I just got set of reviews where I got score 97% but it took me a while and I am questioning if it is a good idea to think about each item until I remember it. Is it better to just type whatever first comes to my mind and fail items until my head gives me right answer on first try? Or is it better to be OK with spending longer to remember something, hoping this time goes down eventually?
How do you do it?
I usually type in whatever pops into my head first, which is usually the right answer. If nothing is coming to me then I try to recall the mnemonic. If I still get it wrong then I review the info. No use in constantly second guessing yourself. The SRS will reinforce the words that you need to spend more time on.
I use the skip button on Tsurukame which probably influences the way I review, but I suspect that even without it my practice would be the same. Just a few seconds preferably the time it takes me to type the answer. If I don’t recall the meaning/reading the second time around for an item in a review session it’s going down a level.
I try to slow down with similar looking kanji, which sometimes I fail to do… and if I know I’ve made a mnemonic myself for an item I will try to recall it, but those are rare exceptions, If I don’t recall I fail it, read the data again and move on.
Not much, if I can’t recall something immediately I just fail it and move on. If SRS has to simulate encountering items “in the wild”, I want to feel like I “know” something if I can get it right immediately. In stuff like reading subtitles or fast text on japanese tv or listening you don’t have much time to actively focus at something.
In my understanding, the act of struggling to remember (if you do, in fact, remember it), will trick your mind into thinking it’s super important. This is why SRS is designed this way. There are times you are supposed to just barely remember the kanji.
For me, “it depends”.
If I truly don’t know the correct answer I will quickly enter some gibberish just to get it marked wrong, and then I will study the meaning, the reading, and the context sentences in depth to try and correct my inability to recall the answer.
I do the same whenever I get something wrong.
Some may consider that to be ‘cheating’ - but I don’t, rather I consider it to be performing a ‘relearning’ of something that I did not properly ‘learn’ in the first place. Yes, that is somewhat time-consuming, but I have come to accept that for me WK is not ‘a race’.
If, instead, it feels like the correct answer is ‘on the tip of my tongue’, I will take a reasonable amount of time to try and dredge up the answer from my ‘mental inventory’, in the belief that doing so correctly will help to better cement the proper answer in my mind for the future. Of course, sometimes I can’t recall the proper answer even after going through the time and effort to get it - so I then go ahead with the CRS “can’t remember it” routine that I described above.
I’m inconsistent about it. I think it’s a good test to sometimes try to see how well you’re moving the items from “can figure it out if I think about it” territory into “recognize on sight at reading speed”.
On the other hand, that’s kind of defeating the crawl-walk-run learning strategy. Nobody attempts martial arts moves full-speed seconds after learning it, you didn’t type 100wpm on your first day, etc. It’s ok if you have to stop and think through the mnemonic and “reconstruct” the meaning or reading – that’s what the mnemonics are FOR. Through repetition, you eventually stop needing the intermediate step of the mnemonic. Not the first few times.
I’d hesitate to burn one if I wasn’t in “automatic recall” land with it already. Of course, that’s when it gets hard to decide to fail it on purpose. 
and there are times when I KNOW I don’t know, and no amount of sitting there thinking is going to make me know. Those I just type something and fail it right away on purpose. No sense prolonging the torture.
I do try to be fast with everything guru and above. I’m willing to be patient on my apprentice items (especially if I just did the lesson today) to at least think through the mnemonic, or if I know there’s a mnemonic that I’d be able to remember if I sat here having an inner monologue for 30 seconds about, then I’ll wait.
Failing is part of the learning process. As long as I’m doing reviews I’ll make progress. I do try to pause when I get things wrong to check if I’m confusing it with something else, or to open up kanji pages and really stare at the differences in a big font. I also sometimes get distracted mid review session and come back a couple minutes later which can help my memory sometimes if it means I’ve been passively churning one item in my subconscious for a few minutes.
Personally, I find it better to take my time and really remember each item. Rushing and guessing usually ends up with more mistakes for me. I’d rather spend a bit longer making sure I’ve got the right answer. It might feel slower now, but it helps me remember better in the long run. I’ve had similar experiences, and it’s worked out well for me.