I think most people give up learning on/kun readings once they figure out that the rules regarding the usage of on/kun barely can be called rules. I suggest you give it a try to just learn vocab, and learn the kanji at the same time. You will start remembering which kanji have what sound when in compound words as soon as you know enough vocab, so I would say time is better spent on pure vocab study where you learn kanji along the way rather than pure kanji study.

That said, I recommend doing RTK initially to get an understanding of kanji. This will help you greatly in recognizing patterns etc – even if you stop reviewing.

I’ll be recommending the way I do it.

Find a list of the Kanji needed for each certificate of JPLT.  E.g. http://www.jlptstudy.net/

Pick a Kanji to learn.

Make a search for that Kanji on Jisho, by using * on the left and right of the Kanji, while having “Common words only” ticked. This way you’ll be getting all the combinations of that Kanji with other characters, but just common only words (that’s the case usually, explanation following).

E.g. http://jisho.org/words?jap=%EF%BC%8A%E5%91%B3%EF%BC%8A&eng=&dict=edict&common=on

Now, go through the words and make a new vocabulary list from those that you can learn now. Meaning
that no other Kanji in that particular word is unknown. But be careful, because although only the most common words are shown, sometimes that might not be true. Consider looking through the sentences for that word, too, to make sure you’re actually learning something that has an accurate translation and is
used often.

The result is an amount of words that could be useful and can give you both a general sense of the Kanji’s meaning, and the readings. Remember, that since common words only appear, you’ll be getting the most commonly encountered readings, too. Like Mark, I wouldn’t recommend focusing on the readings though either.

Edit: I can’t for the life of me edit this properly.

• This reply was modified 11 years, 4 months ago by  coclans.
• This reply was modified 11 years, 4 months ago by  coclans.
• This reply was modified 11 years, 4 months ago by  coclans.

I meant RTK as in remembering the kanji ;)

Also, I don’t see the point in picking from a list of words and kanji you want to learn since you will probably meet words you don’t know all the time. Just add these to your anki deck, and eventually you will have no more words to add ^^ It is more way more fun than doing a list, and you have an example sentence right away.

I’m more into knowing it before you’ve seen it. Less pressure and faster reading when finding new reading material. :-)