Over the last few days i have been toying with iknow going through the first step of the core 2000 series i've been collecting the sentences while going through the vocab lessons, yes i know the english translation are'nt entirly accurate so i try to break them down myself using the grammer i've learned so far, although aslong as you don't take there english translation too literaly there should'nt be too much problem using these its better than using just vocab cards on there own atleast.

Anyway back on topic after almost finishing the first 200 words on iknow i've noticed a common theme that any words i learn via iknow then input an example sentence into my SRS (Anki) stick like glue where as if i just choose an example sentence from a book like UBJG with a perticular word i'm trying to learn it often takes me much longer than ones i've learned while going through iknow this seems to hold true with words i already new before iknow they stick even better now.

This works for many obvious reasons your giving yourself more connections to the word through hearing a native speaker and in context via a sentence then with adding it to an SRS the spaced repitition helps it stick for the long term your giving your mind much more to associate with the word than just in context within a sentence, it's the same as if you heard the word spoken in a show that your watching you can pretty much guarantee that word will stick better than one you have only entered as a sentence and never heard anywere this is why the AJATT method works so well it speeds up the long term retention process.

So from what i've seen so far iknow is a great way to quickly up your vocab knowledge although not so great for grammer which as always tae kim's site is the place to go but as many people have said not to worry too much about grammer as there is'nt that much to learn in comparison to all the vocab.

Over the next few months i'll aim to complete the first series of 2000 words and give an update on how i think its helped.

Will give an Anki stats update at the end of the week but as a quick note for myself I'm just about to reach 400 sentences with a few vocab cards thrown in.