Same with me. When I was at the beginning I tried it because the idea of learning 214 radicals is more attracting than learning more than 2000 characters! I soon realized that the "meanings" weren't exactly that (only the complete characters actually hold meanings) and I drop it. I also checked Remembering the Kanji but I'm not very fond of mnemonics that involve stories (sometimes long ones).koolawant wrote:Also, I have never studied radicals. I know it is popular for some learners, but I never thought of them as useful.
Eventually I just went with the grade levels along with vocabulary - there's a few japanese websites for children in elementary school to practise the kanji along with words and sentences (fill the blank type). I also purchased a book, that I really enjoyed going through, called にほんご漢字トレーニング. Although it says it's for N3~N2 level, I thought it was a great workbook to practise and understand kanji.