Juz 1 Complete - Reflections

Alhamdulillah I finished Juz 1 a couple of days ago. Felt very emotional, almost tearful, when I memorised the last verse (and I'm certainly not either of those generally!).

Ideally I would have liked to blog at the time, but always running out of time.

A few points to reflect on:

• The review plan as previously mentioned does work if stuck to.
• There was a period of 2-3 days when some of the review was neglected due to revision for Arabic exams. This part of the juz is subsequently now weak. When I see a 'trigger word' I can read that whole section but then seem to stumble again at the end of that 5 lines. I realise its not just memorising and being aware of the meaning. When you memorise a part, you are also impritinting that section, that screenshot into your memory. And when you do too much in one go (or leave a few pages weak and so have to do them together), it can get muddled.
• Whilst my previous plan was to stick to 5 lines a day until end of Surah Baqarah and then switch to 10lines per day, I've decided to now switch to 7.5 lines a day (i.e. half a page in my 15 line mushaf). Not sure why I didnt think of this before, considering I've been doing 5 lines a day for a few months now and it makes more sense to gradually increase (from 5 to 7.5 to 10). 
• Even though the new portion has increased by only 2.5 lines, it still feels a little more daunting when I think I need to memorise an increased portion and to recall the previous portions. But the actual memorising is not an issue. Today it took me roughly 45minutes to learn 7.5 lines (in the library, I did get bleeped once from the ward) at maybe 90% efficiency. And because its half a page at time, hopefully there will be less 'stumbling points'. Previously each page was divided into three and often during revision,  at the end of each 5 line segment I'd have to pause to thiink what is the next part. 
• ANKI new words - again recently I've fallen behind at this. As mentioned self disclipline is not an issue. But when it gets to the point where unless I go to bed I will only get 3-4 hours of sleep I do have to put a stop to things. Because hifz is a priority, ANKI can sometimes not get done due to lack of time. So in the last couple of days there have been 3-4 unrecognised/unfamiliar words and these are stumbling points in both the memorising and recall. 
• How to fix this: Rather than attempt to do my entire ANKI deck (which consists of multiple Arabic decks, including grammar and MSA, and also medical stuff), I think I need to seperate the Hifz Baqarah Deck and just at least attempt that each day. 
• I spoke to my brother in law today, mashallah he memorised the Quran back in school days. He said after first juz he was able to memorise 2 sides per day. I certainly cant do that, not within the very limited time I have anyway. I honestly think I would struggle to retain that much too if I were to attempt that at this stage now. More important than anything else is to remain consistent and to make sure I get my revision done. Getting my revision done has to be as much a focus as learning the new section. If I remain discliplined, if I remain consistent, it will finish inshaAllah. 
• TEACHER: This is still a worrying point. I feel somewhat embarrased that I havent been back to my teacher since I finished surah Kahf (he did return to Egypt for a few weeks at that point) and we basically never got back in touch. I dont want to randomly turn up and say hey lets start again. Inshallah I will finish Surah Baqarah and then go back to him, and from then on will see if I can somehow get into a regular routine with him. 
• SURAH KAHF: This is a bit perplexing. Last Friday (after a week's break) I was more or less able to recall this fluently whilst driving. So another week should be fine right? Wrong. Today I kept stumbling at every other sentence. It may be confidence issue. Sometimes I find if you start a surah or section well you recall most of it well and if you start stumbling from the start you start doubting yourself elsewhere. Also recent similar sentences from Surah Baqarah have lead to some confusion. I think I will try and revise Surah Kahf twice a week for the next few weeks inshallah, with once at least in front of a mushaf.