not so bad. But leaving them for several days or doing them before they are due is likely to hinder rather than help.

If you point is that it may screw up SRS timings by increasing its duration too much before seeing it again, then you are perhaps correct (though over time this would solve itself anyway). If you are saying that seeing a Kanji (in any context) before its due is bad, then that's nonsense.

The more exposure the better, whatever the form

NightSky wrote:

Raichu wrote:

It's not a good idea to review kanji before they are due. The whole point about RevTK is that it uses spaced repetition. It's best to review kanji on the day they are due to maximize your mind's ability to remember them.

If you want to leave some to the next day because there's too many, that's not so bad. But leaving them for several days or doing them before they are due is likely to hinder rather than help.

If you point is that it may screw up SRS timings by increasing its duration too much before seeing it again, then you are perhaps correct (though over time this would solve itself anyway).

Yes, it will definitely muck up the timing. The following time, the interval will be too long and you're likely to forget it by then.

If you are saying that seeing a Kanji (in any context) before its due is bad, then that's nonsense.
The more exposure the better, whatever the form

I've had mixed experiences.

Sometimes I've found the odd extra encounter of a kanji or word has helped reinforce it. As you say, it's more exposure.

On the other hand, if it's exposed too much, then I've found it too easy the next time it comes up in the SRS. It doesn't tax my brain enough for positive reinforcement to occur. Then if I don't see it at all for the following, longer period, I forget it.

It seems one's ability to memorize a kanji or word is a complex function of many variables...

activeaero wrote:

The was another bonus I forgot to mention from my encounter with my new Japanese buddies.  When they wrote Kanji that I haven't learned yet my brain instantly started assembling all of the primitives that I recognized.  That above anything shows the true power of this method.  Instead of my brain just going "what the heck is that, just looks like a jumbled mess of lines that I've never seen before" it instead found the "new" Kanji completely familiar and simply lacking in a key word.

I notice that a lot! Even with kanji I already know.

Heisig's method is only about a million times better than learning a long history of etymology (sp?) and convoluted mnemonics based on said unmemorable etymologies (as in "A Guide to Japanese Characters").

Last edited by TerryS (2008 November 21, 12:00 pm)

Up to 96! (Sounds better than 71.)

If having this many cards in your last stack doesn't encourage you, I don't know what will!

Last edited by playadom (2008 November 22, 11:22 am)

126! Planned to do 25 tonight, but did 31 because it ended the chapter.

I don't think I'm as ambitious as that other person who created a poster of all the kanji they did -- and that would take more extra time -- but I'm going to start taping up a sign in my room every night with the latest stat.

Transvestor wrote:

Quick aside.. maybe its just me, but I truely believe that if this site didnt exist I would have quit after 100 or so.

Seconded! I thought I could never truly "learn" all the kanji. I would go through my kanji dictionary the traditional way -- reading the etymology, writing it over and over, writing some compound words to try to help me to remember them. But all I ever remembered were ones which I wrote, wrote frequently.

Now, the kanji STICK! When I do get a kanji wrong, it's usually because I forgot a minor detail, or the story wasn't good enough for my mind to recall it and get the story started. (It's not hard to remember a story if you remember the beginning.) Tonight I only got 2 wrong out of 31 on my first review.

One of them I did just go totally blank on, but I think that's because, doing 31, I should have reviewed immediately after 六課 ("~ka" means "lesson~" or "chapter~") to make sure the stories were stuck in my head before I started 七課. The only other one I marked wrong was CAVITY, and only because the "drop" primitive should aim up in this case.

Last edited by TerryS (2008 November 22, 11:52 pm)

askayacha, is it at all possible to tweak your schedule so you go to bed a little earlier, get up a little earlier, and do your rtk before classes? I tend to do my rtk before work in the morning, and it keeps me regular. On days when I'm not able to do it in the morning, I am more likely to blow it off entirely or to have a really bad time with remembering late in the evening or whatever, when I'm tired. I'm also more likely to maybe just do reviews/fails and not add new cards.

