So, I have been doing this since day 1 on WK:
I would write down every radical, kanji and vocabulary with their meanings and mnemonics in a notebook.
Then on the next day I would go through the notebook, cover the meanings with my hand and try to guess the kanji / vocab.
So my questions are:
Is this considered a bad idea since it sabotages (in a way) the whole point of the SRS thingy?
If the answer is “yes”, what should I do instead (regarding only the learning process on WK)? Do you just read the meanings and mnemonics and try to memorize by heart?
This is completely fine. The only way to sabotage the SRS is to study an Item just before it would come up for review. The SRS timings are based more on efficiency of time spent. So extra studying of the same material might be better spent on something else, like grammar. If you find writing stuff down a lot more effective for you however, then feel free to continue doing so.
Just a note here. The most effective way is not to memorize the mnemonics, but to visualize them. Create as vivid a scene in your head of what’s going on in the mnemonic as you can. You don’t need to remember all the details as long as what you can recall is enough to lead you to the answer.
The answer is no. This post reviews the scientific literature on this topic. The bottom line is that as others have noted you are OK as long as you don’t do it just before the review.
The item inspector script automates this process by displaying the items in a table on your dashboard. You go over the items reciting meaning and reading and then reveal the answer by moving the mouse over the item. This causes the answer to display in a popup.
