Hey there. Succeeding to learn new characters every day. I know that spaced repetition is a winner here etc, but still. It seems like the number of characters to review should consistently grow as a function of learned characters. Right? So that, if knowing less then 200 characters now I am spending 30 minutes when reviewing them every day, how much will it take it when I'll get to 1000 (if at all, of course)? Is the progress somewhat linear (yes/no) and why?

Thanks a lot for your explanations.

Look at the second graph on this page:

http://www.supermemo.com/articles/theory.htm

That's what basically happens to your workload over time. Depending on how much you study a day, how much you add, how quickly you do it, how much you remember, etc., the values on the axes will be different, but the curve is similar: the number of reviews you have to do per day to retain your material falls off over time.

If you keep adding, the first graph represents your learning rate. At first it's extra fast, but eventually you approximate linear progress.

This is why spaced repetition is powerful. Doesn't take much extra work to remember your material forever, beyond all the work it took to learn it in the first place.

As the number of items you study using SRS systems grow (I use Skritter and Anki - a total of about 8000 facts), it might be good to periodically visit Dr. Piotr Wozniak's web pages. He's the inventor of SRS and SuperMemo. In particular, this is a great page: http://www.supermemo.com/articles/20rules.htm

Particularly pertinent:
"Repetitions of simple items are easier to schedule
I assume you will make repetitions of the learned material using optimum inter-repetition intervals (as in SuperMemo). If you consider an item that is composed of two sub-items, you will need to make repetitions that are frequent enough to keep the more difficult item in memory. If you split the complex item into sub-items, each can be repeated at its own pace saving your time. Very often, inexperienced students create items that could easily be split into ten or more simpler sub-items! Although the number of items increases, the number of repetitions of each item will usually be small enough to greatly outweigh the cost of (1) forgetting the complex item again and again, (2) repeating it in excessively short intervals or (3) actually remembering it only in part!"

I apply this to my own study by being cautious of any vocabulary items over two characters long. For instance, if you're studying the Buddhist phrase "阿弥托佛" you might consider studying only the tone for the entire word. If helpful to you, you can customize your definition of 弥 to include "阿_托佛." That's the problem with "阿弥托佛" - it has three difficult characters, which means three sub-items.

I don't know if that's a problem you've ever had, but I certainly used to. Between that and being careful to use mnemonics, I've cut down my studying time a great deal. To give you an idea, I've learned 3100 characters using Skritter (simplified and traditional), am learning between 20 and 25 characters per week, and spend about 45 Skritter minutes per day studying. Maybe other users are more efficient than I am, hopefully I can learn their secrets, but it's manageable for me.

Chris