Studying for Chinese

First test is Monday (or Tuesday; we take it in the language lab). What I'm finding is that I have no problem connecting the pinyin to meanings, and I have no trouble connecting the characters to meanings. My problem is connecting the characters to the pinyin. For a few characters that I've written over and over and over (like shi\, meaning "yes" or "to be"), the connections are all there. For others... Well, for others I just made myself a set of flashcards. This is not a normal technique for me, but I wanted something easy to take with me where I could encode everything. I've got characters on one side, and pinyin on the other, with meanings in a corner that I can easily cover with my thumb.

Also, I'm hoping that such a device will encourage me to get working on my leg strength and endurance in standing meditation postures. As in, give me something to distract me from my shrieking legs. When I can relax enough, I can focus on increasing the pain, and then it will be replaced by a very pleasant golden warmth, but I can't always do that, and I can't always maintain it when I do.

*sighs* I should get back to studying. No leg-work with it tonight, though: Don's back on his relax into the postures kick, so I got plenty this morning. Strangely, my legs were complaining less than Don's or Travis's in pushhands. I'm not really sure why, as I've been incredibly lazy about working on leg strength lately. All the walking I've been doing, maybe? *shrugs*