01 year 30 weeks into study part 2

Hello everyone,
I tried an elementary lesson today, and it was significantly harder than the newbie level lessons. Right now, I wish there was a level between the two. I did learn the vocabulary in the audio review, but I don't really feel that I mastered the lesson in the same way that I pick up the newbie lessons. I am going to stick to studying an elementary lesson every 5 or so lessons. I am sure that I will improve.

Here is my latest stack photo. It does not look tremendously larger than the previous stack photo, but there are nearly 50 more cards in the latter photo.

01 year 30 weeks into study

I must say, that it has been a good week overall for Chinese studying. I feel like I hit a good rhythm. In the past, the speaking and listening had been the weakest area, but I feel that the work I had done in those areas had reached parity with my flashcards. I don't do much studying on weekends on account of work, but I do much during the weekday. I will normally learn 3 podcasts per day at newbie level. I know that I forget much of what I learned, but the podcasts have much repetition. This means that when the vocabulary comes up again, I remember that I had learned it before, and I relearn it very quickly. My plan is to incorporate more elementary lessons into my daily speaking and listening routine. The newbie lessons are beginning to be too easy.
The flashcards are going good as well. It is frustrating that I typically forget many that I had learned, so I do much review.

Not much to say this week, no real changes to my methodogy besides my plan to include more elementary lessons. That is all for right now.

01 year 14 weeks into study

Hello everyone,

I wanted to do this week's update earlier than normal. I have switched from posting at ChinesePod to using Blogspot because of a number of reasons that I may or may not get into in a later post. In the last few days, I have really gotten back into the swing of studying Chinese. I have entered a relatively relaxed period academically, so I can focus on the Chinese learning. It is going well, and it feels good. As I mentioned last week, I have tried a new strategy in my studies. I emphasize the speaking/listening part more than the character acquisition focus that I had previously. When I did focus on acquisition, it was very effective for my learning of the written vocabulary. With this being said, the verbal/speaking suffered. I have learned over 600 flashcards, but only 68 lessons after over three months of study. While I would say that I was doing well before, I think that now I am beginning to lag when compared to others who have started learning Chinese back around late November. Here is a summary of my routine;

On days that I have no work or academic demands -

I spend one hour listening to podcast shows and audio reviews. I listen to one new lesson and learn those words during this time. After this, I normally listen to audio reviews of lessons that I have listened to in the past so that I can really get those terms down pat. Because this is the part that I enjoy the least, I do it first before moving onto the flashcards.

I have a learning stack, of which I add 5 terms a day. I use a similar method of rotation that I have used in the past. I also review a subgroup of my acquisition stack each day.

On days that I have demands -

I make the best I can do with the above idea given the amount of time of which I have to work.

Here is the lastest stack photo. Obviously the stack is not growing as fast as it was before. I plan on stepping up the studying in a huge way when the semester is over.