I stopped reading the mnemonics at around level 5 and still reached 60 in ~1 year. The SRS will help you remember everything eventually.
My two biggest pieces of advice:
- Install this: [Userscript] Keisei 形声 Semantic-Phonetic Composition. It’s a massive shortcut for remembering tons of on’yomi readings that will A) render many mnemonics completely unnecessary (if you’re even using them) and B) allow you to oftentimes correctly guess on’yomi readings in kanji you’ve never even seen before, as long as there’s a phonetic component that you can recognize.
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Keep your review sessions short & sweet by showing up multiple times every single day. I usually do some reviews when I wake up, some during a lunch break, then again when I get home for the day, and once again before bed. That’s a minimum of 4 visits per day, all of which are pretty brief… and if I’ve had a busy day and missed the first 3 review sessions, the pileup waiting for me is still only a single day’s worth
