Alright, I took a picture of the victory sheet I'm using, as mentioned in the first post on this page (that is, page 18 of this thread... at least the way I'm viewing these forums. Anyway, three posts ago), as inspired by alyks. It can be found through this link.

Have you planned your progress per day wishroom?

I'm at 1585 at the moment (going to 1600 sometime within the next two hours)

EDIT: at 1600 now. My personal encouragement for the day (well, I found it just after I was done for today, so for tomorrow probably): the 日本語中級会話 (Japanese Only) sticky (I wanna join in!!! (But I won't until I'm no longer at the point where I have to look up every other kanji or so ))

Last edited by Whatsifsowhatsit (2009 July 12, 10:15 am)

I've got 251 kanji left. I've just printed out a calendar for this month. Marked Friday as my day for finishing, so if I want to hit that marker, I'll have to do at least 50/day. I think that's perfectly reasonable, and the reviews shouldn't hit too hard because I'll be done with adding by the time they really pile up.

The end is in sight, I can nearly taste it! Keep going everyone

Also, is now the right time to order RTK3? I'm thinking of doing that at a (much) slower pace than RTK1. Adding 10 or so a day, while concentrating on sentences and kanji reviews.

Did you finish, nicksan?

I just realized I'm at 1870, that's so much already! I only need 172 more, and with 30 a day that means I'll finish next Friday I didn't realize it was gonna be so soon!

Great, congratulations! Always nice to hear these things

I'm actually at 2020 now! I could go finish now, but I'm mentally tired for today and have a lot of repetitions. I'll do these first tomorrow, then I'll do the final 22

Keep it up, everyone!

Congrats nicksan and you're so close Whatsifsowhatsit!  Just made it to 1820 for today, so I have 222 to go.  Can't believe it's almost over...

Keep at it wishroom! The last 200~ can seem like a lot, but if you put your mind to it, you'll be done in a couple of days. The feeling of accomplishment upon finishing is amazing.

I don't know about your personal take or what works for you, but I would suggest that you take at least 30 seconds each card to just think of a very vivid image (bring in color and other very distinct images). As for words you never knew, this is a great opportunity to break out a dictionary and learn some new English words Good luck

Last edited by dat5h (2009 July 28, 5:13 pm)

Just finished Whatsifsowhatsit and nicksan.  Thanks for the encouragement.  Would have liked to have done the final 200 in two days but I don't think I would've been capable, lol.  Feels amazing to be done finally.

Last edited by wishroom (2009 July 31, 3:44 pm)

Congratulations wishroom, great job! Enjoy it

Also I thought it might be encouraging that if you'll keep up with your repetitions after you're done, you will indeed get a better retention rate quite quickly. Today I got >90% (~91,00% (101 out of 111 repetitions)) for the first time since I'm done

Keep it up everyone with a steady pace (however many kanji a day works for you - for me it was 30), you'll get there faster than you think... and after that again, you'll get them in a more long-term memory quite fast as well!

Last edited by Whatsifsowhatsit (2009 August 02, 8:47 am)

555. Keep moving forward, keep moving forward.

YogaSpirit wrote:

I'm at frame 450, after 1,5 month. I only have 1h30 to dedicate to RTK every day. {...}
That chapter about "clothes" was a pain in the ass and a nail in my tires... It's like I will never make it. I feel like those 50 missing to reach 500 will need a year for me to go through...

But, at your average rate so far, those 50 missing will take 10 days.  Less than two weeks.  1/36th of a year.  Keep going at this rate, and in a year, you'll not only be through RTK1 but two hundred characters in to RTK3 if you wish. 

People overestimate what they can do in one day and underestimate what they can do in a year.

I also feel like taking a pause at 500, which I think most of you will advise me not to do in order to avoid getting stuck there.

My advice: take your time when making up stories.  Get a one-minute timer.  Spend at least one minute thinking about and revising each story--it will feel like forever, but it won't slow you down.  I promise: time invested here pays off in easy reviews, which translates into greater efficiency.

If you take two minutes per new character (twice as much as that suggested minimum) and study a total of 90 minutes a day (reviews and additions), I'd expect (based on the 1994 SuperMemo survey) that you can learn at a sustained rate of 20 characters per day.

Alternatively, you could cut your study time back to 22 minutes a day, still learning 5 characters, then watch a 22-minute TV show in Japanese and spend that last 46 minutes elsewhere.

I just miss my free to time to write personal texts and do other things than working on RTK.

That's okay.  Reserve time for important things.

One side-effect of SRS-scheduled learning is that it feels like you're not learning: it directs your attention towards things you don't know well and away from those you do.  All the way through RTK, I had a constant gnawing feeling of "I don't understand."  There are many ways to deal with that feeling, and everyone has to find what works best (just ignoring it is probably a bad idea).

During RTK1, I explained to myself that while I always had about 50 problem characters, I was okay as long as no character stayed stuck.  I tightened the leech rules, so if that happened, Anki would notify me.  In fact, I didn't have any leeches, all those problem characters were becoming non-problem characters.  That was enough to ease my worry.

Now that I'm doing more open-ended study (readings, vocab, sentences), I make sure to immerse at least as much as I study.   I have a music player loaded with music and stories that are fun to hear, even though I understand extremely little.

Last edited by wildweathel (2009 September 16, 12:45 pm)

Wildweathel gives lots of great advice.  YogaSpirit, a leech is a character that repeatedly gives you trouble.  http://ichi2.net/anki/wiki/Leeches

I personally use this site for RTK, as it gives me access to the community's stories.  I'm about where you are, at 525 currently, and this is my second attempt. 

This time, I have set a time to study each day, set a number of characters to study, and set the date I will finish.  This has helped me immensely.

Last edited by kmoeini (2009 September 25, 8:10 pm)