Questions about how to fix the "gaps" in my Chinese Knowledge

• So here's some background to help you understand what I mean:

• I've been studying Chinese for 2.5 years of high school. However, while I had a class at my school for Chinese I, my school shut down their Chinese program after my first year and stuck us on an online course from the University of Michigan in which I'm still studying today. This proved disastrous for us as the curriculum, didn't match up (theirs was closer to college-level speed and covered different topics), resulting in a really significant collection of words that we didn't understand. This led seven out of eleven of our classmates to quit, leaving four students who generally got by on google translate, linedict, pleco, all set learning's grammar wiki, and other translators because we didn't really seem to get how to manage an online class, let alone one we were so unprepared for. Therefore, because we could barely keep up with what we were already expected to know, we ended up not retaining a large portion of Chinese II as well (even being arguably the most studious/masochistic one there, I can say that I probably only learned 50% of it).

• Fast-forward to the present and I'm the only person from my school still in the online program for Chinese III (I did so because I'm trying to get into really good schools and want 4 years of language credit). My Chinese homework takes an ungodly amount of time because of all of the words that I have to look up (though I don't use google translate for single words or whole sentences anymore; just actual dictionaries) and my poor listening skills and every weekend is just a struggle to play catch-up and try to balance it with my other classes and club activities (which are also pretty demanding). I've realized that I have to study on my own in order to fix my problems, but I don't know how to go about overhauling two and a half years of learning without going over the topics that I actually have a good grasp on (essentially, I'm looking for a plan that's time-efficient so that I can start to see results in reducing this god-awful homework load and also legitimately learn the language.

• I've started doing the Heisig Method with RSH and I'm doing 25 panels a day, which is a big time commitment, but I feel like it has been helping a little bit already (it's been 2-3 weeks) and has given me a small boost in confidence. I've also scoured the internet and my local library (so, so many sources oh god help I'm drowning in information) for efficient ways to learn Chinese, but there's so much information that I have absolutely no idea where to start. As I see it, I'm motivated/interested, yet I'm indecisive about how I should go about learning because I want to do it the right way and have my work mean something.

• I think the work I'm doing right now is some basic B1 level, but due to the gaps in my knowledge, I might struggle with some of the A2 level content as well and even some of A1 since I lack a great knowledge of which tones go with which characters and don't do well with listening.

What I struggle with in order of importance (it's a lot; I know):

1. Limited vocabulary
2. Poor listening skills: I can't make out some of the audio recordings for my class, even though I feel like I have an okay understanding of the pronunciation, and I feel like most of what I hear goes too fast for me to understand without being able to write down what I hear and go over things many, many times. (I think part of it is that I can't immediately link what I'm hearing to what words or pinyin
3. Lack of knowledge of which tones go with most words that aren't relatively basic- Slow speaking speed and a general lack of correct tones when speaking unless they are provided
4. I don't know some of the grammatical uses of certain characters when I see them in reading
5. Little experience actually writing which has led to a reliance on pinyin input
6. Slow reading speed
7. Small pronunciation issues from just being rusty

(Generally, writing is my strong suit because I can choose what I say, but I'm sure I make some writing mistakes that I don't notice a lot of the time. My reading is probably second best out of writing, reading, listening, and speaking. Speaking is third and listening is last)

​

• Any suggestions?

• I'm considering investing in some sort of grammar book, doing some listening practice with what I can find online with podcasts/movies/music, buying a frequency dictionary or a dictionary in the target language, and using lists of words or phrases from free/cheap sources like the HSK word lists/Lonely Planet Phrasebook/lists from my previous classes. However, I am eyeballing skritter for its Chinese-oriented SRS system, which I'd probably do on my phone with a stylus to better simulate normal writing (cost isn't an issue if it is actually worthwhile to avoid getting caught up in what vocabulary to study next). I'm also considering paying a tutor on somewhere like Italki or finding some structured method of immersion I can do in real life, but I'm pretty sure both of those would be too expensive considering I still have an online class to practice speaking in.**My focus is on expanding my vocabulary, knowledge of tones, grammar knowledge, and listening skills*\*

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