When your first starting out its really just memorization to form a base so repetition is key. For vocab make sure you can translate the word going both English -> Japanese and Japanese ->English (studying both ways is way more effective then only trying to memorize them in one direction) For conjugating words memorize an 'example word' for each different type. There's only a handful of different verb endings in Japanese and very few irregular cases so it limits the amount of memorizing necessary. For example, if you memorize 買う　買います　買いました　買って you know that every verb ending in う is going to follow this pattern, so when you encounter 笑う and want to put it in to past tense instead of memorizing the whole set just go back to 買う. 買う ->　買いました so 笑う ->　笑いました. Good luck, once you get to the point where you can start using authentic materials (after Genki II is probably a good starting point) it gets a lot more fun.

There have been many times when I've been studying when I thought I wasn't getting anywhere. Even now! But there are times when you're saying/reading/listening to something in Japanese and realize that you understand it when you didn't before! Grammar was always hard for me too, and there have been grammar points I've had to re-learn over and over. But you'll get it. I promise you. If you're having a hard time using Genki I suggest trying something different. You could either use it in conjunction with Genki or instead of. Just something different to give your brain something refreshing to work with. There are lots of free resources you can use online as well as Genki. I love Memrise and there's a beginners grammar course for practicing conjunctions (http://www.memrise.com/course/258569/beginners-japanese-grammar-1-jlpt-n5-grammar/). If you're having a hard time with grammar I also strongly suggest the Try! Nihongo kara Nobasu books (http://jtalkonline.com/try-jlpt-grammar-book/) Extra lessons, or just speaking with native Japanese people, help a lot too! Maybe you can find a Japanese teacher on here (or somewhere else) that's based on the east coast? I'm happy to help you if you have any more questions or still feel lost!

I used Pimsleur to learn grammar. By the time I'm finished with Pimsleur Japanese IV, I end up at around JLPT4 and JLPT3. I heard that by the time you finish Genki 2, you would be somewhere around JLPT4. What Pimsleur does is it enables you form a sentence based on your intuition of how a sentence structure is made. What I don't like about textbook approach is when the textbook doesn't have a workbook that demands you to form sentences based on the grammar points that you learn, simply you are to recognize what a sensible sentence is. Recognising is far far simpler than constructing. So a workaround is formulate your own exercises, but I feel another problem is when those sentences are formed ONLY right after you've learned the grammar points. A bit like, form a sentence, take a look at the lessons learned today, done. Well, one workaround is to continue practicing formulating the same or similar sentences with SRS and you can freely do that using Anki. Similar approach to SRS seems to be used by renshuu.org but I don't subscribe to the site as a premium user so I don't know what it has to offer. Think about it, though. I spent 1 hour every day for 120 days flat and the only reason why I can't understand this or that is because those grammar points have never been taught in the lessons.

Don't use Genki , it's not a suitable learnbook . Use Minna no Nihongo. For grammar improvent use the textbooks from Aruku editorial and for Kanji study use programms and apps like Anki or Memrize.Don't rush things and make sure to master everything you've learned till now.I don't know the intensity of your studying at university , but usually it should be enough for you . If you are feeling that your japanese isn't improving or if you are a slow pace learner, then you should ask your teachers for additional classes or consultations.