Does that make it a CraPPer?
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When the kanji is used as a suffix, like 使用人, 日本人, 十人, etc, there are rules. When it appears as just part of a word that was imported from Chinese, the reading is based on the time period the word was imported. にん is older, and じん is newer.
病人 and 鉄人 have the kanji at the end, but they are not using it as a suffix. The same applies to 外人 and 美人, but the fact that they are read the same as a suffix like アメリカ人 is just coincidence, not following the rule.
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For each word, I try to visualize either a person playing Nintendo (にん) or wearing jeans（じん). I’m sure there are more efficient methods, though.
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I know that pain all too well, the じん vs にん struggle is real but after getting it wrong for a while you should start to get the hang of what the correct reading will be. If you aren’t doing any listening comprehension or consuming some sort of Japanese audio, I’d suggest doing so as often as you can. It will definitely help with situations like these. Hang in there! You’ll make it past those tricky words, I believe in you.
You will just come to intuitively know it over time. The more you learn and read Japanese you will get the ear for what sounds right.
It must have been you who wrote that then 
Ingenious idea.
On a tangent, isn’t it strange how the word for come is らい 来 (which I remembered with villagers coming to get their RAIce) and the word rice is こめ 米 (again kome get some rice!). Nothing to do with my original subject but I found it interesting. 面白かったですね。
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I’ve suggested it here before, but I also have a feeling I got the idea from someone else initially 
so can’t take full credit 
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I still have 八日 at guru 
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Well he’s making a rapper pose from the 80s, so my guess is yes 
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Ah! I’ve somehow never gotten this wrong, but now I’m afraid that seeing this will make me want to type the incorrect logical thing. 
My method for にん/じん is remembering the にん being evil and じん being good (don’t ask me why, and there are many obvious exceptions like 殺人). Works quite well for me though. I tend to remember 商人 as “shady merchant” and 軍人 as “soldier (but he just wants to defend his country and has a good heart)”, for example.
The greater pain are rendakus. You remember the common ones like つ becoming っ, but some I just constantly get wrong.
I have used all your tips today, especially the bonus tip, thanks!
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