Come on dude, you're at 1905. Letting your failed pile build up to 75 was your main mistake (I clear my failed pile every day before I add new kanji) and it's a mistake you're going to have to live with now.

My main advice is this: Sit down, now. Do your 50 reviews (shouldn't even take you 15 minutes if you concentrate). Clear your failed pile. (Don't work on the stories, just look at them, visualize them, then click learned. It doesn't matter if they didn't stick, they will be in the first pile in 3 days so you'll see them soon and the ones which didn't stick will simply be failed again).

After you've done that, add 20 new kanji. Wait 4 hours or so (or to the next day), then review the blue pile. Add 20 new kanji. Repeat. You should be able to add over 50 new kanji each day, you'll be done in just 3-4 days. Then you'll have zero stress. Do your reviews every day, work on the failed pile when you feel like it.

You main goal should be to finish RtK as FAST as possible, it will take a huge burden off your shoulders to have all the kanji in the system. Don't worry about the reviews, they will dwindle quickly once you've added all the kanji.

Stopping or pausing now is a really bad idea, it won't really affect the amount of work you have to put in every day, as soon as you start adding kanji again you'll go back to the same amount of reviews every day. Don't waste time relearning stories NOW, you have all the time in the world to do that once you're finished with the book.

Last edited by Tobberoth (2008 November 25, 11:52 am)

Back in the day, I had made it up to the high 1400s in kanji. This was on my most successful attempt at RTK (all attempts worth mentioning were thanks to this website in the first place, by the way). Anyway, that 1400+ attempt kind of dwindled down earlier this year. In September or so, I started up again from square one. It was pretty easy going, since I knew a lot of kanji already. However today, I finally have made it past where I had left off, adding more than 1500 kanji (though I still need to test today's blue pile later on).

I suspect now it'll start getting more difficult, as I'm finally starting to learn completely new kanji again.

Perhaps many other people have made several attempts at RTK before finishing it...  Just gotta keep on working, I suppose! Don't lose hope if you flunk out once (or many times, like I did), just try again. At the very least, it'll be easier each time.

[edit: Er, actually, I'm at only 1494 kanji, but it's still more than I had been at before this round.]

Last edited by Murjab (2008 November 26, 10:35 am)

150!

I meant to do kanji the last 2 days. but had problems with my computer and wanted to back things up, just in case things get worse before I figure things out. That's not simple, since it takes, like, 3 DVDs -- after compression which takes forever.

In fact, I got behind on my review of newly-added cards (still only got 4 wrong). But I'm working later tonight than I thought last week, so I got some in today. And I'll have time to review tomorrow, as well as do 25 more, before I get back to "computer stuff" (other things I wanted to do before I got pulled away by the pressing need for backup). So I will be at 175 by tomorrow!

@askayscha: See, this is what I mean...even if things don't go as you plan, you can still "git 'er done"...just keep going. Don't give up!
[EDIT: And I meant to say, this after more than 2 weeks off. I first started this site around October 20th. I expect to be interrupted now and then, but if I do extra sometimes, I hope to still hit my goal -- finish RTK 1 between mid-to-late March. Even if I miss it, aiming for it will get me there sooner or later.]

Last edited by TerryS (2008 November 26, 9:51 pm)

The other day I was telling my dad that I'd almost finished RTK3. He asked me "Well, do you get a certificate or something?" and I said "hmmm, noo". But it got me thinking, maybe it'd be nice to have a certificate as a symbol of my achievements. So I whipped up these two certificates based on the JLPT certificate. If you're doing self-study, doesn't it make sense that you give yourself your own certificate? Well I thought so. You could use it for further encouragement too.

http://users.on.net/~drneale/RTK1cert.doc
http://users.on.net/~drneale/RTK3cert.doc