KQuiz: Kanji Quiz

Overview

Usage

Startup Window

This is where the user selects what characters they wish to drill on and how they'd like to drill them. The following options are available:

Jouyou Kanji (Grade Level):

This allows the user to select kanji based on the Jouyou or Jinmei kanji lists. The Jouyou Kanji is the official list of educational kanji ordered by grade level. The Jinmei Kanji is the official list of kanji for use in names. Other kanji, of course, includes all non-Jouyou and non-Jinmei kanji.

Frequency:

This allows the user to select kanji based on frequency, where the most commonly seen kanji has a frequency of one, the second most commonly seen kanji has a frequency of two, and so forth. Frequencies can either be selected by pre-set ranges, or the user can enter a range of their own.

Readings:

This filters kanji by the number of readings they have (this isn't affected by choosing to drill only on ON or KUN readings -- if two readings is selected here and the user chooses to drill only on KUN readings, a character with one ON and one KUN reading would be included, although only the one KUN reading would be drilled on). Selecting "Only Has ON Reading" or "Only Has KUN Reading" will limit the kanji to characters that only have those readings.

Meanings:

This filters kanji by the number of meanings they have.

Strokes:

When selected, this filters kanji by the number of strokes they have.

Okurigana:

Okurigana are readings of Kanji that include kana. For example, one of the readings of the character 大 (meaning "big" or "large") is おお(きい) or oo(kii). The okurigana is the part inside parentheses, and is written as kana when the kanji is used in a word, like so: 大きい (this is the word ookii, or "big"). These options allow the user to drill on the readings with the parentheses included ("Normal"), with the parentheses removed ("Strip Parens"), with the okurigana parts (that is, the parts in parentheses) removed ("Truncate"), or to drill on all readings that don't include okurigana.

Drill Options:

The user can drill on meanings, ON readings, KUN readings, or any combination by selecting these options. The repeat option is the number of times each character must be identified correctly before completing the drill.

Begin Drill:

Finish selecting characters and begin the drill.

Quiz Window

This is the window where the user actually drills on the characters. The following items are found here:

Current Kanji:

This displays the current kanji being drilled on. The number under the character is the reference number, which can be selected from the "Number" pull-down menu, and defaults to unicode . In the boxes next to the character are the grade level ("G" followed by either the grade number, a plus ("+") for Jouyou Kanji not in the first six grades, an "N" for kanji in the Jinmei list, or an "X" for all other kanji), the frequency (with either an "A", "B", "C", or "D" in front of it for the various frequency ranges), the number of strokes (with an "S" in front), and the SKIP code (using the system in the Halpern dictionaries).

Status Box:

This box contains the status line (which says "Correct!" in the example) which notifies the user of various things (such as whether their answers were correct or not), the number of kanji left, the number of correct answers needed to complete the drill (the number needed for the current character followed by the number needed overall), the percent of attemps which were answered correctly, and the number of correct answers over the number of total tries. At the end of the drill, the last two fields are displayed.

Meanings:

This is where the meanings are entered. The hint button will give the user a hint on the meanings: any correct answers it will leave alone, otherwise it will replace the current answer with the first character of the correct answer. The complete button will set all of the answers to the correct answers; this counts as an incorrect answer. The order of the answers matters, and only the necessary fields should be filled in; for example, if the currenct character has two meanings, the third and subsequent fields should be left empty. Pressing tab in a field will move the cursor to the next field. Pressing return will either move the cursor to the first field in the readings (should the user be dirilling on readings) or is the equivalent of pressing the "Check Answers" button (see below).

Readings:

This works in the same way as the "Meanings" box above. However, when drilling on ON readings, the answers for those readings must be in all caps.

Check Answers:

This checks your answers. An incorrect answer increases the number of correct answers needed to finish drilling on the current character by one.

Menu Options

File Menu --

Quit -- Exits the program.

Quiz Menu [Only available while drilling] --

Skip Character -- Skips the current character (the number of correct answers needed to finish drilling on the current character doesn't change, nor is this considered an answer -- correct or otherwise -- it simply picks a new character to be the current character to drill on).

Number Menu [Only available while drilling] --

Unicode Show unicode number for characters.
Halpern KALD Show reference number from Halpern's Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary.
Halpern NJECD Show reference number from Halpern's New Japanese-English Character Dictionary.
New Nelson Show reference number from The New Nelson Japanese-English Character Dictionary.
Tuttle Card Show flash card number from Tuttle Kanji Cards.
Heisig Show reference number from Heisig's Remembering The Kanji
O'Neill Show reference number from O'Neill's Essential Kanji

Help Menu --

About -- Displays some information about the program.

Notes