Don't worry too much about it. Go through your failed pile, looking at other stories to see if you find one more memorable or striking than yours. Then mark them learned and carry on. There are some kanji that I thought I would NEVER get right--"place on the head" comes to mind, and "surpass" is another--but somewhere in there, they just clicked. Let the SRS do the work it's best at (drilling you the most on the ones you forget the most).

At the early 100s, I was trying to remember the kanji by just naming the primitives... that might work for a hundred or two, but it won't get you through two thousand. (At least, it won't get ME through two thousand...)  Try for striking imaginative pictures, the sillier or more extreme the better. I always use "utensil" as an illustration when I'm telling people about RTK. That poor St. Bernard!

It is normal to forget. If your rate is about 70% it is already high. I did it with a 50%-60% rate all the time.

Maybe you just need to concentrate more.  You get better at it the more you do it.  When I got stuck into RTK, I don't think I ever got less than about 80% on 1st review... well maybe when I had a drink .

wow yeah i kinda know what your going through except it was abit different for me i was putting my stories in my question box along with the keyword so i was really learning the kanji by key word alone my remembering rate sucked a lot about 40-60% every day boy was a pissed  haha and can you believe that was doing this until i got to the 1000th kanji until i read somewhere that i shouldn't follow what khatz said about putting the stories in your question box. I almost went ballistic thinking about starting over again. but to my surprise it wasn't that bad it was A LOT easier to remember the kanji and i was able to get to the spot where was (1000th kanji) in about two weeks was i amazed how much my remembering rate whent up when i put my stories in my answer instead of my question section. THANKS A LOT KHATZ!

You said that you have a pretty decent memory with images, so I wonder if you are relying too much on that. It is a common mistake!

Just look through Heisig's instructions again and try to follow them to the letter.
The way I see it is that you aren't remembering the characters, but the mnemonic, the story, the situation that you play in your head and that is what conjures the primitives up when you are writing the kanji. (In the beginning at least. Later you'll end up with only the kanji! ) That's why the story needs to be as vivid and preferably as personal as possible. Especially in the beginning when you are still learning how to create them.
Even though you are given full stories, don't be content with them. Add something vivid that's your own (a place, an object, a sound..)

like with the utensil. Don't just have people waiting for the utensils to come so that they can begin feasting. Have your family sitting on the floor with their drooling mouths open in your living room with the neighbours annoying st. bernard and waiting for your little brother to get the utensils from the kitchen.

They need to be vivid and you get better making them up as you go but don't hurry in the beginning. Take the time to allow it to "click" and then you can speed up.

Last edited by alantin (2008 December 02, 5:06 am)

Generally I do agree with you, but I also feel that when at first learning some new system (the OP was around the frame 126!), it is good to just rigoriously follow the instructions given to you until you've mastered it to a level where you can start mending the it to your individual needs, learning style, and preferences.
I just wonder where that level is. It must be different for everybody.

It is all about giving it the needed time to "click" and this is why my advice for someone who has just started the system is to follow the instructions to the letter.

I personally did many bad mistakes in the beginning because I thought I knew better what suits me.
One of the worst ones was to only review from kanji to keyword the first 200 characters.. A bad idea I might say and in the end I had to study them all again.

So my way got me through around 200 characters but the Heisig way took me through the whole book and that's why I think that just doing what they tell you to is the best way to save heaps of time and frustration in the stages when you're just trying it out and still really don't know anything about it.

Cheers!

Last edited by alantin (2008 December 02, 8:35 am)